Movie: King Kong (1976)

Finally found a copy of the first remake, which surprisingly seems to be getting a little rare.

It must be rare, because it certainly isn't well-done!  (Ba-ba-boom!)

Jessica Lange (hot cha cha!)

Jeff Bridges (Dude!)

Man in a rubber monkey suit (wow)

Kong climbs the World Trade Towers in the end instead of the Empire State Building.  They withstand that... ironically.

Other than that this version is much more faithful to the 1933 original than Peter Jackson's 2005 remake.

Right down to the nipples.

I remember that when it came out, the critics really didn't like it, but it did OK at the box office. I didn't see it at the movies, only on VHS years later.

IMDB has some funny trivia.

There is no "making of" documentary of the disc, but checking around online I found out that they built a 40-foot(!) Kong out of aluminum frame, rubber and horse tails but it was so unrealistic it only shows up for less than a minute onscreen.  Imagine how the builders feel about that.

Two big animatronic hands are featured prominently, and apparently one of them caused minor injuries to Jessica Lange.  Another was presented to director Dino Di Laurentiis and the operator slowly raised the middle finger.  Di Laurentis laughed, but the hand froze up and was stuck in this position for a couple days.