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Son of Kong (1933)

 
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The Spike
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 10:09 pm    Post subject: Son of Kong (1933) Reply with quote



Albino Baby Kong.

The Son of Kong is directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack and written by Ruth Rose. It stars Robert Armstrong, Helen Mack, Frank Reicher, John Marston, Victor Wong and Edward Brady. Music is by Max Steiner and cinematography by Edward Linden.

The makers wisely realised that to try and emulate King Kong would be folly, especially as this sequel was hurried out within the same year. Instead a more fun approach was taken, and as a result it's not half bad entertainment as it happens.

After the devastation caused to New York by King Kong, lawsuits are abound for Carl Denham (Armstrong). So when he gets the chance to go out on the ocean again with Captain Englehorn (Reicher), he grabs the chance. There's no plans to go near Skull Island again, but a sequence of events will see them pitch up there, to be met by a myriad of creatures and The Son of Kong.

Little Kong is actually friendly, well to the humans he is because he is grateful to their help when he was stuck in quicksand. However, to other beasts of the island he is not so forgiving. For the first 33 minutes it's all about setting up the action carnage later in the play, characters are introduced, their reasons for being out at sea and etc. Then we get to the island and off we go. Kong scraps with dinosaurs, a bear, lizards and mother nature! The castaways are in the mix as well of course, and naturally they are thrust into a perilous life and death situation.

And that's it, barely 70 minutes have passed by and it's nigh on impossible not to be smiling come the close. 7/10

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Robert (Butch) Day
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 24, 2014 1:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hurried? The Flash must have been in charge!

King Kong started production on January 1, 1932 and was released on March 2, 1933. That's about 1 1/4 years.

Work on Son of Kong started about one month after the release of King Kong and was released on December 22, 1933!

That's 9 months — appropriate time for any anthropoid baby!

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

My friends and I actually rented a 16mm print of Son of Kong when we were teenagers and watched the animation scenes several times over the course of a weekend.

Aw, those were the days . . . Very Happy

And these are the days when we can go to YouTube and watch these things without leaving the sofa. Here's the segment in which the cave bear fights Kiko (the name Forrest J. Ackerman gave Kong's son).


_____________________ Kiko vs. Cave Bear


__________

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 22, 2015 7:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________

From director Ernest B. Schoedsack comes this sequel to a classic.

Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) flees New York to escape the mob of creditors which hound him in the wake of King Kong's destructive rampage. Captain Englehorn (Frank Reicher) and Charlie the Cook (Victor Wong) accompany him on his return to Skull Island in search of a legendary treasure. They are joined by a pretty young singer (Helen Mack, the heroine 1935's She), with whom Armstrong falls in love.

The crew of Reicher's ship mutinies and sets the four adventurers (and one shifty villain) adrift in a lifeboat near Skull Island.

There they meet Kong's half-sized offspring, who shows his gratitude for being helped out of quicksand by saving the adventurers from a giant bear and a dragon-like dinosaur. Little Kong topples a rock wall and reveals the treasure they came in search of.

But a sudden earth-quake-and-typhoon (a rare combination) sinks the island and drowns the self-sacrificing ape while he holds Armstrong above the waters until the other people reach him in the boat.

Sad to say, Son of Kong is a study in how not to structure the sequel to a classic. The likable characters of King Kong are replaced by featureless imitations of themselves in Son of Kong. The gut-wrenching, action-packed suspense of the original is replaced by forty-five minutes of dull filler and the 20 minutes of animated shenanigans on a table-top version of Skull Island.

The regal super-ape from the dawn of history that starred in the classic King Kong is replaced by an ape-version of Lou Costello, complete with rolling eyes and shrugging shoulders. Young children find plenty to enjoy in Son of Kong — until the island sinks and drowns the big, lovable Teddy Bear before their bewildered eyes! Sad

Gee, thanks RKO . . .

Willis O'Brien was just as disappointed with Son of Kong as the movie-going public. The sequel was a blatant quickie, released the same year as the original, produced at a fraction of King Kong's cost.

RKO failed to give O'Brien a well-deserved salary increase, and during the making of the film the producers frequently interfered with his special effects problem-solving efforts instead of trusting his skill, as they had done during King Kong.

As a result, O'Brien became bitter, neglecting to appear on the set for days at a stretch, allowing his assistant Buzz Gibson to do most of the film's animation.

If Son of Kong had received the attention it deserved from its producers, this self-destructive sequel would have received the attention the producers expected from the public. As a result of the film's poor box office performance, O'Brien wasted years trying to convince film makers with no imagination that King Kong wasn't just a one-trick pony and that other animation films would interest the public.

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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Fri Feb 16, 2024 2:20 pm; edited 11 times in total
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Pow
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 6:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Always loved this KK sequel. They used to play this, KK, & Mighty Joe Young all in a row on Thanksgiving for years in my city in upstate NY. Always watched every single one until dinner was served.

A perfect day.
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Rocky Jones
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PostPosted: Thu May 14, 2015 2:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Poor Willis O'Brien has to be the most abused special effect genius ever. The guy really got shafted more than twice (or even thrice), all right. Just imagine if he'd been given at least the elbow room that Harryhausen had. I guess Hollywood history is full of stories like that, though.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Fri May 15, 2015 1:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Trivia: They often hide the real name of a movie today under a false one in order for secrecy during production.

This isn't exactly a new concept, although it is utilized far more often these days than in the past.

Case in point is Son Of Kong went by the name Jamboree while it was being filmed in order to keep it hush-hush.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 05, 2017 6:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

This disappointing sequel to a great movie only has 12 trivia items, but I found 4 that are interesting.
________________________________

The Little Kong puppet is actually the "long face" Kong model used for the T-Rex battle in King Kong (1933). For this film the armature (metal skeleton) was stripped of its rubber and fur and remodeled to look like a younger albino gorilla.

Not from me: So, Junior literally inherited his father's skeletal structure! I guess he got his pleasant temperament from his mother. Very Happy

Because they knew little about the stop-action process employed by Willis O'Brien on "King Kong," producers Cooper and Schoedsack more or less left the animator alone. However on "Son of Kong" they became involved, a situation that angered O'Brien. Rather than argue, O'Brien would seldom show up for work at the studio, and Buzz Gibson had to finish the animation without him. He asked Cooper to remove his name from the credits, but the producer refused.

Not from me: This was a sad situation for a great man who should have been treated with the respect and the consideration he richly deserved. Sad

Merian C. Cooper's enthusiasm for this movie was curtailed when he was told he had less than half the budget of King Kong (1933) to work with, and he had to have it in theaters within six months, for Christmas 1933 release.

Not from me: Ah-ha. So the other studio heads acting like witless baboons too, drawing their figurative pistols, taking careful aim at their own Italian loafers, and shooting themselves skillfully in the foot . . .

During the production of this film, the wife of Kong animator Willis O'Brien shot dead their two sons and then tried to take her own life. She survived her attempted suicide, but this incident all but destroyed O'Brien.

After this, he steadfastly refused to discuss this film. O'Briens protege Ray Harryhausen had many questions about the making of this film, but they remained unanswered, as the memories were far too painful to relive. Willis O'Brien passed away in 1962.


Not from me: I was tempted not to include the sad item above, but O'Brien's tragic life should be known to his fans, so . . . there it is. Sad

Nils Helstrom (John Marston) was the Norwegian captain who gave Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong (I)') the map to Skull Island prior to the events of King Kong (1933).

Not from me: Hey, there's a happy little trivia item. The scene in King Kong where the map is revealed is a wonderful moment in the story. I made these screen grabs for an earlier post on this subject.






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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 9:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

In my post above I said the best part of this movie was Kiko's fight with the cave bear. Actually the fight with the "cave dinosaur" is good, too, although somewhat shorter.
________________________________



__________________ Kiko vs. Cave Dinosaur


__________


And while looking for the clip above, I stumbled across this amazing 12 minute stop motion feature under the name 64,000,000 Years Ago (1981), with astounding animation by Billy Maylone (whom I'd never even heard of until now).

It's an educational film sponsored by the National Film Board of Canada. Everything about this video is outstanding!


___________________ 64,000,000 Years Ago


__________

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Pow
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 05, 2018 11:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Willis O'Brien was a great unsung hero for stop-motion special effects.

He is getting his due nowadays from FB websites,books on the history of movie special/visual effects & so forth. Long deserved by this giant in movie magic & mentor of the terrific Ray Harryhausen.

Did you know that one of his final project was on the epic comedy classic movie ''It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?''

His stop-motion was utilized in some of the scenes in the hilarious finale of the film when the lead cast are all clinging for dear life to the gyrating fire engine ladder.


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Pow
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 31, 2020 11:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"Son of Kong" on Youtube has a 15-minutes of colorized scenes with him.

I thought that they did a swell job with the colorization.

Makes me now want to see the entire movie in color.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 01, 2020 11:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Yep, this is gorgeous! Very Happy

Unfortunately I find the rest of the movie to be deadly dull, so these scenes are about the only parts worth watching. Sad

But these colorized versions add a lot to the beauty of the movie.


__ THE SON OF KONG (1933) Visual Effects - Colorized


___________

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2021 6:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Let's Create a Sequel!
________________________________

~ A Question for the Members: If RKO had been smart enough to appreciate both the talent of Willis O'Brien and the earning potential of a worthy sequel to King Kong, what might they have done with the "Son of Kong" concept?

~ Here's what I came up with.: What if Carl Denham realized that he was sitting on a gold mine?

The movie presents Carl Denham as being broke and hiding from his creditors in New York, because he's being sued for the damages caused by Kong.

Well, that perfectly understandable — but it sure ain't an exciting idea. Rolling Eyes

However, Denham doesn't seem to realize that he possesses priceless information that can make him fabulously wealthy!

He and Captain Englehorn know the location of an uncharted island which contains a plethora of prehistoric animals which the global scientific community would pay a fortune to study! Shocked








Denham originally went to Skull Island to make a spectacular motion picture which featured wildlife, like the ones he was famous for. What he found on the island would indeed be the subject of a colossal movie he could exhibit all over the world and become fabulously wealthy.

So, let's disregard the foolish manner in which RKO overlooked this concept, and come up with a story that takes full advantage of it. Very Happy

Denham goes to his creditors and tells them what he plans to do. He convinces them that he'll be able to settle all the law suits if they'll back his second exhibition to Skull Island, in return for a percentage of the profits he'll make from several highly successful motion pictures he'll release when he returns.

The bankers and creditors are sold on the idea, having heard the descriptions of the amazing adventure on Skull Island. They back Denham to the hilt.

And so, off we go again to the fabulous island of prehistoric creatures!






Dozens of paleontologist and big game hunters have paid large sums to join the expedition, along with multiple film crews who plan to get several hundred hours of amazing footage of Skull Island's unique ecosystem.

Imagine Denham's delight when he encounters Kiko (the name Forrest J. Ackerman christened him with in Famous Monsters of Filmland).






Denham realizes that he's found a much more manageable not-quite-so-giant ape he can take back and exhibit in a manner more like what we see in Might Joe Young, rather than the disastrous way King Kong was displayed.

The expedition is a rousing success, and Denham not only brings back Kiko, the scientists acquire several medium-sized dinosaurs and two larger ones — such as the dragon-like quadruped which Kiko fights in the movie. They also capture several adolescent pterodactyls.






Over a period of weeks the bright and friendly Kiko is trained to obey commands and do entertaining tricks. Meanwhile, the scientists and the financial backers make plans to put all the captured dinosaurs on display in a grand fashion.

Denham claims sole rights to Kiko, so he makes a lucrative deal with the promoters to include the Son of Kong in their upcoming extravaganza.
_____________________________________________

From IMDB:

Merian C. Cooper had originally planned for Kong to be exhibited in Yankee Stadium, but later decided on a mid-town theater. Special Effects Chief Willis H. O'Brien drew a sketch of Kong breaking loose in the Stadium.






This is idea is used in my fantasy version of Son of Kong, with Kiko performing several nights a week for a packed stadium, raking in the dough faster than you can say, "The 9th Wonder of the World!" Very Happy

The dinosaurs are also displayed on the field in large cages, and prior to each of Kiko's performances the crowds are allowed to roam around like visitors at a zoo, viewing the various prehistoric beasts and watching their keepers feed them.

The two large dinosaurs are in separate cages which have been deliberately placed fairly close together so they'll roar and rage at each other, entertaining the crowd.

But during one of the periods when the crowds are circulating around the ball field, one of the "cave dragons" breaks out of its cage and attacks the cage holding the other one, trying to get at the animal inside. They throw themselves at each other with such force that the second cage also breaks open, and they begin to battle each other . . . while the screaming crowd flees the area in a blind panic!

As the titans engage in mortal combat, they damage several cages in which the smaller dinosaurs are enclosed, including the half-grown pterodactyls. These highly agitated pterosaurs struggle frantically to squeeze through an opening in the damaged cage.

Several small herbivorous dinosaurs in a pen-like structure get free when the fence around their area is damaged by the battling behemoths! Some of these pony-sized dinosaurs have furry outer coats, instead of dry reptilian skins — making them perfect for a dino-petting zoo! Very Happy






But when their pen is breached, they escape and begin galloping around the field, terrifying the people.Denham races to Kiko's area of confinement just outside the stadium and enlists the large ape's help, leading him quickly back inside.

The two large dinosaurs are still fiercely fighting each other.

Weaving their way through the frantic scene, Kiko quickly follows the man to the pterosaurs' damaged cage. Denham directs Kiko to pound the section of the steel structure until it's closed again, preventing the flying creatures from escaping.

Amidst the chaos of the battle and the panicked people, Denham and Kiko manage to herd the frightened herbivores back into their pen (with a funny shot of Kiko actually tucking one under each arm and carrying them). Then Kiko restores the barrier before any of the creatures trample the terrified spectators.

Meanwhile, one of the dragon-like dinosaurs finally defeats his foe and then turns its attention to all the tasty-looking people it's been wanting to gobble up for weeks! Shocked

Just as a fleeing man is about to be eaten, Kiko comes valiantly to the rescue, and we get a battle royal which ranges across the stadium grounds while many people who remain up in the bleachers watch the mayhem below with mesmerized expressions.

Kiko finally slays the dragon and saves the day! Cool

As he stands over the dinosaur's lifeless body, thousands of people in the stadium erupt into applause and cheers! Kiko smiles the way he did in the movie —






— and then he imitates Denham's gesture as the man stands next to him while gripping his hands together and shaking them over his head — the traditional "champion's celebration"! Cool

Fortunately, this time Denham's responsibility pertains solely to Kiko, and since the ape was the hero, the famous filmmaker is not besieged with lawsuits as he was after King Kong. Very Happy

And that, gentlemen, is MY idea of how to make a sequel!

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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 11, 2021 9:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bravo Bud!

Your version avoids the downer ending of the original sequel while channeling MIGHTY JOE YOUNG and JURRASIC PARK with a positive twist!

I'd go see it!

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 12, 2021 9:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Thanks, Gord. I'll go with you! Save our seats while I go to the snack bar. Want butter on your popcorn? Very Happy



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