Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack – ‘King Kong’
Part beauty and part beast, the titular ape of Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack’s King Kong is a marvel of early Hollywood cinema, stuttering into life with special effects mastery to forever change the landscape of fantasy cinema. One of cinema’s very first creature features, the 1933 movie opened in New York City on March 2nd, mere miles from the Empire State Building, where the ape dangles during the film’s climax.
Strangely, monkey movies were in high demand at the time, with producer Ernest B. Schoedsack having directed Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness in 1929 and Rango in 1931 before he would take on King Kong years later. Such tales of vicious creatures could be easily marketed to global audiences and provided some palatable action for excitable audiences, so when Schoedsack decided to supersize the central creature, King Kong was destined for success.
Keeping things simple, the plot sees a movie director, Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong), hire a ship, recruit a beautiful young woman, Ann Darrow (Fay Wray), and sail off to a mysterious island in the Pacific to make a wild new movie. Aware that the island is home to a giant ape, Carl intends to use the primate as the main star of his film, but never truly takes the primal might of the animal into consideration.
Taking the young woman under his arm, Kong takes a likeness to Darrow, a relationship which Denham instantly abuses, luring the ape onto his ship, whereupon he captures the beast and takes him back to New York.
Standing at 18 feet tall when discovered on his island, the ape grows in size to the will of directors Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, made to look realistic when being introduced to ogling audiences. The titular beast is indeed the star of the show, with the film channelling all its time and energy into pushing its special effects wonder to the front and centre, where it hypnotises the viewer.
Brought to life by the stop-motion animator Willis H. O’Brien and his assistant Buzz Gibson, the ape is a spectacular feat of special effects, with several different techniques being used to make him feel like a genuine threat. As well as stop-motion animation, techniques such as matte painting, rear projection and the use of miniatures were utilised to make the ape seem as realistic as possible.
Its most baffling achievement is how fluidly Kong interacts with the live-action surroundings, with interactions between the ape and the human characters feeling utterly seamless. Though an undoubted technical feat, what’s more staggering is the film’s ability to humanise the supposed villain of the story, creating a surprisingly emotional fable in which the monster is less of a threat and more of a vulnerable creature.
As the film progresses and the monster outgrows the island, being moved to New York City, the film becomes less about the movie production team that kicked the film off and more about the Western society that feeds off the exploitation of animals and the allure of the ‘spectacle’. Fans become infatuated with the primate, flocking to see him on stage, but when he escapes his shackles, he scuttles away scared, seeking shelter at the top of the Empire State Building.
With no intention of harming his female captor, protecting her at all costs from the greedy capitalists of New York, King Kong is less of a bombastic creature feature, and more of a tragic love story akin to the literary tale of Beauty and the Beast.
In the ever-modernising world of the early 20th century, King Kong is a movie that reminded audiences of their place in the world, with the story bringing an ancient marvel of nature into the order of contemporary New York. Despite the primate being relatively close to us when it comes to genetics, the human characters of the tale treat the creature with malice and do what capitalist Americans of the early century do best, exploiting Kong for their own financial benefit.
As a reflection of the realities of early 20th century America, King Kong is a fascinating creation, and as a spectacle of early Hollywood, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack’s film is a masterpiece.
