Trivia / King Kong (1933)

• Accidentally-Correct Writing: Some have questioned the credibility of the fact that Captain Englehorn is able to translate the language of the islanders, who have apparently never had Western visitors before. He describes it as similar to the language of the Nias islanders. Nias is a real place in Indonesia, but the language of the film is completely fabricated, having been constructed from numerous dialects of Malay and Indonesian. Nonetheless, Englehorn's ability to translate is not all that implausible; most of the languages of the Pacific share common enough roots to be mutually intelligible to fluent speakers.
• Accidentally Correct Zoology: As some actual paleontologists have noted, there are some elements of the dinosaur portrayals in this movie that actually were a lot more in line with modern knowledge of them than with what contemporary 1930s paleontologists believed. Specifically, the fact that sauropods like Apatosaurus could support themselves on land ^note Back in the 30s, it was believed that sauropods had to always be at least hip-deep in water to avoid getting suffocated by their own weight. and the idea of Tyrannosaurus rex being an active and athletic hunter ^note At the time of the film's release, T-rex, among other dinosaurs, were largely considered slow and lumbering brutes..
• Actor-Inspired Element: Fay Wray claimed that she insisted Ann be a blonde, and selected the wig herself.
• DVD Commentary: There are three official commentary tracks for this film. The Criterion Laserdisc from 1984 has a commentary by Ronald Haver that was the first commentary for any film. In 1985, the Image Laserdisc had a separate commentary. Then in 2006 the DVD received a commentary by Ray Harryhausen, who was inspired to make movies by this film.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Fay Wray was a natural brunette, but dyed her hair blonde and even wore a blonde wig as well for this role. It becoming easily her best known film means that fans can be quite surprised to see her real hair color.
• Enforced Method Acting: Ann's terror as Kong lifts her in his hand is quite real; Fay Wray was scared that she was going to fall out of the prop hand suspended in the air.
• Fake Nationality: The Hollywood Natives are Melanesians, given that they live on an island fairly close to Indonesia. Etta McDaniel, Everett Brown and Noble Johnson were African-American, and Steve Clemente was Mexican-American.
• He Also Did:
  • Ernest B. Schoedsack and Merion C. Cooper provided the live action reference for the fight scene between Kong and the T-Rex, as they had previously been wrestlers.
  • Walter Plunkett—costume designer of Gone with the Wind, Young Bess, Singin' in the Rain etc.—worked uncredited on the film, designing Ann's 'Beauty & the Beast' costume for her screen test.
• Production Posse: Ernest B. Schoedsack and Merion C. Cooper had worked with Fay Wray on two other films before this. One of them was The Most Dangerous Game, which also featured Robert Armstrong (Carl Denham). Some action scenes were filmed on the set of that before the script was finished, as it had a jungle setting too.
• Prop Recycling:
  • The native village huts were left over from Bird of Paradise.
  • The Great Wall came from The King of Kings. It was reused in Gone with the Wind during the burning of Atlanta.
  • The models and dioramas of the Empire State Building and Manhattan might have been reused for a scene of an earthquake destroying New York City in Deluge, released later the same year by RKO.
• Recycled Set: Jungle scenes were filmed on the same set as the jungle scenes in The Most Dangerous Game, which also happened to star Fay Wray and Robert Armstrong.
• The Red Stapler: A very odd example—at least, if researchers from Columbia University are to be believed. They claim that modern sightings of a long-necked creature in and around Scotland's Loch Ness originated with King Kong, which featured a similar long-necked lake monster. This theory was also put forth by authors Daniel Loxton and Donald R. Prothero in their book Abominable Science!: Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: The two-legged lizard was meant to be an Aetosaur◊ but budget cuts led to it having no hind legs. This design ended up being used 80+ years later for the Skullcrawlers in Legendary's Kong: Skull Island.
• Throw It In!: The elevated train sequence was thrown in at the last minute because the film was thirteen reels—and the producer was superstitious.
• What Could Have Been:
  • In the Edgar Wallace Draft, Ann Darrow (Shirley Redman) was the daughter of a Governor on an island, Carl Denham (Danby Denham) was a Big time Game Hunter looking for Animals, and Jack Driscoll (John Driscoll) was one of a group of escaped prisoners who kidnapped Shirley, but John was wrongfully imprisoned for striking a superior Officer while serving the French Foreign Legion.
  • At one time, there was a scene when the crew of the Venture fall into a pit that is filled with giant spiders and insects that soon devour everyone. However, the filmmakers felt that the spider pit scene would slow the film down, (not because the scene was too shocking, as is commonly reported) so they had to remove it. That scene would later make it into the 2005 remake, and was recreated by Peter Jackson on the 2005 2-Disc DVD set.
  • There are indications that the log scene was to include the sailors being chased onto the log by another dinosaur, a Styracosaur, which was dropped although Willis O'Brien made the model, which he then used in The Son of Kong. This was also included in Peter Jackson's recreation.
  • Another scene that was considered, sketched, and then rejected would have Kong battle a trio of attacking Triceratops. This battle did end up being included in the film's original novelization.
  • One very early draft called for a fight between Kong and a prehistoric monster to be played out by a real gorilla and komodo dragon in a fight to the death. For the benefit of both film history and relief of animal lovers everywhere, this eventually evolved into the stop-motion fight between the animated ape and Tyrannosaurus.
  • The part of Ann Darrow was originally offered to Jean Harlow and Ginger Rogers, both of whom turned it down.
  • Joel McCrea, who had played the heroic lead in The Most Dangerous Game, was offered the part of Jack Driscoll, but his agents demanded too much money, and the role was given to Bruce Cabot.
  • An initial idea was for Kong to be exhibited in Yankee Stadium, and a sketch was even drawn◊ of him breaking loose in the stadium. They changed their minds to a Midtown theatre instead.
  • An early version of the screenplay had Kong startling a group of men playing poker while climbing the hotel looking for Ann.
  • Early drafts of the film had Kong climbing the Chrysler Building, prior to the completion of the even taller Empire State Building. It was also initially planned for Kong to be killed by a bolt of lightning after reaching the top of the building rather than shot down by airplanes.
  • An overhead shot was filmed of Kong falling to his death from the Empire State Building. But when playing the scene back, the special effects didn't look good, so it was cut. It's still shown in documentaries about the film, however.
  • The film's novelization, like many movie novelizations, was based on an earlier screenplay of the film, with a few minor differences that may be indicative of earlier plot ideas. For example, the ship was called the Wanderer rather than the Venture, there was a character called Lumpy (retained in the 2005 film remake), the Red Shirt Jimmy had several lines (which were spread between other characters in the final film, but again retained in the 2005 remake), Kong had a fight with a herd of Triceratops (changed in later rewrites to a Styracosaurus or an Arsinoitherium, before being removed altogether, although an Styracosaurus did appear in the sequel), the inclusion of the aforementioned spider pit scene, Kong being presented in a giant cage rather than in shackles, and he leaps to his death in the climactic battle to snatch a biplane out of the air, rather than simply dropping off the skyscraper after succumbing to his wounds.
  • A remake was attempted by Universal in the 1970s called The Legend of King Kong, which helped perpetuate a truly legendary copyright fight between Universal, Paramount, and several other parties as to who owned the rights to the character. This version was slated to be in a Dueling Movies fight with King Kong (1976), but was canned just before production could begin. This particular script has actually nearly been made several times since, and was even presented to Peter Jackson for his movie, who discarded it.
  • Hammer attempted their own remake as well and even went so far as to have Ray Harryhausen do a test animation of the Empire State scene. The film was never made due to a "no remakes" policy at RKO. In the end, some extra footage was created for it and it instead became a commercial for the Volkswagen Beetle.

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