(1932)
Dir - Irving Pichel/Ernest B. Schoedsack
Overall: GOOD
Utilizing the same jungle sets from King Kong, director Ernest B. Schoedsack, producer Merian C. Cooper, and four of the actors from said movie join forces in The Most Dangerous Game which serves as the first of numerous cinematic adaptations of Richard Connell's novel of the same name. The film mostly works due to its macabre, man-hunting premise, but Leslie Bank's camped-up performance as the villainous aristocratic Count Zaroff certainly helps as he rolls his R's and raises his bushy eyebrows appropriately. As the only woman on screen, Fay Wray portrays one of her countless, genre-defining damsels in distress, a necessary addition to any movie where men and only men pontificate on the self-proclaimed hierarchy of hunting. There are a few ghoulish touches such as Zarnoff's human head trophy room and some disturbed decor to his island fortress, but this is mostly just a mild adventure film that ends predictably enough while thankfully never overstaying its agreeable, sixty-two minute running time.
(1933)
Dir - Merian C. Cooper/Ernest B. Schoedsack
Overall: GOOD
RKO's seminal monster movie King Kong remains one of the most famous of all Hollywood creations and mostly holds up nearly a century later. Though stop-motion dinosaurs had already proven successful at the box office with things like 1925's The Lost World, (who animator Willis O'Brien likewise worked on), Kong essentially ushered in the "giant monster on a rampage" motif that would prove particularly influential during the 1950s and 60s, especially in Japan. This was also the first American "talkie" to feature a film score specifically composed for it, with Max Steiner's forty-six piece orchestra setting a standard that is essentially still in practice today. Fay Wray already had a few noteworthy roles under her belt at the time, (and was even able to film both Dr. X and The Mystery of the Wax Museum during off-production hours here), but this best established her as cinema's first official scream queen. Kong himself of course is the main attraction and directors Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack keep up a taught pace after the initial build-up by throwing one intense monster battle and chase sequence after the other, all without unnecessary exposition. The "beauty killed the beast" angle is moronic and Robert Armstrong's Carl Denham is one of the most laughably irresponsible characters in any film, but there is so much iconic imagery here and overall laudable movie making that it is an impossible work to disregard.
(1933)
Overall: MEH
The sequel to King Kong which came out a mere nine months later certainly feels like a bulldozed job as Son of Kong lacks almost all of the grandiose scale of its predecessor and pussyfoots around for over forty minutes before even getting to the title character. Considering that the movie is less than seventy minutes in total and ergo more than halfway dedicated to an unengaging set-up, this is a problem. Bringing back Robert Armstrong, Frank Reicher, and Victor Wong with Helen Mack filling in for the lone pretty girl, no one watching such a film would prefer to spend as much time with them standing around and talking while Skull Island awaits for a revisit. Yet due to the condensed budget and rushed production, that is exactly what we get. The script by Ruth Rose, (who was an uncredited punch-up writer on the first film), goes for cuteness and low stakes which is probably for the best considering that this had no chance of being a bombastic, heart-racing follow-up. For stop-motion fans though, Willis O'Brien still delivers the goods when it finally gets to them, but otherwise, this is forgettable stuff.
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