King Kong (1933) review

 Number 356 on the top 1000 films of all time is the pre-code adventure, horror-monster film 'King Kong.'

New York film maker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) is making preparations to film his next project on a mysterious island. Casting Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) as his leading lady, they along with the crew of Captain Englehorn (Frank Reicher) and First Mate Jack Driscoll's (Bruce Cabot) ship, they sail to skull island where they find all kinds of impossible creatures such as dinosaurs and King Kong himself - a gigantic gorilla.

There's no doubt that this film was technically ground-breaking. It was a pioneering force in special effects blending together stop-motion, matte and live-action to create a stylistically brilliant experience. It's just a shame that it was all spent on a thoroughly boring film. Seriously, King Kong was tedious, repetitive and populated with unlikeable characters.

Film-maker Carl Denham only cares about making his film regardless of the cost to human life, Driscoll is your standard hothead with a heart of gold and Ann Darrow was little more than your proto-typical damsel-in-distress. I get this was the thirties but Darrow embodying the helpless female character became very old very quickly. Fay Wray gained a reputation for being the first scream queen and with good reason. Even when she isn't being attacked by any monsters she still spends most of her time screaming.

And there are a lot of monsters in this. From a T-Rex to a Brontosaurus to a Stegosaurus to a Pteranodon and even a massive snake-like thing, it all became too much after a while. It was monotonous seeing Kong having to save Ann from these monsters. I kept asking myself when was this going to end. It seemed to go on forever. By the time Denham captures Kong and takes him back to New York I had almost fallen asleep - not that I would have missed much. Due to how much time had been spent on the bloated beginning, the ending, which saw Kong become a freak show on Broadway, was rushed. The film was only 100 minutes but could have been shorter.

I'm sure King Kong was ground-breaking at the time, but I don't think it holds up well 92 years later.