KING KONG was one of those unforgettable childhood wonders that STILL manages to evoke a sense of wonder: using every sleight-of-hand movie-making technique then known to Man (and as well as pioneering a few new ones specifically for this occasion), Willis O'Brien and Company gave us "The Eighth Wonder of the World!" I confess: I blasphemed when I touted the Peter Jackson version over this one; beat me, please- I deserve it. It would've been interesting to see the KING KONG VS. FRANKENSTEIN O'Brien had in mind as a follow-up. (The "mutated" version of that idea became the Japanese Kaiju classic, FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD, in which an irradiated HEART literally blossoms into the giant "Frankenstein" monster; the sequel, WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS, featured no reference to the earlier dust-up and NEITHER film credits O'Brien with the original idea.) When I arrived here in Crack Town, the disembodied head of the giant mechaniKong built for the heartbreakingly bad De Laurentis remake was on display outside of what was then Carolco Studios. I shot video of several kids sitting inside Kong's mouth and had planned to do a short about a boy who keeps dreaming that he's being eaten alive by a giant gorilla (in the end, he was to have been found dead of fright in the jaws of the giant head), but it never worked out. It's just as well, I guess: there've been a LOT of bad movies inspired by KING KONG; who needs one more...?
