Part of Weekend Classics: Animal Kingdom
Actress Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) and director Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) travel to the Indian Ocean to do location shoots for Denham’s new jungle picture. Along the way, the actress meets and falls for rugged First Mate John Driscoll (Bruce Cabot). Upon arriving at a mysterious island, Ann is taken hostage by natives who prepare her as a sacrifice to the enormous ape Kong who rules over their jungle. But when Ann is rescued and Kong is captured, the real trouble begins.
“KING KONG is more than a technical achievement. It is also a curiously touching fable in which the beast is seen, not as a monster of destruction, but as a creature that in its own way wants to do the right thing… There is something ageless and primeval about KING KONG that still somehow works.” —Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
“This is a great circus show. And it outdoes circuses, because it has its own menagerie. The kind that a paleontologist would rave about, and the sort that will make you believe that the screen has grown up overnight scientifically.” —Edwin Schallert, Los Angeles Times (Mar 27, 1933)
“Trickery? Nothing else, of course. But it is so ingenious, and on such a stupendous scale as the studios seldom if ever before yielded. It doesn't matter how the ‘shots’ were made. You will be too busy wondering what is to happen next to Fay Wray.” —Len G. Shaw, Detroit Free Press (Mar 25, 1933)