One of the classic monster movies of all time, the 1933 production of King Kong is best remembered for the dramatic scenes of a giant ape climbing the recently erected Empire State Building and batting away airplanes with Ann Darrow in his grasp, though she is universally remembered not with that character's name, but as the real-life actress who portrayed her, blonde scream queen Fay Wray. That image of Kong and Wray atop a New York skyscraper, along with Dorothy on the Yellow Brick Road and Scarlett returning to the ruins of Tara, ranks among the iconic film scenes of the pre-World War II era. A popular sensation in its day, King Kong failed to win a single Academy Award nomination, yet has outlived most of its contemporaries to achieve the stature of a twentieth-century myth.

King Kong perched atop the Empire State building in a scene...