King Kong (1933)

What’s the Story?

In this classic monster movie, showman Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) goes on a South Seas expedition to find the rumored beast "Kong," get it on film, and make a fortune. Along for the ride is actress Anne Darrow (Fay Wray), the pretty girl for his film. On Skull Island, they find natives protected by a huge wall from prehistoric monsters including Kong, a 50-foot-tall gorilla. The tribe kidnaps Anne and offers her as a sacrifice to Kong, who is smitten by the gorgeous blonde and runs off with her. After a long, action-packed chase, sailor (Bruce Cabot) and the ship's crew get Anne back safely to the ship. Denham manages to knock the monster unconscious with gas bombs and brings Kong, in chains, back to New York City. He exhibits "King" Kong in a Broadway-style setting, but Kong breaks loose and, following his jungle instinct, takes his beloved Anne to the highest ground in the metropolis -- the Empire State Building, for a classic climax with WWI-style fighter-biplanes.

Is It Any Good?

Though it was remade in 2005 by director Peter Jackson with all the modern talent and special effects of the 21st century, the 1933 King Kong moves at a lightning pace. While the stop-motion animation seems primitive, it's still very watchable. The savage Kong has a primal fury about him that makes him a real threat, even if his lovelorn looks to Anne turn him into a slightly more sympathetic monster.

The human characters are fairly one-dimensional by comparison. Anne screams a lot, famously so, faints, and that's about it for her womanly survival skills. Denham doesn't seem to have learned any lessons in the end. Modern black activists have denounced the old-school portrayal of face-painted, bone-wearing tribesmen, though Skull Island natives fight back against the rampaging gorilla-god, and a black baby is one of the few characters of any color snatched safely from beneath the primate's trampling feet.