King Kong (1976 film)

King Kong
Theatrical release poster by John Berkey
Directed by	John Guillermin
Produced by	Dino De Laurentiis Federico De Laurentiis Christian Ferry
Written by	James Ashmore Creelman Ruth Rose (1933 screenplay) Lorenzo Semple Jr.
Story by	Merian C. Cooper Edgar Wallace
Starring	Jeff Bridges Charles Grodin Jessica Lange Rene Auberjonois Rick Baker (uncredited)
Music by	John Barry
Cinematography	Richard H. Kline
Editing by	Ralph E. Winters
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	December 17, 1976 (1976-12-17)
Running time	134 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$23 million
Box office	$90,614,445

King Kong is a 1976 American monster movie produced by Dino De Laurentiis and directed by John Guillermin. It is a remake of the 1933 classic film of the same name, about a giant ape that is captured and imported to New York City for exhibition.

The remake's screenplay was written by Lorenzo Semple Jr., based on the original story written by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace, which had been adapted into the 1933 screenplay by James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose. It stars Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodin, and Jessica Lange in her first film role, playing the part made famous in the original by Fay Wray.

Plot

In the 1970s, Fred Wilson (Charles Grodin), an executive of the Petrox Oil Company, forms an expedition based on infrared imagery which reveals a previously undiscovered Indian Ocean island hidden by a permanent cloud bank. Wilson believes the island has a huge deposit of oil. Jack Prescott (Jeff Bridges), a primate paleontologist, sneaks onto the expedition's vessel and attempts to warn the team against traveling to the island, citing an ominous final message about "the roar of the greatest beast" from previous doomed explorers. Wilson orders Prescott locked up, claiming that he is really a spy from a rival corporation. The ship happens upon a life raft which carries the beautiful and unconscious Dwan (Jessica Lange). Upon waking, Dwan tells Prescott that she is an aspiring actress who was aboard a director's yacht which suddenly exploded. During the rest of the ship's voyage, Prescott and Dwan become attracted to each other.

Upon arriving at the island, the team discovers a primitive tribe of natives who live within the confines of a gigantic wall, built to protect them from a mysterious god known as Kong. The team finds that while there is a large deposit of oil, it is of such low quality that it is unusable. The natives kidnap Dwan, drug her, and offer her as a sacrifice to Kong. A monumental ape grabs Dwan from the altar and departs back into the jungle.

Although an awesome and terrifying sight, the soft hearted Kong quickly becomes tamed by Dwan, whose rambling monologue calms and fascinates the monstrous beast. Kong takes Dwan back to a waterfall. He washes her, and uses great gusts of his warm breath to dry her.

In the meantime, Prescott, and First Mate Carnahan (Ed Lauter) lead a rescue mission to save Dwan. The rescue party encounters Kong while crossing a log bridge, and Kong rolls the huge log, sending Carnahan and the rest of the sailors falling to their deaths. Prescott and Boan are the only ones to survive. Kong takes Dwan to his lair. A giant snake appears and attacks the pair, and while Kong dispatches the snake, Prescott escapes with Dwan. Kong chases the pair back to the native village, only to fall into a pit trap and be smothered with chloroform.

Without any of the promised new oil, Wilson decides to transport Kong to America as a promotional gimmick for his company. When they finally reach New York City, Kong is put on display in a beauty and the beast farce, bound in chains with a large crown on his head. When Kong sees a group of reporters pushing and shoving Dwan for interviews, the ape breaks free of his bonds and goes on a rampage throughout the city. Wilson trips while running away and Kong steps on him, killing him instantly. The ape also destroys an elevated train in his search for Dwan. Prescott and Dwan flee across the Queensboro Bridge to Manhattan while Kong pursues them. At an abandoned Manhattan bar, Prescott calls the military and tells them to let Kong climb to the top of the Trade Center. Kong locates Dwan and she allows him to take her; he begins to make his way to the World Trade Center, with Jack and the military in hot pursuit.

In the climax, Kong climbs the South Tower of the World Trade Center. After being attacked by men with flamethrowers while standing on the roof, Kong flees by leaping across to the North Tower. Later, he is attacked by military helicopters while Dwan is trying to stop them. The fatally injured Kong falls from the roof to the World Trade Center plaza, where he dies from his injuries. Dwan is bombarded by a sea of photographers. The crowd is so big though that Dwan can't even get close to Jack. She stands still and is photographed relentlessly by reporters while Kong lies dead in a pool of blood and broken concrete.

Cast

• Jeff Bridges as Jack Prescott
• Charles Grodin as Fred S. Wilson
• Jessica Lange as Dwan
• John Randolph as Captain Ross
• Rene Auberjonois as Roy Bagley
• Ed Lauter as Carnahan
• Julius Harris as Boan
• Jack O'Halloran as Joe Perko
• Dennis Fimple as Sunfish
• Jorge Moreno as Garcia
• Mario Gallo as Timmons
• John Lone as Chinese Cook
• John Agar as City Official
• Sid Conrad as Petrox Chairman
• Keny Long as Ape Masked Man
• Rick Baker (uncredited) as King Kong
• Peter Cullen (uncredited) as Voice of King Kong
• Eve McVeagh (uncredited) as Reporter
• Corbin Bernsen (uncredited) as Reporter
• Joe Piscopo as Bit Part
• Donald F. Glut (uncredited) as Guy in amphitheatre bleachers where Kong escapes

Response

Although the film is often described as being a financial flop, King Kong was commercially successful, earning Paramount Pictures back over triple its budget. The film ended up at #5 on Variety's chart of the top domestic (U.S.) moneymakers of 1977. (The film was released in December 1976 and therefore earned the majority of its money during the early part of 1977.) The film made approximately $80 million worldwide on a $24 million budget. Despite this, Paramount-Gulf Western's CEO stated that he was disappointed the film did not out gross 1975's Jaws (film).^{[citation needed]} After months of much anticipation for the film's release the film received mostly mixed responses from critics at the time of its initial release, especially from fans of the original King Kong. It did however, obtain positive reviews from several prominent critics. Pauline Kael in The New Yorker, Richard Schickel in Time, Charles Champlin in the Los Angeles Times, Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times, and 'Murf' in Variety, among others, responded favorably to the film's pathos and (often campy) sense of humor. Kael, in particular, truly loved the film, noting "I don't think I've ever before seen a movie that was a comic-strip great romance in the way this one is — it's a joke that can make you cry." The performances by Bridges and Grodin were generally well regarded, and even the film's detractors found Richard H. Kline's Academy Award-nominated cinematography and John Barry's musical score noteworthy.^{[citation needed]}

Currently, critical response to King Kong continues to be mixed. Of the 25 reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes regarding the title, 52% reflect negative reactions. According to Entertainment Tonight's Leonard Maltin, the film "...has great potential; yet it dispels all the mythic, larger-than-life qualities of the original with idiotic characters and campy approach."

The movie's success and notoriety helped launch the career of Jessica Lange, although she reportedly received some negative publicity regarding her debut performance that, according to film reviewer Marshall Fine, "almost destroyed her career".

Although Lange won the Golden Globe for Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture - Female for Kong, she did not appear in another film for three years and spent that time training intensively in acting.

The film received an Academy Award for Best Special Effects, an award it shared with Logan's Run (1976). It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography (Richard H. Kline) and Best Sound (Harry W. Tetrick, William McCaughey, Aaron Rochin and Jack Solomon).

King Kong found new and sustained life on television. NBC bought the rights to air the movie and it was a rating success. NBC paid De Laurentiis $19.5 million for the rights to two showings over five years; the highest amount any network had ever paid for a film at that time. This led De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (with Canadian distribution by Paramount) to make a sequel called King Kong Lives (1986), starring Linda Hamilton. Unlike the 1976 remake, the sequel was a commercial failure.

DVD release

Momentum Pictures released this film on DVD in 2001 on the Region 2 label with a photo gallery and a theatrical trailer. This has now been deleted according to the online retailer site Zavvi. Optimum Releasing has confirmed a new re-release of this film on Region 2 with deleted scenes and the theatrical trailer from the previous issue. There are only 2 deleted scenes on the DVD. This is the extended scene of the brawl between Kong and the Snake. The other scene is the demise of Wilson at the New York unveiling of Kong. The film has been released on Blu-Ray in Region B territories, however this disc is region free and will work in any Blu-Ray machine.

Extended television version

When King Kong made its network TV debut on NBC in 1978, a number of scenes deleted from the theatrical version were reinstated to make the film longer. Most fans of the remake agree that the extended version of the film works much better than the original truncated release.^{[citation needed]} This version also features several changes to the John Barry score, including entirely alternate cues in places that no music existed in the theatrical version, as well as several different edits of cues. This may actually indicate that the version was an early workprint of the film, before it went through its final editing stages. While this is the first of the Kong films to have an extended cut, the second one is the 2005 remake of King Kong. The deleted/extended scenes are not yet released on DVD but 5, 9 and 10 have been included as extras in the deleted scene section on the current Region 2 DVD release.

Soundtrack

The film score, composed and conducted by John Barry, was released on CD by both Mask and FSM in 2005. It is noticeably incomplete (due to copyright issues), however, missing at least two major cues from the film, notably the log rolling sequence, several extensions of cues already present on the soundtrack, and small restatements of the main theme. Otherwise, the track listing is as follows on both CDs:

1. "The Opening"
2. "Maybe My Luck Has Changed"
3. "Arrival on the Island"
4. "Sacrifice" / "Hail to the King"
5. "Arthusa"
6. "Full Moon Domain / Beauty Is a Beast"
7. "Breakout to Captivity"
8. "Incomprehensible Captivity"
9. "Kong Hits the Big Apple"
10. "Blackout in New York" / "How About Buying Me a Drink"
11. "Climb to Skull Island"
12. "The End Is at Hand"
13. "The End"

Filming

• According to King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon, director John Guillermin, known to have had outbursts from time to time on the set, got into a public shouting match with executive producer Federico De Laurentiis (son of producer Dino De Laurentiis). After the incident, Dino De Laurentiis was reported to have threatened to fire Guillermin if he did not start treating the cast and crew better.
• On one of the nights of filming Kong's death at the World Trade Center, over 30,000 people showed up at the site to be extras for the scene. Although the crowd was well behaved, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (owner of the World Trade Center complex) became concerned that the weight of so many people would cause the plaza to collapse, and ordered the producers to shut down the filming. However, the film makers had already got the shot they wanted of the large crowd rushing toward Kong's body. They returned to the site days later to finish filming the scene, with a much smaller crowd of paid extras.
• According to King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon, Rick Baker, who designed the ape suit along with Carlo Rambaldi, was extremely disappointed in the final suit, which he felt wasn't at all convincing. He gives all the credit for its passable appearance to cinematographer Richard H. Kline.
• According to King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon, the only time that the collaboration of Rick Baker and Carlo Rambaldi went smoothly was during the design of the mechanical Kong mask. Baker's design and Rambaldi's cable work combined to give Kong's face a wide range of expression that was responsible for much of the film's emotional impact. Baker gave much of the credit for its effectiveness to Rambaldi and his mechanics.
• According to the Internet Movie Database, seven different masks were created by Carlo Rambaldi, and molded by Rick Baker to convey various emotions. Separate masks were necessary as there were too many cables and mechanics required for all the expressions to fit in one single mask. The masks were composed of a plastic skull over which were placed artificial muscle groups activated by cables which entered the costume through Kong's feet, with the outer latex skins molded by Baker placed over the top. The masks used hydraulics to provide movement, so much like the mechanical Kong and hands, the facial expressions were controlled by the team of operators working off-set with the control boards. To complete the look of a gorilla, Baker wore contact lenses so his eyes would resemble those of a gorilla.
• Carlo Rambaldi's mechanical Kong was 40 ft (12 m) tall and weighed 6½ tons. It cost $1.7 million, and is the largest mechanical creature ever built.^{[citation needed]} Despite months of preparation, the final device proved to be impossible to operate convincingly, and is only seen in a series of brief shots totalling less than 15 seconds.
• The Wall, which was constructed on MGM's Lot 2, was originally designed to be a stone structure, similar to the 1933 version. Director John Guillermin changed it to a wooden structure because it looked more primitive. It was 47 ft (14 m) tall and 500 ft (108 m) long; the total cost was $800,000.
• Producer Dino De Laurentiis first approached Roman Polanski to direct the picture.
• According to King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon, to film the scene where the Petrox Explorer finds Dwan in the life raft, Jessica Lange spent hours in a rubber raft in the freezing cold, drenched and wearing only a slinky black dress. Although Lange wasn't aware of it, there were sharks circling the raft the entire time. (Shooting of this scene took place in the channel between Los Angeles and Catalina Island during the last week in January 1976.)
• Some posters advertised it as "The most exciting original motion picture event of all time," although it was a remake. The poster's main image is also wrong, in that Kong is seen battling jet planes and not helicopters, as in the movie. This scene also takes place at night and not in daylight as depicted in the poster. King Kong is also shown straddling the two towers with one foot on each, though in the movie he was not that large and had to leap to reach the other tower.
• King Kong was voiced by an uncredited Peter Cullen. Cullen injured his throat and coughed blood after a recording session that took five to six hours.

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Bahrenburg, Bruce (1976). The Making of Dino De Laurentiis' King Kong. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 067180766X. 

External links

• King Kong at the Internet Movie Database
• King Kong at AllRovi
• King Kong at Box Office Mojo
• King Kong at Rotten Tomatoes
• Story of the classic 1976 promotional posters