A new movie adaptation of King Kong kicks off in cinemas worldwide this week with "Kong: Skull Island." We look back at how this destructive monster with a soft spot became such a big box-office hit.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/Warner Bros.
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The many faces of King Kong
The movie monster ape returns to the silver screen in "Kong: Skull Island." We took the opportunity to look back at the sometimes trashy, sometimes technically sophisticated reincarnations of King Kong over the years.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/Warner Bros.
Look who's back: King Kong
Every decade needs a new monster primate - in film, that is. "Kong: Skull Island," the latest movie in the hugely successful King Kong franchise, hits screens worldwide this week. But he hasn't always looked quite like this. We went back to 1933, where it all began...
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/Warner Bros.
King Kong makes an entrance
King Kong's 1933 debut film caused quite a stir among cinema audiences with its flashy new special effects. Actress Fay Wray became the first victim to find herself trapped in the firm grasp of the giant ape. The film was a huge box office success, and a franchise was born.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/F.Wray
A new monster in town
In 1954, the Japanese monster Godzilla moved into the spotlight. The enormous and seemingly indestructible beast was said to be a representation of nuclear weapons, reflecting the terror experienced by Japan when the US dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
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King Kong in Japan
After two Hollywood installments, King Kong made his way to Japan. In "King Kong vs. Godzilla" (1962), he battled it out with the Japanese monster at the summit of Mount Fuji. King Kong's appearance gave a significant boost to the Godzilla franchise's box office figures.
Image: picture-alliance/United Archives/TopFoto
Popping up in pop culture
Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" was a reaction to the Cold War and the dangerous state of world politics. In the film, actor Slim Pickens played a soldier who is known to everybody as Major "King" Kong.
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A turn for the worse
In the 60s, King Kong and other monster films became more eccentric and less sophisticated. Perhaps the best illustration of this is Japanese director Ishiro Honda's 1967 film "King Kong Escapes."
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New damsel in distress
The 1976 movie "King Kong" saw the eponymous ape return to Hollywood, looking more conventional. This time it was the turn of actress Jessica Lange, making her professional film debut, to play the damsel in distress.
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A King Kong flop
Not all King Kong films were lucky enough to hit the big time at the box office. Director John Guillermin's "King Kong Lives," the sequel to the 1976 movie, was a resounding flop - despite the introduction of a love interest for King Kong, in the shape of Lady Kong.
Image: picture alliance/United Archiv
The ape comes roaring back
By 2005, Hollywood was much better prepared. With the help of computer technology, a large budget and a slick marketing operation, New Zealand director Peter Jackson drew the crowds back to the cinema for his action-packed King Kong reboot.
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A fresh look for King Kong
Fast forward to 2017 and King Kong is back for "Kong: Skull Island." Initial reviews for the film look good, with much praise for the action-packed plot and convincing special effects. More than 80 years after his film debut, it seems King Kong still has blockbuster appeal.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/Warner Bros.
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In Nazi Germany, horror films were banned. The first King Kong film, whose German title translates as "King Kong and the White Woman," just managed to make it into cinemas in 1933. It was advertised as "an American trick and sensation film."
After that, King Kong and his Hollywood friends were banished - even though it was generally accepted that Adolf Hitler was a fan. So, Germans had to go elsewhere for their horror fix.
Getting creeped out in comfort
The first King Kong film was a global success. It shocked and amazed audiences with its special effects. People had never seen anything like it. The giant ape left a trail of destruction (something his cinematic successors, such as Godzilla, were pretty good at, too). The special effects teams in Hollywood, and later in Japan, had a great time. Viewers could get the creeps from the comfort of their cinema seats.
Even actress Fay Wray (right) was fascinated by King Kong's sensitivityImage: picture alliance/dpa/F.Wray
But there was another side to King Kong - a sensual, loving side. Even back in 1933, he showed remarkable fervor and sensibility towards the "white woman." She came to no harm in his enormous paws. Well, apart from the obvious distress of being kidnapped by a giant hairy monster.
A monster with a heart
In fact, that was always King Kong's biggest strength: as well as his penchant for destruction, his softer side could also be seen on screen. This is still the case in his newest film, "Kong: Skull Island." A team of researchers exploring the island of monsters works out that it might not be the giant ape that poses the biggest threat to mankind.
On Skull Island, there are more aggressive creatures to be found than giant apesImage: picture alliance/AP Photo/Warner Bros.
Actress Fay Wray played the original shrieking victim, struggling in her captor's giant grip. In the final, iconic scene of the 1933 film, King Kong scales the Empire State Building in New York, with Wray still in his hand. He is shot and falls to his death - but not before setting Wray down safely.
'That scene puts a lump in my throat'
Wray, who died in 2004 at the age of 96, opened her autobiography with a letter to King Kong.
"The other scene I find unforgettable," she wrote, "is you in your last moments just before falling from the top of the Empire State Building. You had put me down very carefully as though wanting me to be safe."
"You felt your chest where you had been shot, knowing you were doomed. That scene puts a lump in my throat."
