3/5 Another Kick at the Kong!
  by Robert Badgley (London,Ontario,Canada)
In this yet another of my retro-reviews,I turn my attention to the immediate sequel to the 1933 smash hit King Kong,the Son Of Kong.
King Kong was released in April of 1933 while this one was rushed for release to capitilize on the first just a scant eight months later...and it shows.
Robert Armstrong as Carl Denham,Frank Reicher as the ship Captain Englehorn and Victor Wong as the cook,return to reprise their former roles.The story here involves Denham just three months after the disastrous end of King Kong in New York,hiding away in a small apartment house.He's flat broke and everyone and their mothers uncle is after him with damage suits and process servers hound him night and day.Englehorn sends Wong to find and locate Denham who surprises him with an offer to go in as partners and to get out of New York as soon as possible.Denham gratefully agress and off they sail for the south western Pacific.
While in a far away port they run across a small time performing group consisting of an ex circus performer(with trained animals) and his singing daughter.That night his daughter is forced to rescue her father from a fire which destroys all their belongings but proves fatal to him.It was started as a result of an argument that broke out between her father and a down and out Capt.Helstrom.The daughter Helene(Helen Mack)accuses Helstrom of his death and vows revenge when a magistrate is set to come by in a few days.Before that can happen however Helstrom bumps into Denham and we learn it was Helstrom who gave Denham the original map to Skull Island in the first place.In order to get away Helstrom then makes up a story about a treasure still on the island and before you know it it's "skull island here we come",again.Helene stows away on the ship but is eventually discovered and is forced to follow the fleet,as it were.They arrive at the island to a hostile reception from the native chief and are forced to flee and land elsewhere in a remoter section.Climbing their way Denham and Helene eventually come upon the 12 foot lighter-furred son of King Kong,seemingly in a bit of a spot in a pool of quick sand.With Denhams' help he gets free.When a giant bear(!)attacks,little Kong uses the tree Denham gave to free him of the quicksand, to fend off the raging rug.In the process little K gets a cut which Denham bandages up.It seems they have made a friend and the "little" guy sticks around from then on.In the meantime Denham discovers there is actually a real treasure on the island in a hidden cave.Inside Denham is able to purloin a bejewelled necklace off an ancient idol just as a giant lizard enters the cave.The inevitable fight breaks out between the lizard and little K with the lovable furball winning with a TKO.At this time the island starts to shake and all but Denham head back to the boat.By the time they reach it the island is coming apart and literally sinking into the sea.Denham and little K climb out of the cave and onto its roof as it is all that is left of the island.Little K gets his foot caught in the rocks and cannot get free as the water laps around him.With just his hand sticking out of the water with Denham in it,little K holds him up until the boat arrives,then lets go.The party drifts in the ocean for days until they are rescued and Denham and Helene settle down for a happily ever after.
Up to the point of the discovery of the treasure,the movie had been reasonably well paced but suddenly it is as if someone at RKO said"Hey,we're running out film let's get this thing finished",and within about five minutes they go from:the cave,the island tearing apart and the related storm,little K's death,their drifting,their rescue,a return to New York and the end of the picture....phew!!The effect,in point of fact, severely erodes that which came before and you get the feeling you were robbed.You had expected the picture to continue on for much longer but when the "whirlwind" starts you are left shaking your head and wondering "why?".
The saving grace of this picture however is of course Willis O'Briens' groundbreaking stop-action animation.It is here in all its' glory(as in King Kong) and it really holds up well.Along with little K with whom he imbues with plenty of emotion and even a child like whimsy,there are other beasts like the aforementioned giant bear and lizard,such as an underwater monster and a triceratops.And don't forget to watch little K's fur and see the constant matting of his hair,which was O'Briens' finger marks as he moved him into his various positions!
As a piece of trivia this film has a Harold Lloyd connection.Amongst the ships crew is the actor who portrayed Lloyd's nemesis from the travelling medicine show in The Kid Brother(they have a showdown on board an old boat).Also Helen Mack would go on to star as Lloyd's sister in The Milky Way,about three years later.
Technically this print does have quite a few grainy areas in it but all in all(especially considering its' age)it is not a bad transfer and is generally quite clear.
All in all Son of Kong is a disappointment.So much more could have been done with this film to make it a more credible successor and up to about five minutes before its' end it looked like it would be,but its' whirlwind ending leaves one with a palpable sour taste.However O'Briens'wonderful stop motion animatronics are the highlights of this film,as they were in the original,and they are always worth viewing in spite of RKOs less than stellar story and editing decisions.

5/5 Not as good as the first but funny
  by Michael Patrick Boyd (Waukesha, WI)
Son of Kong is one hour and nine minutes long and was released on December 22, 1933. This sequel to King Kong is about a month after the big ape death. Carl Denham is hounded by law suits and is facing indictments charges. Carl Denham and his friend Captain Englehorn sail of to the East Indies for some work. They run into Carl's old Nils Helstrom who tells them the treasure of Skull Island. They set sail to the island. On the way there Charlie the cook finds stowaway Hilda. They get to Skull Island and the crew decides to mutiny the ship. The four are cast adrift. With the help of Baby Kong, they find the treasure. As they head back to the boat a monsoon hits the island and begins sinking. Carl and Baby Kong climb to a mountain top. In the end Baby Kong saves Carl at the cost of his own life. Charlie, Hilda, Captain Englehorn, and Carl Denham are rescued. The Son of Kong went in the direction of a comedy approach and the special effects are tune down. Though in one scene, Carl Denham is applying first aid to Little Kong finger. This is out of remorse for the death of King Kong. This is a good movie to watch and own.

4/5 BELIEVE IT OR NOT THERE'S A LITTLE KONG.....HOW LITTLE?
  by ! MR. KNOW IT ALL ;-b (TRI STATE AREA)
This sequel was very rushed and it unfortunately shows! It's really a shame as there are some very good parts in this fun and heartbreaking sequel. King Kong is one of the greatest movies ever made and the sequel deserved to be better!

I like that we find Carl Denham down and out with Lawyers and Bill Collectors out to get him! The buried treasure/murder sub plot isn't bad either(hey it gets them back to Skull Island). The stop motion is top notch again and little Kong is just a little too cute for my taste, but I can live with that!

There are also some great fight sequences and the ending so sad, it always left me teary eyed as a little kid! I'd love to see Jackson turn this film into a winner! LOL! Great Transfer for this film, but buy the King Kong box set for a excellent deal on 3 great stop motion ape films.

3/5 Laughs! Thrills! Pathos!
  by Matthew C. Lupoli (North Haven, CT United States)
PLOT: The film begins a month after the events of King Kong. Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) is hiding out in his New York City apartment. He is being sued for all of the death, damage, and mayhem that resulted from Kong's rampage. Denham feels guilty about what happened to Kong and wishes that he left him back on Skull Island. Denham is later visited by Charlie (Victor Wong), the cook from the SS Venture, who says that Captain Englehorn (Frank Reicher) wants to see him. Once on the Venture, Englehorn announces to Denham that he too is being sued for the same reasons. The two decide to hire a skeleton crew and journey to the East Indies, where they can make a living carrying freight. Several months later, the Venture arrives at the port of Dakang in the Dutch East Indies. While waiting for some business, Denham and Englehorn attend a circus act run by Peterson (Clarence Wilson). Peterson presents a pathetic act in which monkeys dress up in costume and play musical instruments. The following act is Peterson's daughter Helene (Helen Mack), who sings and plays the guitar. Although she doesn't have much of a voice, Denham thinks she has show business potential. That night, Peterson has some drinks with a man named Helstrom (John Marston). The two eventually get into an argument and Helstrom hits Peterson over the head with a bottle. Peterson falls onto an oil lamp which causes the circus tent to catch on fire. Helstrom runs for his life. Helene comes back and is able to save the monkeys and her unconscious father before the tent really starts blazing. Unfortunately, Peterson dies in Helene's arms. She is certain that Helstrom had something to do with this. Helstrom later runs into Denham and Englehorn. It turns out that Helstrom is the Norwegian captain who sold Denham the map of Skull Island. Afraid of being arrested for Peterson's death, Helstrom makes up a story about a treasure that exists on Skull Island. Denham becomes excited and decides to make Helstrom his partner in finding the treasure. Before they leave, Denham gives Helene some money for her troubles and wishes her farewell. Helene asks if she could go along, but Denham says that their voyage is no place for a woman. Later on, Charlie discovers that Helene stowed away below deck on the Venture. In an attempt to keep Helene quiet, Helstrom informs the crew of Denham's last voyage to Skull Island in which most of the crew was killed. The crew then starts a mutiny and orders Denham, Englehorn, Charlie, and Helene off of the ship into a rowboat. Helstrom then proclaims himself captain of the Venture, but the crew laughs at him and dunks him overboard. He is rescued by the other four people in the rowboat. The castaways eventually reach the peninsula of Skull Island, but are forced off by the natives who are still upset about all of the damage that was caused by Kong. The group later find another entrance on another part of the island. Denham and Helene get out to explore and find a set of steps carved into a cliffside. At the top, Denham and Helene discover a twelve-foot-tall albino gorilla stuck in a quicksand pit. Denham immediately assumes that the gorilla must be the son of Kong. Feeling bad for what he did to Kong, he feels he owes it to the baby Kong to help him out of the quicksand. Denham knocks over a tree and the little Kong is able to pull himself out. Could this baby be just as ferocious and powerful as his father?

COMMENTS: After the immense success of King Kong, RKO Pictures immediately decided to release a sequel before a rival studio could produce a rip-off. The film was released before the year was over and it seems kind of rushed. The original film was nearly two hours in length, while this one is only a little bit longer than one hour. The film was once again made by most of the crew who worked on the first film. Willis O'Brien also returned to provide the film with its stop-motion animation. The filmmakers wanted to make this film a little bit more comedic and child-oriented. Unfortunately it just comes off as extremely cheesy. The son of Kong actually had a name, Kiko, but the name was only used during production and never made it into the film. Kiko's movemets and mannerisms are very cartoonish and a far cry for the behavior of a real gorilla. It is very strange that the filmmakers decided to make Kiko an albino gorilla, which was unheard of at the time. Nobody would see a real albino gorilla until the discovery of the gorilla "Snowflake" in the early 1960s. O'Brien recycled most of the dinosaurs from the first film and even added a few new creatures including a giant, prehistoric cave-bear, a dragon, and a sea serpent. While the film was financially successful, it was nowhere near as successful as King Kong. This film is ultimately more of a child-oriented film; there aren't really any horror film elements that were seen in the first film. This DVD presents the film in it's original fullscreen format. The only extra on the disc is the theatrical trailer.


4/5 Corny but likable
  by William R. Hancock (Travelers Rest, S.C. United States)
This 1933 rush-job sequel to the classic "King Kong" (released the same year), is no cinematic masterpiece, but it
is a kind of warm-&-fuzzy, yet ultimately bittersweet tribute to its "parent" film (in every sense of the word). It also has a goodly share of thrills and action and, when all is said and done, is a pretty fair little popcorn flick. I'd only give it three stars normally. but I think it rates a fourth on the strength of some solid acting performances (notably those of Helen Mack...extremely engaging as the female lead...and Robert Armstrong as a Carl Denham who seems to have acquired a bit of a conscience after his recent New York City fiasco).

The producers (Cooper & Shoedsack)evidently decided to try and make some more fiscal mileage out of the success of "Kong" and knew putting a sequel together at that time would not be a difficult thing to do. They opted to shoot the story as a return to Skull Island as that was the only place where they could come up with dinosaurs and a mini-Kong. Placing the bulk of the story there also elimnated having to do any more costly (especially where paying multitudes of extras was concerned)
"big city" shooting. They still had standing Kong sets available at RKO , and costumes and props from the first film.
They also had Willis O'Brien , Marcel Delgado, and company there to handle the effects work and animation. The miniature sets and glass-painting "set enhancements" from Kong-I were still good-to-go,as were all the stop-motion dinosaur puppets. A new puppet, a cave bear, was engineered to ad to the mix, and
one of the old Kong puppets was stripped down to its metal armature ("skeleton"), and then rebuilt into "Kong Junior".

The new story sends Carl Denham fleeing from New York to escape lawyers, lawsuits, creditors, and arrest on the heels of the late Papa Kong's destructive rampage. Denham "cuts country" on board the Venture and heads off to the South Pacific. A "treasure map" quest sends him back to Skull Island and there, along with Capt. Englehorn . Helen Mack, and a double dealing villain name Hellstrom , the action starts popping.

A "lost civilazation" element, with crumbling Atlantean-style ruins is introduced, as well as Kong Jr. The "lost civilization" motif is incorporated as a "lift" from the movie Willis O'Brien was making just before "King Kong" came along..."Creation", which was to play itself out amid ancient
American Indian ruins in South America. The story line also was geared to appeal to a public which had become interested in the "Lost Continent of MU" books by "Col." James Churchward , and the theoretical connection of Mu to the vanished Easter Island culture, as well as that of the Pacific island of Nan Madol, where mysterious ruins still exist.

In the new film, treasure, dinosaurs, traitors, an awakening romance, megalithic ruins,a scaled-down white "Kong", and a rumbling, grumbling volcano are all stirred together in a potboiler stew. And it all works pretty well, too.

It is interesting to note how MUCH of THIS film was "lifted"/"borrowed" by Peter Jackson for his 2005 version of "King Kong". In the original movie (1933) Carl Denham is powerful. popular, "connected", and can get any studio to pony up capital for anything he wants to do. In the 2005 version he is a perceived washed-up has-been who is fleeing lawyers,process servers, writs, creditors, etc. In short, he is the Carl Denham of "SON of Kong", rather than the 1933 original. He is a man on the run now.

In 2005 also, something that was not present in the 1933 "King Kong" is ALSO on display...all these crumbling ruins of a past
high culture...these are to be found everywhere. And where do THEY come from? Why "SON of Kong", of course. If one starts to
compare and contrast story lines, it becomes apparent that there has been some significant "borrowing" from "Son".

So you see, there is more of an influence from this modest little sequel movie in Jackson's new blockbuster than you might have considered. And yet, in all the "making of" promotional material on the Jackson film, "Son of Kong" rarely (and barely)
rates a mention.

Even though...spolier! spoiler!....Little Kong fares no better than his dad in the end (and where the heck is "Mama Kong"? Or "Queen Kong"?), the success of two animated "big gorilla" movies opened the way for the third, and best animated of them all, the magnificent "Mighty Joe Young".