King Kong (1933) is one of the most famous of all horror-fantasy-adventure films, combining imaginative technical wizardry with good old-fashioned thrills and an unusual and appealing "Beauty and the Beast" story. Decades before the development of computerized special effects, King Kong featured a masterfully conceived and remarkably believable title character—an ape, who during the course of the story is innocently attracted not to a fellow primate but to a pretty young woman.

King Kong is the saga of Carl Denham (played by Robert Armstrong, 1890–1973), a willful filmmaker who heads off to tiny, exotic Skull Island to shoot his latest movie. In his company are Ann Darrow (Fay Wray, 1907–), his pretty lead actress, and Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot, 1904–1972), the rugged first mate on board the ship on which the moviemakers are traveling. Upon their arrival, they encounter Kong, the king of the island, a giant ape who...