OVER TWO YEARS IN MAKING

Evening Star, Issue 21570, 16 November 1933, Page 15

OVER TWO YEARS IN MAKING

‘ KING KONG ’ RESEARCH WORK With a sensational admixture of the prehistoric and tho modern in a story of fantastic imagination, RKO-Radio makes a bid for an all-time record with its spectacular production, ‘ King Kong,’ featuring Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, and Bruce Cabot, and in the name role a great, animated 60ft ape, built to a proportion comparable with monsters of tho Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. As a production, ‘ King Kong ’ was two and a-half years in the making. Early in 1929 tho first research inquiry was sent to loading paleontologists throughout the world. The - ; studio had a vital interest in the appearance and habits of such primitive monsters as the pterodactyl, the brontosaurus, the tyrannosaurus, and tho dinosaur. Did these formidable creatures, now extinct, run, bop, or fly when in fast pursuit of their prey? What, exactly, were their proportions? Active reconstructions of such monsters were to enact roles in the motion picture. It took a year and a-half of tremendous work to collect the data, assemble it for practical purposes, and construct dozens of reptilian and other monsters in exact scale. During that time, and before a camera crank was turned, the studio had created the largest and most varied collection of prehistoric collossi in the United States. In the early part of 1982 filming operations wore started. It was not just a case of pointing a camera at a group of people. Scores of creatures dating back into the dawn of life had to ho animated in smooth motion and in relation to the normal movements of human beings opposite to whom they were to perform. Tho methods omifloycd in constructing them and photographing them are known to few. The magnitude of the task at the camera is clearly seen in the results. One scene shows a battle between the mammoth ape and a tyrannosaurus, largest of prehistoric reptiles. Still another is a desperate running fight between this giant ape, “ King Kong,” and scores of men while a white girl is held tightly clutched in the beast’s paw. The most spectacular scene of all concludes the picture. “ King Kong,” seeking to escape tho torments of man, climbs the tallest structure in New York, and there, with the girl at his feet, wages a losing battle against a squadron of army pursuit and bombing planes. It is said that the prodigious phantasy ‘ King Kong ’ makes insignificant any film heretofore produced. Tho picture comes to this city to-morrow, when it will be released iat tho Empire Theatre.