King Kong poster & wallpaper

Bruce Cabot, Fay Wray, Frank Reicher

A film crew goes to a tropical island for an exotic location shoot and discovers a colossal giant gorilla who takes a shine to their female blonde star.

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Unrated, 1 hr. 40 min.

Directed by: Ernest B. Schoedsack, Merian C. Cooper

Release Date: January 1, 1933

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DVD Release Date: November 22, 2005

Stats: 3,103 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (3,103)

  • moonrivers
    March 6, 2009
    moonrivers
    untouchable...maybe the best sex scene ever filmed when the big guy "fingers" ol' happy-as-she-could-be fay wray
  • EarthlyAlien
    October 3, 2008
    EarthlyAlien
    "And now, ladies and gentlemen, before I tell you any more, I'm going to show you the greatest thing your eyes have ever beheld. He was a king and a god in the world he knew, but now he comes to civilization merely a captive - a show to gratify your curiosity. Ladies and gentl...( read more)emen, look at Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World."

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    Film director Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) discovers on the eve of his voyage that his film is lacking a love interest, so he rescues Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) from a shoplifting charge and recruits her for the production. They sail to an island where they encounter Kong, an gigantic ape who falls in love with Darrow. Kong is captured and taken to New York, where he escapes and scales the Empire State Building in one of the signature scenes in the history of cinema.

    It doesn't take a whole lot of searching to see the fingerprints of King Kong in modern cinema. The film moves a bit slowly until we meet Kong, but from there on it's non-stop action. Once he meets the girl of his dreams, he's forced to battle two dinosaurs, a giant snake, a flying reptile, and a Tyrannosaurus rex. And that's before he even gets to New York. The other creatures seem to be attacking at will, going after the crew and Darrow with little to no provocation, but Kong fights solely as a means of defense, either of himself or his girl.

    Once in New York, he is startled by the reporters' flash bulbs and believes that Darrow is being attacked, so he rips himself free from his restraints and goes on his rampage of the city. He knocks down walls, rips apart an elevated train, and knocks down a bi-plane with his bare hands. He is so focused on his goal of protecting Darrow that when he accidentally grabs another girl, he drops her without a thought to her safety once he discovers his mistake. If he weren't so concerned with his girl, he could have lived a long, if not miserable, life as a Broadway attraction, but he cannot stand silently while she appears to be in danger, and this is what proves to be his downfall. As Denham points out, "It was beauty killed the beast."

    King Kong was, and in many ways still is, a technical marvel on several levels. Kong himself is a model brought to life by stop-motion animation. He looks exactly like the Abominable Snowman in Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, only it's 30 years earlier and not in colour. The filmmakers use a litany of techniques over the course of the film, most prominently a good deal of rear projection that ensures we see Kong in the frame with the humans. It would have been easier, for sure, to show Kong in a close-up and then cut to a matching shot of a human and let our imaginations put them in the same jungle, but this film takes the extra time to show them in the frame together, bridging that gap and further adding to the realism of the scene.

    And despite how primitive the effects look, there is a great deal of realism in the proceedings. It's obvious that Kong is a model and that he's knocking down model buildings, but the effects are done with such a sense of artistry that we get the full effect of the real thing. The destruction of New York rivals any number of big-budget CGI sequences that look almost real because the action in King Kong feels almost real in a way the computers struggle to match. Would the remake be half as exciting as the original, it would be a real treat. But it would be hard-pressed to recapture the intangibles that made Kong the icon he is today.
  • sanjurosamurai
    August 1, 2008
    sanjurosamurai
    the original cinema classic in all its glory, one of my favorite films. i happen to be a believer that the two remakes of this iconic film were fine films that did this justice, but niether of them beats the king. the effects for 1933 were well done and this is just a really fu...( read more)n film to watch. the end scene gets me in each incarnation of this film. while the others create kong as a sypathetic character, this film sort of portrays kong and humanity as possessing equality in their villiany. a wonderful movie.
  • AgentLexi2132
    July 4, 2008
    AgentLexi2132
    ''Oh no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast.''


    A film crew goes to a tropical island for an exotic location shoot and discovers a colossal giant gorilla who takes a shine to their female blonde star.

    Fay Wray: Ann Darrow

    King Kong is...( read more) the story of Carl Denham played by Robert Armstrong, a filmmaker known for his films being set in exotic locations, who has a new mysterious project but finds himself without a star for the film.

    On the street he meets Ann Darrow wonderfully played by beautiful Fay Wray, a young woman who has been driven to poverty by the Depression. Denham convinces Darrow to join his crew, offering her a starring role in his new project. They then sail aboard the freighter Venture and head off to Denham's secret location. As the ship gets closer to their destination, Denham reveals them that the place they are looking for is a secret island where a legendary monster named Kong is supposed to live. It is only after Ann Darrow gets kidnapped by the island's inhabitants when the director discovers what he has come to find that being Kong, the giant gorilla and now that he has Darrow in his hand, the crew will have to venture into the dangerous jungle to save her.

    The story is a mixture of horror, fantasy and adventure.
    Put together by famous crime writer Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper himself, but the actual script was completed by James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose actually Schoedsack's wife, who developed the story and in the process created one of the most memorable and ahead of its time film in history.

    While the plot is certainly simple, it's filled with a constant series of thrilling scenes that propel it forward and literally reinvented the adventure genre.

    Also, there is a good deal of character development despite some clichéd, even for the time period, dialogs. The fact that Rose and the directors were notorious adventurers on their own account, gives the plot a strong sense of realism despite its fantastic plot, as the adventure mirrors the group's real exploits.

    Director Ernest B. Schoedsack was definitely the best man for the job of making Cooper's ideas a reality, as his great eye for visuals and remarkable technical proficiency were instrumental in the making of this, the duo's greatest challenge. For it's time the effects granted look dated now but miraculously grand for 1933, the acting and performances are effortless and faultless. The breath taking finale also that lasts 6 minutes really shows off aerial photography and the tragedy of Kong.

    King Kong will remain a classic for hundreds of years, which unsurprisingly inspired admirer Peter Jackson to remake this colossus.
  • johnd62
    May 10, 2008
    johnd62
    Seeing the first King Kong movie for the first time I can't help but feel like there should have been more to it. Don't get me wrong it's a fun movie and the empire state building is still a classic scene but while beauty killed the beast, time has killed how effective a movie Ki...( read more)ng Kong is. Yes I know it's 1933 and all but with the giant monkey not being nearly as cool now as it was at the time you see all the writing and acting problems King Kong has. Once again still a fun movie but as far as style and substance goes Peter Jackson's King Kong walks all over this version.
  • jonathanpalvarez
    November 6, 2009
    jonathanpalvarez
    The granddaddy of all monster movies.
  • GreenGoblin92
    September 29, 2009
    GreenGoblin92
    Great effects, but a little boring.
  • vicpf51
    September 23, 2009
    vicpf51
    I've probably seen this 50 times or more since I was a kid. And I'm still in love with Fay Wray! Great special effects for it's time. Check out the uncut version. You can also see the infamous "spider scene" on youtube.
  • ssj10vegeta14
    September 21, 2009
    ssj10vegeta14
    This is the greatest sci-fi movie of all time! This classic inspired a lot of famous directors like Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg. It had good acting and a great story. It also had a great cast of dinosaurs like a t-rex and a stegosaurus. My favorite part of the movie was th...( read more)e battle between kong and the t-rex. This movie had a sequel called the son of kong and after that was King Kong vs Godzilla with its own sequel King Kong Escapes. Ten years later they made a crappy remake 1976 King Kong with a shitty sequel King Kong lives. But in 2005 Peter Jackson made an awsome remake. I give this movie an oscar for its greatness. If I were you I would watch it.
  • ElCochran90
    September 11, 2009
    ElCochran90
    Review coming someday...

    99/100

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Critic Reviews

February 16, 2002
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Even allowing for its slow start, wooden acting and wall-to-wall screaming, there is something ageless and primeval about King Kong that still somehow works. full review

View more King Kong reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments

  • lgrds
    December 24, 2008
    lgrds
    Turner Classic Movies has chosen "King Kong" (1933) as their prime time feature on Thurs., Jan. 1, 8:00 P.M. Eastern. Quite an honor. :^)
  • TexasHorn
    March 19, 2008
    TexasHorn
    OH YA FIRST COMMENT!!!!!!
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