Giant Gorillathon

As far as new genre titles on DVD are concerned, October has been a pretty lively month (the Val Lewton set, The Dark, Demon Seed, a few great gialli from Blue Underground) But when it comes to preordering those November DVD releases, one name stands out: Kong.

Bootlegs of Merian C. Cooper's 1933 classic have been readily available, but the quality always blew and the price was too high. Finally the film which shaped my early years more than any other is getting the official treatment from Warners ($27). Watching it again, I continue to be astonished by the realism of Willis O'Brien's stop-motion work. Even through modern eyes, O'Brien's Kong is alive, he's real, and his emotions are more believable than those of most of the actors. He's a hell of a lot more realistic than either Rick Baker in a monkey suit or the computer generated beastie in the upcoming Peter Jackson remake.

Sure the dialogue is corny, it takes awhile to get going and there are some big holes in the plot-but so? Kong's first appearance onscreen as he tears through the forest and sees Fay Wray tied to the altar still takes my breath away.

The new two-disc set is packed with mostly new material, including several docs and a commentary track by stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen. Sadly, the famous giant spider scene, which had been cut after it petrified early audiences, has been lost forever. But there is a short documentary in which the history of the scene is discussed. It's not quite the same, but it's all we can hope for.

But the original King Kong isn't the only Kong on the block trying to cash in on Peter Jackson's publicity machine. Son of Kong (an inferior sequel featuring an albino gorilla who tries too hard) and the soft-hearted Mighty Joe Young (also created by O'Brien) are available in a reasonably inexpensive ($40) box set together with the two-disc original.

But that's hardly all as far as big apes are concerned. Universal will be releasing a two-disc set of Toho's King Kong vs. Godzilla and King Kong Escapes ($20). The former was based on an O'Brien script called King Kong vs. Frankenstein, and the latter, with its giant robots and evil scientists, on a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. (Actually, the story of how King Kong ended up in Japan in the first place is a fascinating one-albeit a bit complex to get into here.)

Toho's Kong always looked like a shabby, mange-addled orangutan to me, but he was better than Konga. Just a few days after those giant gorilla pictures are released on DVD, along limps Konga (MGM, $15), the 1961 AIP groaner starring Michael Gough. The British just never knew what to do with giant monsters. They're like the French with zombies. Still, I always had a soft spot for Konga. For all of them, actually. Give me a giant gorilla in most any form, and by golly, I'm happy.

I suppose I should find myself a hobby one of these days.