Kong Kong (1933)

All this talk of Ray Harryhausen made me realize I didn't have a copy of the original King Kong, the movie that inspired him.  A quick trip to Half Price Books fixed that.

Say, Fay Wray was quite a dish (six years before The Wizard of Oz).  There's an early scene of her onboard the ship, and it's apparent she's cold (if you know what I mean).  When she walks away she's got a nice little uninhibited bounce.

Two disc set: 2nd disc is a super nice 2-hour documentary on the making of.  Interviews with Fay and a sound effects guy (both still alive in 2005), and lots of contemporary special effects guys (Rick Baker and others) and directors (Peter Jackson) and including his re-creation of the famous missing "spider pit" sequence which I'd seen once ten years ago when it was completed but not since.  Extensive clips from The Lost World and Creation which inspired Kong.  Interview with Harryhausen.

A whole day of fun.

Huh, it files alphabetically right next to Jurassic Park. Seems appropriate.

I spent a couple weeks looking for "Mighty Joe Young," the big gorilla movie Ray Harryhausen made in 1949 with his idol Willis O'Brien, originator of the original Kong.

Finally found a copy for a reasonable price, in a boxed set, that also includes the original Kong and Son of Kong.

Joe Young isn't really a Kong movie, the gorilla is almost normal size -- but the animation, OMG it's realistic. Harryhausen really makes the puppet come to life. There are so many optical tricks to make the stop-motion tie into the live action that it is very easy to suspend disbelief. Wonderful, wonderful production. Lots of humor too.