A group of Americans, including beautiful actress Ann Darrow (Wray), discover a giant ape whilst exploring the remote Skull Island. After the monster is taken to New York for exhibition, it escapes and runs amok in search of Darrow.
Over 70 years old, King Kong remains one of the most popular mythical monsters of cinema. Unlike his contemporaries Frankenstein and Dracula, Kong hasn't been the subject of a worthy remake or sequel, leaving this vision the undisputed definitive, which is no bad thing.
Produced (like many other monster classics) in the early 1930s, Hollywood had just got to grips with sound and was ready to innovate in other areas of cinema, particularly visual effects. Although there was a large team working on the job, Kong's impressive blending of live action and the innovative technique of stop-motion are attributed mainly to Willis H. O'Brien (who took the sole credit of Chief Technician on the film). By today's standards the ape may lack realism, but the personality expressed in his face cannot (yet) be mimicked so endearingly in CGI. At the time, it looked real enough to cause entire audiences to panic through sheer confusion, something else CGI is yet to do. But Kong is only one of the legends to appear in the film, credit must go to the lungs of Fay Wray, who will always be remembered as having the best scream in the movies, and should surely be given some kind of posthumous award to reflect this.
"The Most Awesome Thriller Of All Time" declared the promotional posters, in a dramatic manner of which promoter Carl Denham (Armstrong) would surely have approved. Perhaps it isn't quite true anymore, but it's certainly still impressive.