Original King King Movie

On this day in 1933, King Kong, the original movie, opened in New York to rave reviews. The movie became an instant success, and the character places as one of the most famous movie icons of all time. The movie set a high bar for those of its day. It's had many sequels, spin-offs, parodies, books, comics, cartoons, video games, theme park rides, and even a stage plays.

The character of Kong (called King Kong in later versions) was the brainchild of filmmaker Merian C. Cooper. In the original movie, Kong lives on Skull Island in the Pacific with other over-sized animals. A film crew captures the gorilla and takes him to New York City to put him on exhibition. But Kong escapes and climbs the Empire State Building, where he falls to his death. "It was beauty that killed the beast," because he'd climbed the building in an attempt to protect Ann Darrow.

This original film is noted for the advanced film techniques for that day. It pioneered special effects using stop motion models and had a masterful musical score by Max Steiner . Even the story itself often had double meanings and could be seen on different levels. It remains one of the movie classics of all time.

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