Great Characters: Kong (“King Kong”)

Ape meets girl. Ape gets girl. Ape loses girl. That is one way to sum up the plot to the 1933 classic movie King Kong (screenplay by James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose from an idea conceived of by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace). Its star is a truly great character: Kong.

Check out some of the taglines from the original movie’s marketing campaign:

A Monster of Creation’s Dawn Breaks Loose in Our World Today!

Out-leaping the maddest imaginings! Out-thrilling the wildest thrills! 

The strangest story ever conceived by man.

Actually it’s not a strange story at all, but rather a fascinating take on “The Beauty and the Beast” with Kong saving Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) from human sacrifice at the hands of the island’s native inhabitants, then falling in love with her. Transported from its jungle home to New York City where it escapes captivity, Kong reclaims Darrow, leading to one of the most famous scenes in cinema history:

Imagine film audiences in 1933 seeing this spectacle for the first time, Kong a frightening visage who then becomes humanized as the beast’s tender passion for Darrow becomes manifest, and ending in pure tragedy as evidenced by the final lines of the movie:

Police Lieutenant: Well, Denham, the airplanes got him. 
Carl Denham: Oh no, it wasn’t the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast. 

No wonder the story has been remade so many times.

The movie’s trailer: