This installment begins with this poster for I Walked With a Zombie!
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Friday, February 21, 2014
Cover Redux!
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Comics Ads: Kelloggs Ads from Fawcett Comics!
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
My Favorite Movies #2: King Kong
Of
course, when talking about King Kong, I am most definitely talking
about the original 1933 version, with Fay Wray, Bruce Cabot, and
Robert Armstrong. It may be one of the greatest movies of all time,
or at the very least, one of the greatest “monster” movies of all
time (the American Film Institute ranks it as #43 on its list of the
greatest films of all time). It set a bar that has been rarely met,
and inspired a host of imitators and wanna-be Kongs.
When
they arrive at Skull Island and meet the natives, they notice the
gigantic wall separating the village from the rest of the island, and
the natives are immediately interested in the blonde Ann, and offer
to trade for her. Naturally, Denham isn't looking to sell Ann, but
that night, as the crew sleeps, the natives kidnap her as a queen for
their god, Kong. Her disappearance is noted, and the crew goes ashore
again as the Skull Island natives are chanting and dancing to bring
their god to them to accept his queen. “Kani kalani, kani kalani,
kani kalani... KONG!” Ann is tied between two large posts, and
Denham, Driscoll and the others are too late to free her before Kong
arrives in all his glory, and he takes her away.
Kong
is pursued by Denham, Driscoll and the crew through the jungle, and
they very quickly learn that the jungle has other dangers than
Kong... dinosaurs, somehow surviving from the prehistoric past, are
present, as well as gigantic spiders and scorpions, among other
horrors. Kong takes Ann over a chasm bridged by a gigantic tree log,
and when the men follow, Kong shakes most of them loose, plummeting
them to a grisly death below. Denham, trapped on the other side, goes
for the gas grenades brought along, while Driscoll, who saved himself
by grabbing a vine, continues to follow Kong and Ann.
After
setting Ann down in a tree, Kong soon has to battle a tyrannosaurus
rex to protect her from its appetite, and then he continues to bring
her to his cave atop the highest mountain on Skull Island. Even
there, Ann is not safe, as a pterodactyl (or was it a pteranodon? I
can never remember the difference these days) tries for her, and Kong
attacks it. But while Kong is attacking the flying dinosaur, Driscoll
gets Ann, and they start climbing down a cliff to the shore below,
using vines to cling to. When Kong spots them, and starts to draw
them up, they let go and plunge into the water.
This
makes Kong mad, and when Kong gets mad, bad things happen. It's not
long before Kong attacks the native villagers who'd worshipped him,
and he starts tearing the village apart, and killing the natives,
some by stepping on them, others by biting them, then casting them
aside. For these scenes and others, a full-size Kong head was
constructed, as well as a foot. An arm and hand was also constructed
for scenes where Kong is holding Ann, and there are shots where the
hand holding Fay Wray is positioned in front of the stop-motion Kong.
The
biplanes attack Kong, and although he is able to take out a few of
the planes, the combined firepower is too much for him. He gently
sets Ann down in a safe place before the mortal shots take him out,
causing him to fall to his death on the street below. Driscoll finds
Ann and takes him into his arms, while below, Denham gets to the
fallen Kong, where this movie's most quoted lines are spoken.
Consider
just what an accomplishment this was, for any era. Given the limited
special effects capabilities, Willis O'Brien imbued Kong with
personality and emotion, so that we didn't look at him as being some
kind of special effects trickery, but as valid a character on-screen
as Ann, Driscoll, or Denham.
Of
course, the movie was a smash hit in theaters, and many people
consider King
Kong
to be the first movie to be re-released, as it was periodically in
theaters for some time. Prior to the 1970s remake being released, the
original movie was re-released to theaters. Many fans, who'd been
used to seeing Kong
on television, were finally able to see it on the big screen in all
its cinematic glory. It loses something on TV, although it's still a
great movie even in that format.
But
King Kong
didn't just inspire giant gorilla movies... it inspired pretty much
every giant monster movie that followed, in one way or another.
Godzilla,
King of the Monsters
was originally planned to be shot in stop-motion, until it was
decided that it would be too costly to do that way, so a rubber suit
was created (as well as a hand-puppet version). Some later Godzilla
films would use brief bits of stop-motion. Gorgo
was another movie that surely was inspired in many ways by Kong,
featuring a sympathetic giant creature. Some believe that Jurassic
Park
also was inspired by this film, too.
The
movie starts out fairly sedately, as Ann Darrow (Fay Wray), an
unemployed actress, tries to steal an apple, because she's starving.
She's saved by film director Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong), who
hires her to star in his new picture. He takes her to the Venture,
where she meets ship's mate Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot). Soon, the
ship sails for the mysterious Skull Island, where Denham has learned
exists a strange creature viewed by the natives as a god. We know
nothing of what Kong is during the voyage, but we do see Ann in some
test shots Denham takes, in which he encourages her to act as though
she's seen something terrifying. During the voyage, Driscoll, who
initially did not like the idea of a woman on board a ship, falls for
Ann, who's been pretty much flirting with him from the get-go.
Kong
is an impressive beast, a gorilla at least 40 feet tall, and he
demonstrates real emotion through his face as well as his body
language. What's really impressive about Kong is that for most scenes
(with a few exceptions, as I'll note), he was portrayed by an
18-inch-tall stop-motion animation puppet, with foam rubber muscles
and fur over an aluminum jointed skeleton, which had to be
painstakingly moved fractions of an inch at a time, a few frames
shot, and then slightly moved again, a few frames, etc. The special
effects were done by the master of stop-motion, Willis O'Brien, who
had previously done effects work for the original, silent version of
The Lost
World,
which featured a brontosaurus (well, it should've been called an
apatosaurus, as the brontosaurus didn't actually exist, but still
people use the name even now) running amok in London. Kong and the
other creatures of the film were built by Marcel Delgado, who must
share the credit with O'Brien for the success of the film's creatures
on screen.
As
Kong gets to the beach, Denham and his crew lob gas grenades at the
beast, finally knocking him unconscious. Somehow, they get Kong
aboard the Venture,
and
bring him to New York. Instead of using Kong in a movie, Denham now
plans to display him in a theater on Broadway! Kong is chained and
hidden behind a curtain as theatre-goers in their finest wear fill
the seats. Kong is revealed, and Ann is introduced by Denham.
Reporters are invited onstage to take photos, but their flashes
enrage Kong, who thinks that they're threatening Ann. He breaks free
and escapes. Driscoll takes Ann to her hotel room while Kong rampages
through New York, destroying an elevated train, and even killing a
blonde woman whom he initially thinks is Ann. Kong somehow manages to
find Ann's hotel room, and knocks Driscoll out before taking Ann
away. He climbs with Ann to the top of the Empire State Building, and
Driscoll comes up with the idea to use planes to shoot Kong down. The
air assault is ordered as Driscoll and Denham race to the Empire
State Building.
Police
Lieutenant: “Well, Denham, the airplanes got him.”
Denham:
“Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes... t'was Beauty killed the Beast.”
One
of the great things about this movie is that, while Kong is seen as a
monster on Skull Island, we see quickly that he's a sympathetic
creature. He truly cares for Ann, and by the time of his death, we
find ourselves rooting for the monster, and feeling sad when he's
killed.
There
are legends surrounding the movie, as there are around many of the
most popular movies... it may never be truly known if the scene of
the crew, after being shaken down the chasm by Kong, are attacked by
the giant spiders and the like was ever shown in its complete form in
the theaters, or if it was edited out shortly in its initial release.
There was even a man who claimed that he played Kong in a gorilla
suit, and I don't know how it was possible that anyone could've
believed him. Even Rick Baker's Kong suit for the 1970s movie
couldn't convey the emotion that the original Kong did, and that was
a pretty impressive suit (probably the best thing about that
otherwise unwatchable movie).
With
success comes imitations, and RKO Studios, who made the original
movie, was the first, very quickly rushing out Son
of Kong,
with the white-furred progeny of the original (we never saw or heard
what happened to Mrs. Kong, or if she had divorced the original,
leaving him free to chase blonde actresses). I think the best of the
Kong imitators has to be Mighty
Joe Young,
and that's because it didn't try to copy Kong as blatantly as some
later films (such as the ridiculous, but still fun to watch Konga).
Joe is sympathetic from the start, and isn't really presented as a
monster.
And
as we all know, Toho Studios in Japan made their own pair of movies
with their version of Kong, beginning with King
Kong Vs. Godzilla,
and then the later King
Kong Escapes.
I prefer to think that they didn't really want us to believe it was
the original Kong in those movies, but rather some other giant
mutated gorilla who the name was given to, despite the fact that it
was several times larger than the original! King
Kong Escapes
does deserve one note of interest... it appears to be tied in with
the Rankin-Bass The
King Kong Show
cartoon, which I have on DVD, but haven't yet watched since I was a
child.
Kong
is one of the true iconic monsters of the movies, and one way or
another, he's never been out of our sight for very long, whether it's
in remakes, homages, toys, comics, or whatever other form we might
encounter.
My
first time seeing King
Kong
in its entirety was during the 1970s re-release, and I saw it at the
same small community theater that also hosted the revivals of the 3-D
versions of Creature
From the Black Lagoon
and It
Came From Outer Space.
I'd certainly seen scenes from Kong
before, and as noted, I had watched the cartoon as a child, but I
can't say for certain that I'd seen Kong on TV before that revival.
Oh, I knew of Kong... believe me, I knew of him! The Swasey Library
in Tacoma, Washington, just down the street and two blocks over from
the house I spent most of my childhood in had an amazing selection of
books about monster movies, and I checked them all out multiple
times, and read them cover to cover. I know I'd seen issues of Famous
Monsters
and probably other monster magazines that featured Kong, as well as
issues of The
Monster Times
(initially copies from a cousin's collection – that cousin's
collection of cool stuff was the only thing tolerable to me about
visiting relatives in North Dakota every summer). And one day, I
walked into Book King, a book store that used to exist at the Fred
Meyer on 19th
Street in Tacoma (but sadly went the way of the dodo sometime in the
early to mid-80s) they had an issue of the Rocket's
Blast/Comicollector
that cover-featured Kong. Now, I don't know if I bought it at the
same time as I bought the RBCC
issue that cover-featured the Blue Beetle, but I know those were the
first two real fanzines I ever bought (I'd been getting The
Comic Reader
at that same store, but I don't know if I'd really call it a
fanzine... it was more of a comics news magazine in my mind). I read
that issue of RBCC
until the cover was falling off, and I even started an abortive
attempt at a fanzine that would've featured an article about Kong,
even though I probably hadn't seen the original yet!
Thanks
to that issue, I knew of the Gold Key one-shot (which I believe was
reprinted not too long after that), which was more based on the
novelization of the original Kong
story than the movie (and yes, I did buy and read Don Simpson's comic
mini-series that more closely followed the film). I never got the
Gold Key comic or the novelization (still haven't, come to think of
it). I'm not even sure I ever really had any real Kong toys until I
was an adult, when my first wife gave me the McFarlane Toys Kong
figure (which I no longer have... but I do have two dollar store Kong
figures, one a small PVC figurine, the other a finger puppet). Oh, I
had gorilla toys that were basically intended to be Kong, to be sure!
But no Kong toys as a child.
Still,
from the first time I saw King
Kong,
it has been, and remains to this day, one of my favorite movies of
all time.
I
welcome your comments and Kong
memories
in the comments.
Monday, February 17, 2014
Dog of the Geek: Balto!
Original Appearances: Balto
(1995 animated film)
Other Appearances: N/A
Biography: Balto, unlike many of
the dogs I've covered here, was an actual real-life hero! In 1925,
during a deadly diptheria epidemic in Nome, a seurum was needed in
Anchorage, about 1,000 miles away. Since the only aircraft that could
deliver the medicine had a frozen engine and would not start, it was
decided to move the medicine by sled dog. Norwegians Gunnar Kaasen
and Leonhard Seppala, along with more than 20 other mushers taking
turns, drove the dogs (led by Balto on the final leg). Kaasen, who
was the musher when the final leg brought the serum into Nome, gave
the credit to Balto, although it's been pointed out that the longest
and most hazardous section of the run was made by Seppala with his
dog team, led by Togo. Kaasen, however, insisted that while he could
barely see his hand in front of his face, Balto kept his team on the
trail, even though it was almost entirely in the dark. Balto's team
actually did two legs of the run, as the original team was asleep
when Balto and Kaasen made it to what was supposed to be their final
stop. Regardless, the general public loved the story behind Balto, so
it was Balto who became the celebrity. The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog
Race commemorates the run.
Powers: None
Group Affiliation: Kaasen's dog
team.
Miscellaneous: The
1995 animated film Balto,
while based on the true story, highly fictionalized the tale, and
Balto is the only character in the film based on a real person.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Puzzle Time!
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