Noted for its pioneering special effects created by Willis O’Brien, King Kong (1933) is a landmark American monster film and the first significant feature film to star an animated character. Although uncredited, the film was jointly directed by Merian C Cooper, who was formerly a member of volunteer of the American Kosciuszko Squadron that supported the Polish army in the war with Soviet Russia, and his friend, Ernest Beaumont Schoedsack. Opened in New York City on 2 March 1933, the film earned rave reviews and made Fay Wray an international star, who was in the film industry since 1923 and was only a B-list star. Regarded as the fifty-sixth great film of all time, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1991, as it was deemed culturally, historically and aesthetically significant by the Library of Congress. Although the visual effects in the film are not likely not to satisfy people in the 2000s, King Kong can be termed as the father of Jurassic Park (1993), directed by Steven Spielberg, one of the most influential personalities in the history of cinema.

Kong, a savage beast, much larger and stronger than an ordinary gorilla, is the central character of the film. He lives in the remote Skull Island, battling for life against prehistoric dinosaurs, surviving in the wild and being worshipped as the god and sever to the natives who offered sacrifices to him. He has a colossal height, 10 inches long canines that jutted from his mouth, heavy set brow, eyeballs 12 inches in diameter and walks upright like a man.

The upper body of the massive beast was made of wood, cloth, rubber and bearskin, while the inside contains themechanical devices like metal levers, hinges and an air compressor, operated by three men, controlling its mouth and facial expressions.

The story of King Kong starts at New York Harbour where filmmaker Carl Denham charters the Venture to visit Skull Island, a remote, uncharted Pacific island with his film crew, in quest of the legendary Kong, a gigantic ape. During the journey, Jack Driscoll, the first mate of the ship, falls in love with Ann Darrow, the heroine of the film, whom the director discovered in the streets of New York City, just before the commencement of the journey. After reaching the destination, the crew anchored offshore and landed in a native village, separated from the rest of the island by an enormous stone wall, along with a large wooden gate. From a distance, they found that the villagers were preparing to sacrifice a young woman termed the bride of Kong. However, soon they were spotted, when the native chief stopped the ceremony and approached the visitors to bargain six of his tribal women for the golden woman, Ann. The crew immediately rejected the proposal and returned to the ship.

That night, Ann was kidnapped from the ship by the natives and was taken to the other side of the wall through the huge gate, directly onto a built-in altar, where she was offered to Kong, the King, who subsequently, carried away the terrified Ann with him. Followed by the disappearance of Ann, a search party, comprising of Denham, Jack Driscoll and others, entered the pre-historic forest, where they had to face many pre-historic animals like dinosaurs, Stegosaurus and Brontosaurus and finally, Kong.

When Kong found the men crossing a log bridge, he started to shake the log violently, sending the men plummeting down into the ravine and finally threw the entire log off the cliff. Only two members of the search party, Jack and Carl remained alive and while Denham returned to the village for more men, Jack continued to follow Kong carrying Ann. He got the opportunity to reach Ann, when Kong was fighting to kill a Pteranodon that tried to fly away with Ann. Taking the advantage of Kong’s distraction, Jack and Ann started to climb down a vine dangling from a cliff ledge, but Kong soon realised the matter and as he started to pull them back, the two dropped into the water below. They run for their life, through the jungle and back to the village, where they met Denham and the crewmen.

But Kong did not give up, the infuriated King of Skull Island followed them, broke open the massive gate and relentlessly rampaged through the village. By that time, Denham decided to capture the huge beast alive and bring him back to New York. So Kong was made unconscious with a gas bomb, shackled in chains and brought to New York, where he was presented to a Broadway Theatre audience as the Eighth Wonder of the World. Ann and Jack were brought on stage to join him, surrounded by a group of press photographers, whose continuous flash photography made the beast irritated, who probably thought that the flashlights were aimed to hurt Ann. As he broke out of his chains in anger, the panicked audience struggled to leave the theatre hall desperately. While Ann was whisked away to a hotel room on a high floor, Kong created havoc in the city, scaled the high rise buildings in search of Ann and finally found her. With screaming Ann in his grip, he rampaged through the city, wrecking a crowded elevated train and eventually climbing the Empire State Building. At the top of the building, he carefully placed Ann on a ledge and faced the firing machine guns from the aeroplanes.

He attempted to take the planes out of the air, destroyed one, but finally succumbs to the gunfire. After taking a last look at Ann, he plummeted 102 stories down to his death. Looking at the body of the giant beast, a policeman on duly remarked that finally, the planes got him, when Denham corrected him by saying that he was killed by beauty. By that time, Jack took an elevator to the top of the building to be reunited with Ann.

King Kong was shot during the spring and summer of 1932 in the studio and due to the limited budget for sets, the directors used the jungle locale from an earlier adventure film The Most Dangerous Game (1932), jointly directed by Schoedsack and Irving Pichel and featuring Fay Wray, the heroine of King Kong. The film was released in New York City during a time of economic oppression, but it broke all previous box-office records and its massive success saved RKO Studios from bankruptcy.