King Kong is a 1933 American pre-Code adventure horror monster film directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, with special effects by Willis H. O'Brien and music by Max Steiner. Produced and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures, King Kong is the first film in the self-titled franchise, combining live-action sequences with stop-motion animation using rear-screen projection. The idea for the film came when Cooper decided to create a motion picture about a giant gorilla struggling against modern civilization. The film stars Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, and Bruce Cabot. The story follows said gorilla dubbed Kong who feels affection for a beautiful young woman offered to him as a sacrifice.
King Kong premiered in New York City on March 2, 1933, to many rave reviews, with praise for its stop-motion animation and musical score. During its initial run, the film earned a profit of $650,000, which increased to $2,847,000 by the time of its re-release in 1952. Various scenes were deleted by censors, but they were restored in 1970. Later, in 1991, the film was deemed "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. In 2010, the film was ranked by Rotten Tomatoes as the greatest horror film of all time and the fifty-sixth greatest film of all time. Various new editions of the film have also been released. A sequel, entitled Son of Kong, was made the same year as the original film, and several more films have been made, including two remakes in 1976 and 2005.
The film's novelization, published prior to its release, entered the public domain through a failure to include a copyright notice, making the characters and story public domain; the film's copyright is set to expire in 2029 in the US. Analysis of the film has included such topics as racial stereotypes, Ann's relationship with the other characters, and the struggle between nature and civilization.
In New York Harbor, filmmaker Carl Denham, known for wildlife films in remote exotic locations, is chartering Captain Englehorn's ship, the Venture, for his new project. However, he is unable to secure an actress for a female role he has been reluctant to disclose. In the streets of New York City, he finds struggling actress Ann Darrow and promises her "the thrill of a lifetime". The Venture sets off, during which Denham reveals that their destination is an uncharted island with a mountain the shape of a skull. He alludes to a mysterious entity named Kong, rumored to dwell on the island. The crew arrives and anchors offshore. They encounter a native village separated from the rest of the island by an enormous stone wall with a large wooden gate. They witness a group of natives preparing to sacrifice a young woman, termed the "bride of Kong". The intruders are spotted and the native chief stops the ceremony. When he sees the blonde-haired Ann, he offers to trade six of his tribal women for the "golden woman". They refuse him and return to the ship.
That night, after the ship's first mate, Jack Driscoll, admits his love for Ann, the natives kidnap Ann from the ship and take her through the gate and onto an altar. There she is offered to Kong, who is revealed to be a giant gorilla-looking beast. Kong carries a terrified Ann away into the jungle as Denham, Jack, and some crewmen give chase. The men encounter living dinosaurs; they manage to kill a charging Stegosaurus, but are attacked by an aggressive Brontosaurus and eventually Kong himself, leaving Jack and Denham as the only survivors. After Kong slays a Tyrannosaurus to save Ann, Jack keeps following them while Denham returns to the village. Upon arriving in Kong's mountain lair, Ann is menaced by a serpent-like Elasmosaurus, which Kong also kills. When a Pteranodon tries to fly away with Ann, and is killed by Kong, Jack saves her and they climb down a vine dangling from a cliff ledge. When Kong starts pulling them back up, the two drop into the water below; they flee back to the village, where Denham, Englehorn, and the surviving crewmen await. Kong pursues, breaks open the gate, and relentlessly rampages through the village. Onshore, Denham, determined to bring Kong back alive, renders him unconscious with a gas bomb.
Shackled in chains, Kong is taken to New York City and presented to a Broadway theatre audience as, "King Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World!" Ann and Jack join him on stage, surrounded by press photographers. The ensuing flash photography causes Kong to break loose as the audience flees in terror. Ann is whisked away to a hotel room on a high floor, but Kong scales the building and reclaims her. He makes his way through the city with Ann in his grasp, wrecks a crowded elevated train, and begins climbing the Empire State Building. Jack suggests that airplanes shoot Kong off the building without hitting Ann. Four biplanes take off; seeing them arrive, Jack becomes agitated for Ann's safety and rushes inside with Denham. At the top, Kong is shot at by the planes as he swats at them. Kong destroys one, but is wounded by the gunfire. After he gazes at Ann, he is shot more, loses his strength, and plummets to the streets below to his death. Jack reunites with Ann. Denham heads back down and is allowed through a crowd surrounding Kong's corpse in the street. When a policeman remarks that the planes got him, Denham sadly states, "Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast."
King Kong co-director Ernest B. Schoedsack had earlier experience filming monkeys while directing Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness (1927), also with Merian C. Cooper, and Rango (1931), both of which prominently featured monkeys in authentic jungle settings. Capitalizing on this trend, Congo Pictures released the hoax documentary Ingagi (1930), advertising the film as "an authentic incontestable celluloid document showing the sacrifice of a living woman to mammoth gorillas." Ingagi is now often recognized as a racial exploitation film as it implicitly depicted black women having sex with gorillas and baby offspring that looked more ape than human. The film was an immediate hit, and by some estimates, it was one of the highest-grossing films of the 1930s at over $4 million. Although Cooper never listed Ingagi among his influences for King Kong, it has long been held that RKO greenlighted Kong because of the bottom-line example of Ingagi and the formula that "gorillas plus sexy women in peril equals enormous profits."
Since 1929, Cooper had wanted to create a film about gorillas. Inspired by the travels of his friend W. Douglas Burden, Cooper considered filming in the jungles of Komodo. He had read Burden's The Dragon Lizards of Komodo and as a result conceived the idea to film a gorilla fighting giant lizards. Cooper later remarked that this was "the most important influence" on the final film. By the time he joined RKO in 1931, Cooper decided to incorporate a "beauty and the beast" theme into the plot. The "Arabian proverb" at the beginning of the film was created by Cooper: "And lo! The Beast looked upon the face of Beauty, and it stayed its hand from killing. And from that day, it was as one dead." Initially Cooper planned to film in Africa and Komodo Island, but the idea was abandoned when RKO executives decided it would be too expensive. RKO was at risk for bankruptcy because of the Great Depression. Stop-motion animator Willis O'Brien, hearing that Cooper wanted to make a gorilla film, painted a picture depicting a large gorilla carrying a woman and gave it to Cooper. Afterward Cooper requested a test reel, which was approved by Selznick. O'Brien experimented with different scenes in the test reel. These two scenes, which were incorporated into the final film, portray a fight between King Kong and a Tyrannosaurus Rex as well as Kong shaking men off a log. The test reel was created concurrently with the production of The Most Dangerous Game. Meanwhile, Cooper hired actors and had sets built for King Kong. For live-action sequences in the jungle, Cooper utilized the set of The Most Dangerous Game. Cooper directed the live-action sequences until Schoedsack completed work on The Most Dangerous Game. Afterward Shoedsack directed the live action scenes while Cooper focused on the live action scenes that were to be combined with the already-filmed animated sequences. Marcel Delgado developed sample models of King Kong, the dinosaurs, and the people; the models did not have armatures. After about three months the test reel was complete. After studio executives approved the film for production, Cooper developed the story further. O'Brien's ideas also helped with story development. He suggested that King Kong be seen by the characters as a sort of deity.