Happy birthday, ya big ape!

Add comment March 3rd, 2008

KING KONG (the original, not Peter Jackson’s 2005 version or that godawful seventies remake) premiered 75 years ago yesterday in New York. (I realize I’m a day late with these birthday greetings, but he’s a gorilla — is he really going to mind?) It was a huge hit in every sense of the world, blowing the minds of Depression-era audiences, single-handedly rescuing RKO Studios from Depression-era woes and changing the art of special effects — and cinema in general — for ever.

If you have Turner Classic Movies, you can catch if April 7. Or, if you have a DVD player (and I’m guessing you do), you can watch the excellent Warner Bros. disc that came out a few years ago. Remastered and restored, it comes paired with all sorts of behind-the-scenes material that reveals just how hard it was turning an 18-inch model into a giant rampaging gorilla — and a gorilla with personality, too.

If you’ve never seen it, I highly recommend giving it a look. The beginning drags a bit, but once the islanders kidnap Fay Wray, it’s nothing but dinosaurs, giant apes, World War II biplanes and just-finished skyscapers ’til the famous final line, “It was beauty killed the beast.”