Featured Creature: The one that was the most hated remake ever

 

Title: King Kong

What Year?: 1976

Classification: Weird Sequel/ Prototype

Rating: What The Hell??? (2/4)

 

At this writing, I’m back to this feature after taking a break, though as far as I’m concerned it’s been ongoing through my fantasy feature. In that time, I’ve put more thought into what I really want to do here. On one hand, I have plenty more of the 1990s-ish monster movies I first created this feature for. On the other, I always intended to widen things out at some point, as I did up to a point with Godzilla Vs. The Smog Monster.  That brought me to the present movie, which I was very close to covering elsewhere. The more I thought about it, however, the more I felt it belonged here, if only because my original idea would have reinforced perceptions I have long felt were overdo to be challenged. I present King Kong, the 1970s edition, one of the first remakes of the modern era and even now one of the most notorious ever, for reasons that really had very little to do with the movie itself.

Our story begins with a corporate-funded expedition to a remote island where the sponsoring company believes there is oil to extract. Along the way, they pick up a scientist named Jack who stows away in hopes of a first look at the island’s wildlife and a stranded model named Dwan who narrowly survived an unrelated wreck. The improbabilities are smoothed over as the ship reaches the mist-shrouded island, where a well-maintained wall divides the natives from an unseen entity named Kong. Of course, the natives decide the blonde is perfect for their next offering to Kong, and kidnap her. The damsel discovers that this is none other than a colossal ape 40 feet tall, who seems to treat her as a pet and potential companion. They bond despite her frequent efforts to escape, until the survivors of the expedition take her back and manage to capture Kong. It’s back to civilization, where Kong promptly escapes. With the giant on the loose in New York, Dwan and the scientist are the only ones who can stop Kong and save him- if the authorities will consider any option but Kongicide!

King Kong was a 1976 film by Dino DeLaurentiis (see Flash Gordon, Earth Girls Are Easy, etc.) and Paramount, based on the 1933 RKO film of the same name. The remake was produced in the midst of ongoing legal battles over rights to the original film and the character, including an independent Universal production. The final outcome was that only DeLaurentiis’ project advanced beyond pre-production. The filmmaker drew further publicity with a decision to build a life-size animatronic Kong, which was abandoned in favor of a suit by Rick Baker (see American Werewolf etc). The film starred Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange, with Rene Auberjonois as the geologist Bagley. It was promoted with a merchandising campaign that included a game by Ideal toys by Mego. The film was commercially successful, earning $90.6 million against a $24M budget. Many critics and genre fans were hostile; The Golden Turkey Awards characterized it as a “rip-off” for misleading claims about its effects and quoted Baker as complaining he was denied time and money to improve his suit. By the 1990s, the film had become more accessible than the original, but became harder to obtain thereafter. In 2021, the film received a new disc released by Shout. As of this writing, it is available for free streaming from Paramount Plus.

For my experiences, my central memory of this movie is a massive load of second-hand hate (see my Mighty Peking Man review). I saw it mentioned regularly in books on movies, literally always negatively, especially by fans of dinosaur movies and/or stop-motion. What really made me give in to the rage was an experience in the late 1990s: My favorite video store only had the 1970s version, and the one time I asked an employee about it, he insisted it was because people wouldn’t buy the original. Because of that, it took literally years longer before I saw the 1933 stop-motion film, and loved it so much that I begrudged the lost time even more. It may be a random anecdote, yet it is a perfect encapsulation of the degree to which the film has been buried in the tomb of its own hype. It’s only with the remake further in the past than the original was in its time that a truly impartial appraisal has a chance.

Moving forward, already further in than usual, I can attest that the remake does a very good job from the start, though as we will see, how well it is sustained is another matter. The oil expedition gives a more convincing setup than they could have gotten trying to update the original; one can take it as further commentary that the romantic Carl Denham is replaced with company suits. The balance of affectionate tributes and updated sensibilities continues as Dwan (seriously, she spells it!) is introduced to Jack and the motley crew. The high point comes with the landing on the island, as effective in its own way as the stylized matte work of the original, followed by a tense and nuanced confrontation with the natives. (There’s an extra dark yet comical note when a company man insists that the island is uninhabited, just before the natives’ drums are heard.) Things start to get uneven from there, with very good moments like the recreated “log roll” and flat washouts like the snake. The film struggles most in the jarringly bloody finale, which feels like an intentional parody that only occasionally works. The last really noteworthy moment is a shot where Jack visualizes the World Trade Center as the monoliths of the island, now all the more poignant.

On the inevitable con side, if there’s one thing where the haters definitely weren’t wrong, it’s that the Kong effects do not hold up for their own or any other time. Even here, however, things aren’t as clear cut as the critics would have it. While it’s easy to believe the suit could have been better, it’s not by any means “bad” if one has pre-Star Wars effects as a frame of reference.  The rig gives a genuine range of expressions that build up Kong as a character. The real problems are very much of the “uncanny valley” variety. It’s obviously an improvement on the Toho suit monsters, but it has neither the realism of 1980s practical effects nor the stylized beauty of the stop-motion masters. Then there are things that just look weird, like when Kong puffs his cheeks and blows (and his breath definitely wouldn’t be as pleasant as it looks!). What’s difficult for the discerning historian to judge is if there was really anything that would have worked better. The most telling comparison is Kassim in Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger. As I gushed previously, it's possibly Harryhausen’s finest creation, and it certainly compares favorably to Baker’s work in terms of creating a sympathetic character. At the same time, it must honestly be admitted that it wouldn’t hold up nearly as well if it was presented in a big-budget production rather than a low-budget, already “retro” genre film. In the cold light of day, the only really good answer was to make the film 5-10 years later, which just begs the question how far the tech or the genre would have gotten without experiments like this.

That brings me to the “one scene”, and I came close enough for a couple honorable mentions, the noted “log roll” scene and a fine bit of monologuing from Auberjonois dashing the oil company man’s hopes. (Real-life fact, if you ignore or annoy geologists, we will laugh at you when you go bankrupt. Or die; we’re hardcore.) But I still couldn’t avoid one I remembered from my one earlier viewing. In the lead-in to the final act, the ship is on its way home with Kong in the hold and Dwan and Jack steaming things up on deck. They get as far as debating a retreat to her cabin, in a good use of the movie’s honest sexual tension, when Dwan’s handkerchief drops into the hold. Whether he senses the shenanigans or just gets keyed up by the scent, Kong becomes irritable enough to start pounding at the hold. It’s among the very best effects sequences, and unlike the later escape, there’s a convincing sense both of the solidity of the structure and the strength needed to damage it. After just a few moments, it’s clear that the whole ship could be in danger, Kong included. It all sets up a dramatic moment as Dwan falls through a grate into the hold. Of course, Kong catches her, and she calms him enough to save the ship. It ends with a very effective shot of Kong at rest, with the symbolic conflict delayed but not resolved.

In closing, my final thoughts aren’t on the rating or even the movie itself, but the whole remake phenomenon. In the proverbial light of day, the movie’s greatest offense was that it was set up as a replacement to the original, which would surely have been enough to turn genre fans against it. I will admit it is open to debate whether this happened by design or mere apathy. Certainly, DeLaurentiis himself, for all his ego, would never have been anything but horrified by experiences like I had. What’s absolutely clear in hindsight is that those who did promote it at the expense of the original were setting it against a bar that only a bare handful of remakes have ever reached on their own merits (see The Blob and Night of the Living Dead). Compared to these very few, the present film is an unfortunately typical example of its kind: Generally competent; superficially trendy; and ultimately as self-dated as its source material. While it may have been treated more harshly than it deserved, its critics were certainly right to favor the original as better in every way that matters. With that, I for one have made my peace.

Image credit Board Game Geek.