Editorials
The Eighth Wonder: Why ‘Kong’ is Still King 90 Years Later
A strong argument could be made for King Kong being the most influential movie ever made. Kong’s progeny includes Mighty Joe Young, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Godzilla, Ray Harryhausen films, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Lord of the Rings, Avatar, many of the character-driven stop motion creations of the past ninety years, and dozens of authorized and unauthorized spin-offs, sequels, remakes, and rip-offs. The film inspired dozens, if not hundreds of directors, special effects artists, sound effects creators, composers, and film creators of all kinds, who have in turn inspired the next generation of filmmakers, and they the next. It is the first special-effects driven blockbuster of the sound era; a genre-crossing spectacular that introduced the world to some of cinema’s most iconic imagery and sound, the screen’s first true Scream Queen, and one of the all-time great gods and monsters of film history.
King Kong is many things: a monster movie, a romance, a prehistoric fantasy, a film about filmmaking, a social drama dealing with class divides during the Depression, but above all, it is an adventure story. Action and adventure was the lifeblood of Kong’s creator, Merian C. Cooper, and the character of Carl Denham is largely based upon him. While serving as a fighter pilot in World War I, Cooper met a kindred spirit in Ernest B. Schoedsack, who shot a great deal of documentary battle footage during the War. After returning home, the two joined forces shooting nature documentaries for RKO, which they called “natural dramas.” In shooting these films, both men would place themselves in great danger to get the most exciting shots. After creating two particularly renowned documentaries, Cooper began dreaming up an adventure film centered around a long-held obsession with gorillas. He envisioned a giant ape battling prehistoric lizards, eventually layering in aspects of swashbuckling romance and the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale.
Novelist Edgar Wallace was given first crack at writing the script, but it would go through two more drafts, one by James Ashmore Creelman and another by Ernest Schoedsack’s wife Ruth Rose before Cooper was satisfied. By this time, he had already cast the leads, Robert Armstrong as Carl Denham, Bruce Cabot as Jack Driscoll, and most important of all Fay Wray as Ann Darrow. As the script was being developed, Cooper pondered ways in which the special effects could be achieved. First he considered bringing actual gorillas to the island of Komodo to fight the giant Komodo Dragon lizards native to the island. Thankfully that idea was immediately ruled out by Schoedsack and the RKO brass including studio head David O. Selznick. He also considered men in ape and dinosaur costumes. Then Cooper visited the set of a picture in development at the studio titled Creation. It was there that Cooper met special effects wizard Willis H. O’Brien.
O’Brien had developed a style of animation using models, later dubbed stop-motion animation, in the 1910s and had sold several short films to Thomas Edison’s distribution company. He later created lifelike dinosaurs for the 1925 silent film adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, which was a sensation in its day. Soon after Cooper met O’Brien, production on Creation was scrapped and many elements of that film transferred over to Kong. Practically all of the dinosaurs that appear in the film were originally designed and fabricated for Creation as were many of the Skull Island settings. In fact, several elements of King Kong were built upon frameworks that appeared in previous films including the Cooper-Schoedsack documentaries Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life (1925) and Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness (1927) as well as their narrative adventure film The Most Dangerous Game (1932).
The exception is Kong himself and several special effects innovations created by Willis O’Brien and his small team that included sculptor Marcel Delgado, cinematographer Frank D. Williams, and artists Harry Redmond Sr. and Jr. The various techniques used in the film redefined special effects for decades with most of them still being used in some form all the way up to the digital revolution sixty years after the release of King Kong. Not only did the film blaze new trails in stop-motion animation but revolutionized the process by combining it with live action in the same shot. This was achieved through a variety of techniques including rear projection, optical printing, traveling mattes, and multi-pass techniques in which the same piece of film is passed through the camera multiple times to capture various aspects of the shot. O’Brien and team not only created the remarkable animated figures but the sets they inhabit. The jungle sets in particular are still beautiful to behold, created through a combination of miniatures, matte paintings on glass in the foregrounds, and on canvas in the backgrounds. The result is a lush, three-dimensional environment that feels remarkably real, even in such a stylized form. All these elements combine into one of the few films of the 1930s that can still elicit the response “how did they do that?” from its audience.
Giving these visuals another layer of reality is Kong’s truly innovative use of sound. Murray Spivack knew he could not simply use existing stock sounds for Kong and the various other inhabitants of Skull Island. Much like Ben Burtt would for Star Wars and Jurassic Park decades later, Spivack sought out environmental sounds, then combined and manipulated them into what became the voices of these creatures. For example, a slowed down tiger roar played backward combined with a lion’s roar slowed and played forward became the basis for Kong’s mighty roar. He then added his own voice filtered through a megaphone to add another layer to the great gorilla’s voice. Spivack also worked closely with the film’s composer, Max Steiner, as the two understood that the combination of sound effects and music would create a dimension of reality and emotional weight when combined effectively.
Where Spivack’s sound effects bring a great deal of verisimilitude to the film, Steiner’s musical score gives King Kong its soul. The score for Kong is in many ways the first modern film score, utilizing leitmotifs, variations on these themes to underscore the emotion, and precise synchronization to the image. Leitmotifs were originally developed by Richard Wagner for his epic operas; they are short themes assigned to various characters to offer recognition, announce traits, and evoke feelings toward them. It is a technique that has been used throughout film history perhaps to greatest effect by composers such as John Williams who wrote famous themes for the shark in Jaws, Darth Vader, Superman, E.T., and Indiana Jones, among others. Steiner created several for King Kong, but the most recognizable are for Kong and Ann. The variations on these themes then evoke the gradual change in their relationship and ultimately underscores the sadness of Kong’s downfall. The score was much more precise in its relationship to the image than previous film scores with some cues acting like sound effects such as the steps of the Chieftan’s feet on Skull Island and Kong smashing the sides of the elevated train in New York.
Another iconic sound, Fay Wray’s unforgettable scream, was heard for the first time in a horror thriller in 1932’s Dr. X, and for the first time in a Cooper-Schoedsack film in The Most Dangerous Game that same year. But in Kong, her status as Scream Queen was crystallized. A natural brunette, Wray felt that it would make sense to go blonde for the role, to stand out against her primate co-star, and chose her own wig for Ann. This in itself became iconic, and generations of blonde Scream Queens and final girls were born. During the time that Wray was making Kong, she made four other thrillers that further cemented her Scream Queen legacy. Besides the two already mentioned, she also appeared in The Mystery of the Wax Museum and The Vampire Bat in 1933. Such a schedule was possible because of the special effects on King Kong as breaks in the shooting of approximately five weeks at a time were taken in order to create the effects and make sure they were working, enough time for actors to take on other projects in the meantime.
Of all these five films, none became so iconic as Kong and Fay Wray spent her life enjoying, fighting against, and eventually embracing this fact. All told, she made about 100 films, with her famous scream used as a sound effect in dozens more, but all of them were overshadowed by King Kong for decades and likely for all time. During one of his many appearances as host of the Oscars in the 1990s, Billy Crystal spoke with Wray backstage and reportedly said, “I just love your movie,” to which she replied with the answer she gave to many who said something similar, “which one?” Of course, having spent many years in Kong’s shadow, she knew very well which one, and in her later years came to terms with that fact. Only recently have some of her other films been restored to their former glory and made more available to film fans. When she was first cast in the role of Ann Darrow, Merian C. Cooper told her that she was going to have “the tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood.” Having become quite fond of Cary Grant while doing a play with him in New York, Wray had her hopes set high. Cooper then showed her drawings of who would be one of the greatest movie stars of all time.
Kong himself truly is the film’s greatest milestone. He is the first central character of a film that is completely created through special effects, but also a fully realized character. When we first meet him forty-five minutes into this one hour-forty-five-minute movie, he is a god, a king, and a monster. Like Ann, we are afraid of him and what he might do. As the film goes on, we soon realize that there is more to this animal than meets the eye. He becomes Ann’s protector, fighting off a Tyrannosaurus Rex, a Elasmosaurus, and a Pterodactyl to save her; he expresses great curiosity about her and his environment; and ultimately we feel great empathy for him. These kinds of feelings had been evoked for monsters before—Lon Chaney’s Phantom of the Opera (1925) and Boris Karloff’s creature in Frankenstein (1931) certainly did, but these were great actors in makeup. Here, we feel for what is, in reality, an 18-inch model.
Of course, not every element of King Kong holds up today. Its racial attitudes are not exactly enlightened and Driscoll’s opinions about women are almost comical in their outlandishness. As the years have gone by, the seams in the effects show more than they once did, but the emotions remain. There is something about the animated performance that feels so real, even through the jerky motions inherent to stop motion of the era and the bristling of the rabbit fur covering Kong’s armature caused by Willis O’Brien’s manipulation of the model. Somehow, none of that matters while watching the film. What matters is what we feel as the airplanes (the pilot and gunner that deliver the fatal blow played by Cooper and Schoedsack themselves) bear down on Kong, the blood that flows from his wounds, the last longing look he gives to Ann before setting her gently on the ledge of the building as he succumbs to his wounds, and falls. We feel the pang of sadness and loss. Some of us may even weep at his downfall. Even after ninety years, reactions like these remain, and that is the magic and power of King Kong.
In Bride of Frankenstein, Dr. Pretorius, played by the inimitable Ernest Thesiger, raises his glass and proposes a toast to Colin Clive’s Henry Frankenstein—“to a new world of Gods and Monsters.” I invite you to join me in exploring this world, focusing on horror films from the dawn of the Universal Monster movies in 1931 to the collapse of the studio system and the rise of the new Hollywood rebels in the late 1960’s. With this period as our focus, and occasional ventures beyond, we will explore this magnificent world of classic horror. So, I raise my glass to you and invite you to join me in the toast.
The great Ernest Dickerson turns seventy-five years old this month, so we’re looking back at his most memorable contribution to the horror genre – 1995’s Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight!
The film hit screens while the Tales from the Crypt series was winding down its run on television, and it stands apart with a story that feels a step or two removed from the franchise norm. That was the smart play, though, as the show’s stories – and those from the original EC comics – work best in short bites. The result is a film that holds up beautifully as a gory good time.
Now keep reading to see what I heard on the commentary for…
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)
Commentator: Ernest Dickerson (director), Michael Felsher (moderator)
1. Dickerson was in post-production on Surviving the Game when he got a call from his agent saying that producer Gil Adler wanted to meet about a Tales from the Crypt feature film. It went well, so Dickerson met with Joel Silver next and secured the job.
2. The original screenplay for the film came to the producers as a spec script wholly detached from the Tales from the Crypt brand. They added the Crypt Keeper (voiced by John Kassir) bookends to make it fit.
3. Dickerson was more familiar with the original EC comic books having read them as a kid, but he had watched a few episodes of the HBO series, so he knew what the current vibe was for the project.
4. Adler directed the film’s wraparound segments, meaning Dickerson never actually got to work with the creepy puppet. “Gil and the Crypt Keeper had a great relationship,” he adds, “they worked together for years.”
5. While he was new to the Tales from the Crypt family, Dickerson had previously worked as a director of photography on the Tales from the Darkside anthology series. That show is underappreciated in my humble opinion, and I will go to bat for both it and the equally underloved Monsters.
6. A big appeal of the horror genre for Dickerson is the idea of dark mysteries that challenge our imagination. For this film, that came down to the mythology being created between the characters.
7. Five executive producers are listed in the opening credits, but Dickerson says the only two he had dealings with were Silver and Richard Donner. The other three were Walter Hill, Robert Zemeckis, and David Giler.
8. Dickerson had only ever seen Billy Zane in movies with a full head of hair, so he was surprised when Zane showed up on the first day with a bald head. “He had this case, and he opened up the case that he had all these hair pieces in, and he says, ‘So which one of these do you think I should use?’” Dickerson looked at him and suggested he just go bald for the character.
9. While the bulk of the opening exteriors were filmed in a desert just outside Los Angeles, the shot of the old church at 11:26 was created on a warehouse hangar soundstage where the film’s interiors were shot.
10. When he had read the script, Dickerson pictured the character of Jeryline (Jada Pinkett Smith) “as a little, tough lady.” He had recently seen Smith in Menace II Society, and while the producers had someone else in mind for the role, he fought to get her instead.
11. Just as Zane surprised Dickerson with his hair (or lack thereof), Smith arrived on the first day with her hair dyed platinum white. He “liked the idea” but asked her to please get it tweaked so it looked more yellowish blond. “It’s definitely a statement.”
12. He had seen Brenda Bakke in the 1989 sci-fi/action film from Japan, Gunhed, and thought she’d be great here as Cordelia. The rest of us might recognize her from Death Spa or Trucks.
13. Felsher comments that the film’s setup does a good job not telegraphing who’s going to live or die, and he uses the “nice guy” (Charles Fleischer) and “the kid” (Ryan O’Donohue) as examples. “You don’t play by those rules here,” he says, and Dickerson replies that he wanted to subvert those rules. That extends to Smith as well because she’s Black, “and usually in movies like this they’re the first folks to die.”
14. Dickerson says they had forty days of filming, “which, the way I’m used to working, was a very generous schedule.” It was budgeted at around $10 million.
15. This probably won’t surprise you, but Zane improvised the bit at 26:25 after he jumps out the window and says, “Fuck this cowboy shit! You fuckin’, hodunk Podunk, well, then, motherfuckers!”
16. In the original script, the demons that The Collector (Zane) raises from the dirt actually looked more like the people they used to be. “They were more human,” but the very smart decision was made in pre-production to make them look far more unique instead.
17. The demons are killed by shooting their eyes, but Dickerson felt there should be one more element to it. “Shoot out their eyes, you gotta duck because the souls come shooting out, and if it hits ya, boom, it can kill ya.” This is a fun touch.
18. He’s been asked more than once if these demons are where Peter Jackson got the idea for how the orcs would look in his Lord of the Rings movies. “They do look like orcs.”
19. He recalls having seen Ronny Yu’s The Bride with White Hair shortly before going to work on Demon Knight, and he hoped to bring some of that staged style into his own film. An example of that in practice is Brayker’s (William Sadler) brief flashbacks to Christ on the cross.
20. Character deaths were mostly based on the idea that “each person’s downfall was going to be predicated by their weakness.” The Collector discovers someone’s weakness and then uses it against them. Cordelia wants to be loved, Jeryline wants to travel, Uncle Willy (Dick Miller) is a horndog for both liquor and ladies, Danny loves horror comics, etc.
21. Dickerson says that plenty of genre classics were in the back of his head while making the film, including Assault on Precinct 13, Alien, Aliens, and more.
22. Cordelia is possessed into a demonic form, and Dickerson’s idea for how she’d look was originally a bit different. “Since Cordelia was a prostitute, I thought that her mouth should actually be a vertical slit that was in her stomach… which would open up with teeth and a tongue.” It was nixed, he says, when “the wife of one of the producers read that and said ‘no way you’re putting that in the movie.’”
23. The key makes an appearance in the followup, Tales from the Crypt: Bordello of Blood, but it wasn’t originally meant to. Apparently, early test audiences expected it to be a more connected sequel to Demon Knight, so the filmmakers added it in to appease them. This is where I go on record saying that Bordello of Blood is a fun time. Can’t touch Demon Knight, obviously, but it’s more entertaining than its reputation suggests.
24. They had to film Uncle Willy’s bar scene “dream” twice, once with the women topless and once with them in bikinis, to have versions for both theaters and television broadcast. “Dick’s a pro.” (To be fair, Dickerson says this in regard to Miller having to endure the makeup application, but the sentiment fits both situations, so…)
25. Dickerson says he’s “always amazed at the love that people show this film,” and adds that fans bring it up to him incredibly often. This is great to hear, as we should always be telling artists how much their work means to us while they’re still alive and able to hear it.
26. Zane also suggested the gag at 1:08:21 with the sponge coming out of his mouth. The beat reminds Dickerson to praise the actor even more, adding that he was an “ally” to the director when “bad ideas” came down from the studio suits.
27. He didn’t get any pushback on killing little Danny. He did insist on one added element, though, as he wanted to immediately follow the boy exploding in the air with a shot of his bloody and torn sneaker hitting the ground below. “And the sneaker had to be a hightop.”
28. Dickerson says there’s “something kinky sexy about” Smith being covered in blood, and then the two commentators go quiet for almost two minutes out of respect for the scene. It’s a good opportunity to reflect on how Dickerson had previously mentioned Alien and Aliens as films being in the back of his head during filming, and how two scenes here reflect that – Jeryline stripping down to her underwear for the final confrontation feels like a nod to Ridley Scott’s film, while an earlier scene with Irene (CCH Pounder) and Dep. Bob (Gary Farmer) realizing they’re surrounded and choosing to blow themselves up alongside some of the demons is something of a callback to the air vent sacrifice in James Cameron’s film.
29. Asked about the film’s critical reception at the time of release, Dickerson says it received good reviews from horror-loving critics and then talks about the importance of horror in general. “Horror has always been a great way of putting out ideas, of talking about some of the things that affect us as people. Some of the best horror, like the best science fiction, talks about what it’s like to be human. Some of the best horror gets very political.”
30. The original ending would have featured The Collector showing “his true self, which is a demon made of fire.” They spent a lot of time trying to make it work, but it was “extremely difficult… back in the day of analog effects.” It was rewritten into the faceoff between him and Jeryline featuring the dancing, the crotch fire, Zane’s attempts at saying “love,” and his eventual demise from her bloody spit.
31. They both agree that a direct sequel to Demon Knight could be a lot of fun, but Dickerson says he’s unaware of any talk on the possibility.
32. Dickerson was super excited about this new Scream Factory Blu-ray in 2015, and he mentions that before its release, he had imported a Blu-ray from Germany presumably to enjoy the film in HD. He’s just like us! (Or am I the only one here who’s imported a German Blu-ray of the much maligned werewolf flick Big Bad Wolf…)
Quotes Without Context
“I was so happy to get Dick Miller for this movie.”
“There was a time when guys used to put ketchup on everything.”
“I’m a big student of Hitchcock, and the best way to make a moment of horror work is to lull the audience into a false sense of security.”
“A villain should always be the most interesting person in a movie.”
“They were a really great bunch of performers who were performing on these little leg-extension stilts wearing a diaper that had a radio-controlled tail that was being manipulated by a special effects tech right out of the frame.”
“It’s hard to direct air; it doesn’t do what you want.”
“The only censorship problem came from the producer’s wife, who didn’t want the vagina dentalis [sic] in the movie.”
“One of the executives wanted to know why the devil didn’t try to have sex with Jada.”
“It always starts with the script.”
Keep up with more horror commentary breakdowns here.
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