Wednesday, October 14, 2026
By Peter Hummers on September 25, 2026
In 1929, film Director/Producer Merian C. Cooper, drawing from a lifelong fascination with dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures, envisioned a colossal ape, transported from a remote island to New York City, where it would battle airplanes atop the tallest building, merging adventure spectacle with themes of exotic exploitation. Thank you, M.C., for King Kong!
“Some big, hardboiled egg gets a look at a pretty face, and bang, he cracks up and goes sappy!” (Carl Denham)
To develop his project, Cooper recruited British author Edgar Wallace in late 1931 to write an initial screenplay titled The Beast, an unpublished 110-page draft completed in early 1932 that featured a giant gorilla terrorizing a film expedition; alas, Wallace died shortly after he submitted it.
Production began in 1931 at RKO Pictures, incorporating elements from Cooper’s scrapped dinosaur film Creation to enhance the beast’s battles with prehistoric reptiles on “Skull Island.” Cooper cast Fay Wray as the female lead Ann Darrow after a 1931 test reel demonstrated her piercing screams (which were made into a good gag in the film).
Stop-motion animation pioneer Willis O’Brien was hired to bring the creatures to life, using articulated 18-inch models with steel skeletons, latex skin, and rabbit fur for Kong. To us especially, Kong looks funky, but the drama—and spectacle—will get you sooner than later.
The narrative follows filmmaker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong), who recruits struggling actress Ann Darrow (Wray) for an expedition to a mysterious island. Upon arrival at Skull Island, the crew encounters prehistoric creatures and, sure, a giant ape, named by the natives “Kong,” whom they worship. After a little screaming by you-know-who Denham captures Kong and transports him to New York City for exhibition, but don’t you know it, Kong escapes, rampages through the streets and climbs the Empire State Building with outspoken Ann in his hand.
This is too dry a description; in King Kong, whenever something can go wrong it will, and here that involves prehistoric reptiles and an angry 25-foot-tall ape. We will all be amazed just by the time they board the ship for the Big Apple.
The production, budgeted at $672,000 and change, innovated in the day with stop-motion animation, rear projection and a matte process to blend live-action with detailed miniature sets and models, creating groundbreaking visual effects that astonished audiences in spite of a little klunkiness.
King Kong premiered in New York in early March 1933, and was released nationwide on March 24. It achieved huge commercial success, earning $2.36 million by 1946 (equivalent to around $39 million today) and setting attendance records. Still, critical reception was mixed, praising its spectacle while noting some narrative weaknesses. Above all that, it established RKO Pictures as a major player in Hollywood during the Great Depression, and became a landmark in cinema history.
Watching it today in all its goofiness, it’s easy to forget the impression it made on audiences back in the day. In its contemporary review, Variety said, “It takes a couple of reels for Kong to be believed, and until then it doesn’t grip. But after the audience becomes used to the machine-like movements and other mechanical flaws in the gigantic animals on view, and become accustomed to the phony atmosphere, they may commence to feel the power.”
In 1983, on the 50th anniversary of the film, a New York theater held a “Fay Wray scream-a-thon” contest in its lobby. And in 2004, the lights of the Empire State Building were dimmed for fifteen minutes in honor of Wray’s passing.
#special effects #horror #black and white #New York City
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Click here for more Stream On: What to watch on TV columns by Pete Hummers. Columns are archived and updated when necessary on Substack.
