To be clear, this is the original King Kong movie, not the 1976 remake, or the more recent remake by Peter Jackson. Both remakes are enjoyable in their own right although I strongly prefer Jackson’s. This is the original, a movie that is still watched more than 80 years after its original release. There are good reasons for that.
King Kong
King Kong Escapes is, in fact, one of the cheesiest monster movies of all time — with special effects by Rankin-Bass. No, seriously. It’s enjoyable, cheesy fluff that doesn’t take itself very seriously, which is a good thing. The plot is convoluted, but here goes:
King Kong Escapes
No one will mistake King Kong vs Godzilla for high art …. And that’s fine; it doesn’t pretend to be anything other than enjoyable silliness. It’s two men in rubber suits, fighting in choreographed style — shades of professional wrestling. The movie has a comically foolish executive decide to use King Kong for advertising. And he decides to bring the real deal to Tokyo. At roughly the same time, Godzilla is released from an icy tomb. He heads back to Tokyo for the inevitable slugfest.
King Kong vs Godzilla
There are certain movie cliches, and the 1950’s is possibly best known for the science fiction “giant monster” movie (ie. Kaiju). It often served as a morality story, about the dangers of atomic energy, unexpected consequences, and fear of the future, using ordinary animals that have been mutated to giant size to tell the story. It’s been told many times since, but never better than in the first movie of its’ type, Them!
Them!
When a giant, prehistoric praying mantis is released from its’ icy grave, it revives. Then, it looks for food. But the only food in the Arctic are the various military people and researchers posted there. It leaves no living survivors to tell the tail. When a paleontologist looks at the evidence, he realizes what’s going on … And has trouble convincing anyone else, until the Deadly Mantis goes where there’s more food–New York.
The Deadly Mantis [William Hopper]
When a scientist crew returns from Mars with some space spores that contaminated their ship, they inadvertently bring about a nightmarish Earth invasion. After the spores are analyzed in a lab, one escapes, eventually growing into an enormous, rampaging beaked beast. An intergalactic monster movie from long time Shochiku stable director Kazui Nihonmatsu, The X from Outer Space was the first in the studio’s short but memorable cycle of horror pictures.
The Manster is a low-budget horror movie, based in Japan. The stereotypical amoral mad scientist, Dr. Robert Suzuki (Tetsu Nakamura) starts off the movie by destroying a hideously mutated creature, that used to be human. In fact, its his own brother, setting the doctor’s character for the audience. Putting scientific advancement above human relationships, a point that gets reinforced later in the film.
The Manster
Ignore the pseudo-scientific explanation of how there could be a vast, underground civilization at the beginning of “The Mole People“–since it really doesn’t have much to do with the movie, and simply serves as padding.
The Mole People
