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Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Tuesday Forgotten (or Overlooked) Film: SON OF KONG (1933) starring Robert Armstrong and Helen Mack

Source of all three fabulous movie posters - link.

Okay, I know some of you haven't seen this little known sequel to KING KONG, but I have and so I thought I'd mention it in passing. Well, it is 'forgotten (or overlooked) films' day over at Todd Mason's blog and as usual, I'm reminding you to check in and see what other forgotten or overlooked films, television and/or other audio/visuals other bloggers are talking about today. We're a cunning bunch.

SON OF KONG (1933) is a film directed by Ernest B. Schoesdack, screenplay written by Ruth Rose and starring Robert Armstrong and Helen Mack. In my view, the film is notable for a couple of reasons:

Armstrong and Mack make a nice couple.

1) Robert Armstrong was not normally the star of any film, he usually played the second or third lead. Here he acquits himself splendidly as Carl Denham, the guy responsible for foisting King Kong on NYC. AND he even gets the girl at the end.

2) The screenplay was written by a woman. (Never heard of her. I wonder if she ever wrote any other films.)


The story: It's about a month after the disastrous events outlined in King Kong and Denham feels mighty bad about the whole thing. Well, who wouldn't? At any rate, he's being hounded by lawsuits right and left (results of Kong destruction) and so decides to board a ship with his pal Captain Englehorn (Frank Reicher) and set sail into the night. But making a living shipping cargo is not what it's cracked up to be.

Somewhere in the South Seas Denham and his pal come across a seedy traveling show full of performing monkeys run by an old man and his beautiful daughter, Hilda (Helen Mack). In quick succession, the old man is killed in a drunken brawl with the same notorious captain who'd originally sold Denham the map to Kong island. Uh-oh. Talk about coincidences.

This surly guy now insists that there was a big treasure on Kong Island and - hold onto your hats - it's still there for the taking. UH-OH!

Well, before you can say don't do it, boys, this motley group is off to Kong Island to search for treasure. But not before a mutiny on board their ship forces our hero and his small group (including the beautiful Hilda who has stowed aboard) to wade ashore by themselves onto Kong Island where they will find - guess who?


Now you may wonder who the mama of this enormous baby might be and when on earth he was born and all that sort of logistic whatnot - since his dad was shipped off to Manhattan to die falling off the Empire State building a while back. But one can surmise that he came into the world at some point when Daddy Kong was still having fun harassing the natives. But to whom? Where was the doting mama during all this? Who can tell. At any rate, there he is, Song of Kong, adorably welcoming Carl Denham and his friends to the island and, more importantly, holding no grudges.

Well, after several Baby Kong vs. some prehistoric monster set-to's, the island volcano decides to erupt and put an end to all this foolishness.


A fun film with a not so fun ending which I hated (as I did the ending of King Kong), but I am a big fan of Robert Armstrong and for he and he alone, I recommend this absurdity of a movie.

Armstrong would show up in 1949 in yet another movie featuring a giant ape, MIGHTY JOE YOUNG with Terry Moore and Ben Johnson - my favorite of all the ape movies primarily because it has a happy ending for ALL concerned.

16 comments:

  1. Yvette,

    According to IMDB, she has the following credits. Seems to be a bit type cast, doesn't she?

    Mighty Joe Young (earlier screenplay)
    1998 The Mighty Kong (Video) (screenplay "King Kong" - uncredited)
    1976 King Kong (1933 screenplay)
    1949 Mighty Joe Young (screenplay)
    1935 The Last Days of Pompeii (screenplay)
    1935 She (adaptation, continuity & dialogue)
    1933 The Son of Kong (scenario - uncredited) / (story)
    1933 Blind Adventure (writer)
    1933 King Kong (screen play)

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    1. I should have known you guys would find the info. I forgot to look. No wonder I loved MIGHTY JOE. :)

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  2. Well, Yvette, Ruth Rose's IMDb page will not surprise you Too much, I suspect:

    1949 Mighty Joe Young (screenplay)
    1935 The Last Days of Pompeii (screenplay)
    1935 She (adaptation, continuity & dialogue)
    1933 The Son of Kong (scenario - uncredited) / (story)
    1933 Blind Adventure (writer)
    1933 King Kong (screen play)

    And her father was a screenwriter, too. I enjoyed the galumphing cuteness of baby Kong as a child, haven't seen the film in decades...Gojira/Godzilla has a similar questionable source for ?his? child.

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    1. As I mentioned to Fred, I should have known you guys would have the info. Thanks. That's quite a line-up. Yeah, type-cast, uh, type theme writing. Whatever.

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  3. Yvette, I haven't seen this film though of all the King Kong films (I have no idea how many there are!), I liked the Jessica Lange-Jeff Bridges version the best. The Naomi Watts-Adrien Brody-Jack Black version was terrible. Likewise, I haven't seen the "Mighty Joe Young" you mentioned although I thought the nineties version starring Bill Paxton and Charlize Theron was passable. I find the studio settings in these early black-and-white films about giants and monsters quite amusing; they're fun to watch, however.

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    1. Oh then you definitely have to see the 1949 original of MIGHTY JOE YOUNG. It's my favorite of all the 'ape' movies. I haven't seen the 'new' updated versions of of either Kong or Mighty Joe because I just knew I wouldn't like them. I mean, far as I'm concerned, the originals didn't need a remake, especially with such lame actors and adjusted screenplay. These films are time capsules. They're of the moment in their time. I watch them as a way of heading back into my youth. These stories are not meant to be - God forbid - 'realistic'. And I dislike all that computer generated gimmickry. No thanks. Give me Ray Harryhausen and his 'ape and monster models' every time.

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    2. Meant to add: Of course this is only one woman's opinion, Prashant. :)

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    3. Willis O'Brien, Yvette! Harryhausen was just apprenticing with O'Brien in the later model films. (And I will take issue with the notion that either Jessica Lange or Charlize Theron is a worse actor than Robert Armstrong...though the 1976 KONG is no showcase for her talent).

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    4. Well...let's see...among the more or less Legal KONG films are KING KONG from the '30s, '70s, and '00s...SON OF KONG, the Japanese KING KONG VS. GODZILLA and KING KONG ESCAPES...and that's about it...there are quite a few ripoffs (assuming we don't count most of the above as ripoffs), with the MJYs a special case..

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    5. Oops, I goofed, Todd. I hadn't realized Harryhausen hadn't worked on this. I love Robert Armstrong, Todd. There's no accounting for love. Ha. I always think of MIGHTY JOE YOUNG as in the same vein of Kong films but with a happy ending. I haven't seen any of the ones you mention except for the original Kong.

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  4. Quoting Mike Doran on my blog:

    Message for Yvette Banek:

    I just tried to add a comment to your Son Of Kong post, but ran into a brick wall: the Name/URL option is gone again, and I have no other way of getting in.

    To all who read this, please spare me any instructions in Technoslavian, which I cannot comprehend anyway.

    As a gesture of good faith, I'll mention here that my Kong comment was about Ruth Rose and Ernest Schoedsack being husband and wife, as well as lifelong cronies of Merian C. Cooper, something that other commenters hadn't mentioned.

    I had a couple of other things, which I'll hold in reserve in case the Name/URL situation resolves in my favor.

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    1. Hi Mike, sorry you're having a problem. I hope it's not the fact that Not sure why you should be having a problem. I'll check into it tomorrow when I have a bit more time.

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  5. Yvette,

    I have seen all three King Kongs, and my opinion is that the first was the best, and each succeeding remake was of lesser quality, with the third being almost a parody. The director, can't think of name, is obviously in love with car chases, so he had to work one into the script. .

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    1. Sorry I'm late to reply, Fred. I thought I'd posted it and lo and behold, it's disappeared. Anyway, yes, the first KING KONG is the classic. The rest are dumb. Ha.

      The second MIGHTY JOE YOUNG was unwatchable. It was beyond dumb. The first is SO wonderful.

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  6. I have a soft spot for THE SON OF KONG and, although I also dislike the ending, it is rather effective. I remember getting the sniffles when I watched it as a kid. The SFX by O'Brien are fabulous, of course. It also might be the quickest sequel ever made, as it was released in the same year as KING KONG.

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    1. What is SFX? Rick? You're speaking to a doddering old lady here. :)

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