HAPPY 75TH BIRTHDAY TO KONG OF SKULL ISLAND!

[The Drunken Severed Head]

"He was a king and a god in his world..."

Still vital at age 75.



Still one of the top-grossing films of all time.

[MDG]

George Eastman House is having screenings today to 2 and 7.

[Meek]

   Good old Kong. Who'd a thunk that some pieces of metal, foam rubber and some rabbit skin could have such a range of emotion and make you feel bad about his death at the end of the movie. Even Fay Wray got a little sentimental in her open letter to Kong that airs sometimes on TCM about how all Kong was trying to do was protect her.
   
    I'd love to have a banana in your honor Kong, but bananas make my skin itch.

    "Meek"

[fmofmpls]

[Mike Scott]

Happy Birthday, big guy!

http://www.youtube.com/v/dytJJrpxwDw

[Meek]

   King Kong would've liked to have celebrated his birthday with us but he had to catch a plane.


     "Meek"(minkey business)

[Jim Bertges]

Happy Birthday to the greatest Kong of them all!

[Nicole]

Happy birthday, you big ape!

[raycastile]

Happy anniversary to my favorite film, the genuine King Kong.

[typhooforme]

Long live Kong, the 8th Wonder of the World!

[The Spangler]

 STILL superior to any of its successors!   "King Kong, you know the story of King Kong, 10 times as big as a man..."

                                         Happy Birthday Kong!!

[Gary D Macabre]

the greatest Non Universal monster of all time

[lepumpernic]

happy birthday KONG... the 8th wonder of the world...


GREAT MOVIE OF RKO PICTURES!!!! 

[Grape]

Something I'm always very preoccupied with when watching movies is whether they start off with a sufficient "build up" or "set up" to get me to suspend my disbelief, buy into, and care about whatever comes next. In monster movies, if the monster appears right in the first five minutes I get pretty ticked off. Before I see a monster do its thing I want to know something about its place in the world - the world existing in the film I mean.

I really, really need a good set up scene -- something, for example, like an earnest old timer telling some sceptical scoffin' young folks about some crazy old legend 'bout a weird creature prowlin' around out thar in the woods. Give me a proper introductory scene like that and then I'm ready and willing to jump at the snap of a twig and a glimpse of a mysterious shape darting behind the trees.

And I mention this here because "King Kong" has got, IMHO, the greatest build up EVER. All the mystery surrounding the destination. All the concern about Denham's recklessness. That awesome scene where Denham shows and tells all about the map!! (I LOVE that scene) Then they see the big wall! WHAT CAN BE ON THE OTHER SIDE? WHAT IS IT THAT'S COMING TO GET ANNE???!!!!!!

Of course after a great build up like that a movie has to  PAY OFF. And does Kong ever deliver in that department. A few minutes earlier the viewer was solidly grounded and invested in a perfectly normal, skeptical, modern twentieth century world and then suddenly they're subjected to a WHOLE SERIES of hair raising deadly monster encounters! By the time we get back to the peninsula and Kong is subdued by the gas bombs we are exhausted and satisfied. If the movie ended right there it would STILL be one of the greatest monster movies of all time! BUT  WAIT! THERE'S MORE!

After that whole incredible, breathtaking series of events on Skull Island the movie then TOPS all that's happened up to that point with Kong's absolutely awesome rampage through New York. AND THEN comes what must be recongized as one of the alltime greatest finales of any film ever made.

It builds it up. It pays it off. Then it tops itself. "King Kong" is simply one of the greatest pieces of filmmaking ever. Mind you, I loved Peter Jackson's remake. But the original CAN NOT BE TOPPED. It's pure gold.

Those're my thoughts anyways.

[typhooforme]

I  agree, Grape! One of the best build-ups in classic horror.  I enjoyed reading your thoughts on it.