Barnum-like showman Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) and a small crew including handsome Jack Driscoll (Cabot)visit remote Skull Island to make an adventure film and wind up in one themselves. They discover the natives worshipping a giant ape that takes a liking to star Ann Darrow (Wray).
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Blonde and lithe, Wray is forever etched in our minds as perhaps the original damsel in distress (“scream, Ann. Scream for your life (scream).”
When the natives literally hand Ann to Kong, his violent antics through the jungle achieve a realism unknown at the time. Through stop-motion photography, we see Kong take on some believably proportionate T-Rexes and other prehistoric nasties, chew some unfortunate humans, and uproot some
indigenous trees and boulders, all with Ann safely in hand.
When Denham realizes Kong's sideshow potential, they somehow gas and bind the 38-ton behemoth and return to New York. There, Denham has promoted a sellout opening which combines the wedding of Jack and Ann while revealing
Kong as “The Eighth Wonder of the World.” Underestimating Kong's strength and protective instincts, Kong frees himself, grabs Ann and again runs amok through an island, only this time it's Manhattan, and with devastating
results.
Max Steiner's score, the pioneering effects and certainly the Empire State Building scenes still amaze and minimize the idiocy of Denham's closing line, “Ah no. It wasn't the airplane. It was beauty killed the beast.”
The review of this Movie prepared by Angry Jim Magin
