King Kong

Each July, my wife and I partake in what we've coined as Sci-Fi July. A month to watch and revel in science fiction films and well, today I figured why not highlight one of the most iconic efforts from the genre? Today we're focusing on a motion picture from the dawn of sound in cinema. A project led by a fore founder in special effects that paved the way for countless others after its release. It wasn't just a movie filled with special effects however, it was full of action, emotion, and curiosity. One that captured the imaginations of moviegoers at the time and introduced us to one of the most recognized and beloved characters of all time.

So if you're like me and you enjoy film and the impact and emotions they convey, then grab a glass of your preferred liquid and join me for the next little while. For me that's a cup of cold Milk and Honey Latte from our friends at Saxby's here in Philadelphia. So sit back, relax, and let's talk about the love of film. Welcome to Glazed Cinema.

I'm pretty excited about today's subject. I find talking about it awesome, yet a bit daunting at the same time as we'll be diving into a pretty iconic film. Before we get to that though, let's talk about how our subject today came to be, which in itself is pretty fascinating. It involves a New York institution, an adventurer, and dragons.

The story of the story begins in a setting one might simultaneously expect and be surprised by. It begins on the island of Komodo off the coast of Indonesia where a man named William Douglas Burden was visiting on business. He was there on behalf of the American Museum of Natural History of New York City to satisfy a new zoological exhibit. He was joined by a hunter, photographer, a herpetologist or reptile expert, and his wife. They were there for one reason, which was to capture and bring back to the museum a specimen that would fascinate audiences that entered through the museum doors. They hoped to capture the species that shares the island's name, the fascinating and formidable Komodo Dragon.

William himself was a bit of an adventurer and a trustee of the museum with an appetite for travel and adrenaline. In the end they recorded footage of the reptiles in their natural habitat and were able to write notes about their behavior, diet, and temperament. They also brought back a few slain specimens to be stuffed and put on display at the museum. When the exhibit opened, patrons were fascinated by what they were seeing. Such large reptiles the likes they had never seen. It was the closest they had ever come to seeing dinosaurs in the flesh. While it is sad that they had killed a number of dragons, possible even sadder is that they brought back two live dragons for the Bronx Zoo, only to have them die shortly after as they were unable to adapt to captivity. Burden would tell his story to people, one of whom was his friend Merian C. Cooper, who worked in Hollywood. Cooper also saw the exhibit at the museum and was enthralled by the tale of his friend's adventures to the island and began writing a story based on it.

In Cooper's story, a lot of the same elements remain, but are slightly altered. In his script, instead of a museum trustee and adventurer travelling to the island, it's a film director and his cast and crew. They too travel to a remote island the world over, steeped in legend. In each a woman is put in danger in some regard and in each, something is taken back to New York City. The biggest difference is an obvious one, which is what is taken back to the Big Apple. For Cooper, this wasn't a Komodo Dragon, but instead a Giant Gorilla. In 1931, his script was funded and put into production with him both behind and in front of the camera and so spawned the timeless classic, King Kong.

Interestingly enough, some of the taxidermized originals from that 1926 expedition are still on display today at the museum in New York to see. However, without that ties into what they mean, they go noticed, yet unnoticed on display.

King Kong is a story of a movie crew venturing to a remote island called Skull Island to film sequences for their upcoming feature. On the expedition is the director, star and starlet, a guide, and a hunter for protection. When they arrive on the island they encounter dangers and witness a bizarre ritual taking place under the gaze of a massive barred wooden gate. Escapong the island after being spotted the leading actress is taken hostage and put outside the intimidating gate as tribute to the God of the locals. Soon a massive gorilla, soaring over the trees emerges from the jungle and takes the girl back to his lair. As the crew of the expedition realizes their leading lady is missing, they set on an adventure to rescue her. For you see it's not just rescue they have on their minds, but also profits and fame as the crew decides to capture the beast and bring him back to New York City for all to see. In doing so each kf them triggers off events that will change the lives of everyone involved.

Though Cooper directed King Kong, it was the technical team behind the effort that provided the visual effects, the action, and wonder we all know this movie to be. Leading the team was a man named Willis H. O'Brien, serving as Chief Technician. O'Brien had made a name for himself in the silent era, creating visual wonders produced by stop-motion animation. His earliest project, which was a short film titled, The Dinosaur and the Missing Link, released in 1915. It was done using all stop-motion and tells the tale of two characters, a caveman named Wild Willie and a gorilla as their paths in life intersect. For the next three years he would release more short films showcasing his skills and techniques of stop-motion and would produce spectacular effects. He would take his skills to the next level however when in 1918 he directed one of his two final shorts, called The Ghost of Slumber Mountain. In that effort, O'Brien brought dinosaurs to life using stop-motion animation and intercut them with shots of live action photography. This was the first time this camera trick was used and it made audiences feel like dinosaurs actually existed alongside the actors on screen. This work would culminate into working on his first full-length feature as researcher and technical director along with other skilled visual effects artists as they brought Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book, The Lost World to life on screen in 1925. As technical director, O'Brien was able to hire those would work with him to bring the action to life.

Of those he hired was a man named Marcel Delgado. Delgado was a skilled craftsman originally from Mexico and specialized in model making. O'Brien first learned of Delgado in his search for able model makers prior to production of The Lost World. While inquiring around Los Angeles, Delgado's name was brought up and O'Brien, at this time a pioneer and big name in the film scene approached him with an offer. An offer that Delgado was reluctant to take on at first. Delgado recalled this in an interview conducted in 1970 with film critic Jim Lane. In the interview, Delgado states:

"I told him I already had a job, I turned him down. Finally, after so many times, why, he said, "What are you doing tomorrow, Saturday?" "Well, I don't have to work." "Why don't you come to see me at the studio?" Well, I'd never been to a motion picture studio, I thought it would be a good chance for me to go in, take a peek. Well, that day he took me to a nice little place he had all fixed up for me, and he says, "How do you like your studio?" I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "Well, this is your studio if you like it, if you want it, it's yours." Well, that's what I'd always dreamed about. I said, "Thanks." So he said, "When are you going to start work?" I says, "Right now." That was the beginning of it. I started right there."

Delgado made all of the models and armatures seen in The Lost World, inspired by an illustrator named Charles R. Knight. Knight was a master at depicting dinosaurs in action sequences, which gave Delgado inspiration for constructing model dinosaurs and planning the joints for movement. While Delgado constructed them, O'Brien brought them to life on-screen. After shooting, each model needed to be repaired after use to bring each one back to prime shooting condition. The two developed a great working relationship and would work together on other films that were unfortunately canceled for one reason or another by the hiring studios. They would team up again however, when O'Brien was called upon to help film our subject today. Unfortunately Marcel Delgado's name isn't mentioned very much in relation to either The Lost World or King Kong, but without his skill, attention to detail, craftsmanship, and vision, King Kong would not look as we all know it to look.

In order to make Kong come alive on-screen, Delgado made four scale models of the titular character to be used in different scenes. The models were miniature, but built to scale as to be believable. Made out of aluminum, latex, rubber, and rabbit fur. On top of the models for the main character, Delgado also constructed models for the rival dinosaurs he would encounter onscreen as well. This included a T-Rex, Brachiosaurus, and Tridactyl, each built to scale and with moving parts for the interaction necessary for filming.

Once those models were constructed, O'Brien would utilize them when the camera started rolling using a wide variety of ground-breaking techniques. One of them was a technique called rear-screen projection, which is used quite a bit when Kong and actors are in frame. This technique involves projecting a pre-filmed sequence onto the back of a screen that faced the camera. The camera rolling the live sequence would then film sequences facing the same screen, but from the opposite side. This gives the illusion that both sequences are happening simultaneously and in King Kong, there are numerous examples of this for instance when the fight sequence between Kong and a giant snake occurs. We see the fighting happening in back as an actor is behind a rock, watching and waiting for his time to pass safely without being noticed. Using the rear-projection technique, the fight sequence was shot live, while the actor was projected, giving the animals scale and believability.

One problem that was encountered with this rear projection technique though was that while the action being filmed was happening, something might get in the way of the projection beam and break the illusion, creating shadow for filming. To solve for this problem, O'Brien devised a way to eliminate this from happening, which was quite ingenious. The projector would still stand behind the screen, but instead of projecting straight on to the screen, O'Brien moved it to film parallel to the screen almost at a right angle of the filming camera. He then inserted and angled mirror where the projector screen was before and this allowed for much more flexibility. This allowed for the projected image to be in the same exact shot as the live-action sequence, allowing actors to play off of the projected image. One of the best examples of this is when Jack is in a cave, trying to elude Kong. In the shot Kong is reaching down into the cave to try and grab him, but his fingers can't seem to find him amongst the low hanging vines. In the shot, Jack is projected onto the screen, while the miniature of Kong acts out the scene above him.

They also used life-sized armature as well for certain effects, like Kong's hand as it snatches up Ann time and again or the life-size model of Kong's head. The head, was actually a bust and stood around fifteen feet tall and was likewise sculpted by Delgado and his team. The head wasn't just stagnant though, it had to move and emote, something that took a team of technicians and artists to construct, but paid off in the final product. You'll see it when Kong peers into a window in New York City to a petrified woman and in this scene the camera zooms in to show the model in all its glory. Needless to say the team of Delgado and O'Brien are two major reasons why Kong packed such a punch when it debuted and why it's still beloved to this day.

I can't remember when I first saw this movie, but I feel like I was pretty young. I remember being captivated by the action in screen and feeling empathy for Kong. I felt he was scared and loathed the people trying to hurt him. Misplaced and musunderstood, almost like Frankenstein's monster.

King Kong is arguably one of the most iconic characters to emerge from American cinema, but twenty-one years later something would rise out of the depths to challenge him for onscreen supremacy. This time the debut was in Japan and the city in question was Tokyo as Godzilla electrified the world. It took awhile, but in 1963 Kong would make his international debut when Toho Film decided to pit the two cultural icons against each other, in Godzilla vs Kong. Something that was just reenacted only a few years ago with CGI, a far cry from the prop driven Kong in his prime.

In 1933, King Kong was a visual wonder for its day, pulling out countless props, tricks, and illusions to deliver a whollup for moviegoers. Before its debut audiences got to see the Universal Monsters appear, which caused quite a fright and stir as those audiences knew from books appeared larger than life with Dracula and Frankenstein appearing in 1931. With Kong though, the term larger than life was true to form. It soared at the box office, raking in over five million dollars and fascinating movie-goers. From its success spawned one of the most iconic characters in cinematic history and launched an entire franchise while helping future epic movies come to pass. If you've never seen the where King Kong began, I highly recommend warching this gem from the early days of cinema. Its an experience that still holds its own all these years later and one that deserves all the respect its garnered as a pioneer of movies and filmmaking techniques.

If you'd like to watch King Kong for yourself you can find it on a variety of streaming services. At the time of this recording you can find it on Max. Max is a streaming service with some amazing film and TV offerings from HBO. Max offers three pricing tiers including With-Ads for $9.99 per month, Ad-Free for $15.99 per month, and Ultimate Ad-Free for $19.99 per month.

You can also find it on services like YouTube, Vudu, Redbox, Google Play, and Apple TV for $2.99 to rent.

If you like this podcast tell your friends and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Each week there will be new content including hints about episodes before they air. If you'd like to learn more about the podcast, visit our website at glazedcinema.com. There you'll find more info about the show and a place to submit ideas for future episodes. For film fans who are hearing impaired, the blog page features each episode in written form as well. As always, thanks for listening and I hope to see you next time with another beverage and another fine film on Glazed Cinema.