King Kong (1933)
King Kong (1933) was the creation of Merian C. Cooper, one of Hollywood's most extraordinary and least remembered figures, and it arrived at a precise and loaded moment: during the Great Migration, a time of mass unemployment, and racial tensions on American streets. It was, depending on who was watching and from where, either the ultimate escapist spectacle or something far more pointed; and quite possibly both at once.
The film was a technical revolution built largely on improvisation. Willis H. O'Brien's stop-motion animation; an 18-inch rubber puppet, shot one agonising frame at a time on…
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