Love Finds Carl Denham

RKO's Rush Order That Was Son Of Kong (1933)

In keep with habit of doing everything backwards, I saw this a year ahead of King Kong, a Sunday afternoon filler from Charlotte's Channel 3 when they had no football to broadcast. Little Kong continues, of course, to live in Dad's shadow, the pillow-furred stepchild as it were, and that's how I took him all these years until weekend HD view on Warner Instant, when SoK became for me a cherished film-family member. Was it best-ever clarity or succumb to charm of the Venture's crew sailing again to magical place that was Skull Island? Here among myriad pleasures was where we came to better know Carl Denham in persuasive person of Robert Armstrong, who called this his preferred Kong experience, since for once he got favored over tabletop monsters. Son Of Kong has for eighty years been called a cheat, which I say it's anything but. Excitement having died down after senior K's plunge off the Empire State meant pace could slow and let characters, especially Denham, reflect on gravity of NYC leveled, and him being responsible.

Frisky Artist Concept For RKO's 1933-34 Product Annual

Armstrong could and did overact at times (The Most Dangerous Game), but never here. It's like he became Carl Denham for willing take of burden for chained KK and awful price of those chains being broke. Denham/Armstrong's declare after assist of Junior Kong that he "owes something to the family" sounds out of context like a gag line, but plays almost straight in the movie. Armstrong knew by third quarter 1933 that King Kong was past mere popularity to something like folklore and that he'd travel with it to whatever posterity yielded. Many a theatre had incorporated Kong into prologue/stage revues, and references to the big monkey were all over newspaper cartoons (and movie ones) within months of KK's release.  From such awareness came the most thoughtful performance of Robert Armstrong's career. Same too for Frank Reicher, whose Captain Englehorn has shadings that had to come of Reicher's also-appreciation for impact King Kong had and this being the role for which he'd be remembered. However business-as-usual a cast may have been shooting King Kong (and how could they know during filming just how amazing it would be at a finish?), such wouldn't be the case during weeks of urgency to wrap a sequel RKO was determined to get into theatres by holiday season of 1933.

Lead lady Helen Mack is more effective, more proactive, than Fay Wray from the original. She understands, is protective of, little Kong right off, and never once screams, which Wray did to excess in King Kong. Mack offers useful guidance to an at times skittish Armstrong: "Animals always know when you're trying to help them," as little Kong does when the two bandage his wounded finger. Some have said Son Of Kong has a fairy tale quality as opposed to the brute entertainment King Kong was, and yes, I'd agree. Add to that the partnershio of Robert Armstrong and Helen Mack, their developing relationship a Son Of Kong asset, enhanced by Max Steiner use of "Runaway Blues" as recurring theme. The composer was like the rest of crew for being harried to completion, so there is reprise of cues from King Kong, all welcome for linking sound with sights we revisit. The title character need not be threatening; in fact, it would have been a mistake designing a Son to out-roar Kong. The half-Dad's size snowball ape does a few too cute reactions, but fights to respective deaths a phalanx of threatening monsters ("bad eggs," said Variety, " ... of the stone age jungle"), so there's no dearth in terms of special-fx once they kick in with a second half of the 69 minute show.

RKO's Hillstreet Theatre in L.A. Is First In Line For Son Of Kong

Variety called Son Of Kong "a wash-up of the King Kong theme," which frankly it was, RKO pretty well fencing itself off from further sequels by making KK's offspring "a bit of a pansy." Los Angeles got Son Of Kong for a Christmas Day opening at the RKO Hillstreet Theatre, with New York's Roxy in receipt the following week, where "kids laughed plenty yesterday afternoon" (12-29), according to Film Daily, this causing the trade to brand Son Of Kong "strictly juvenile entertainment" that was "hardly for grown-ups." Christmas may have been a wrong time to unwrap this gorilla, the Hillstreet doing a west coast swan dive with $4,900 in a first week, the house average being $8,000. Bad weather spelled bad luck in Frisco, "torrential downpour" which "cut biz to the bone" on opening day that was culmination of weeks thumping the pic. The bay city's Fox Theatre had gone to effort of having a live ape brought in "by an attractive fem" from local zoo captivity, this plus Kong tire covers put on every cab in town. A weekend of rain was ruin for all of that, but such was nature's caprice that every showman had to live with.

In the end, Son Of Kong was treated like a programmer and paid off like one. Approving notices might have damned it with praise for being not so "terrifying" as King Kong and therefore safe for kiddies ... but who among kiddies wanted that? There were even favorable comparisons to Paramount's Alice In Wonderland, also released for 1933's holiday season. "Not a patch on his old man," as characterized by Carl Denham, would sum up as well a boxoffice fate for Son Of Kong --- a little over one-third the original's take. Domestic rentals for Son stopped at $331K (to KK's $745K), while foreign, which had been very good for the elder Kong ($1.1 million), managed but $285K for his son. Balm for RKO was fact they'd spent so little on Son Of Kong's negative, a mere $289K, enabling a final profit of $133K.

The Primitive Pair Heats Up Chicago For July 1945

Minneapolis Gets Kong Fever

The sin of Son Of Kong having been a quickie wasn't visited upon the father. King Kong was remembered well and welcomed back for 1938 revival, the first of many. Son Of Kong saw '38 service as well, interestingly as third wheel on conveyance to wicket wealth that was the Wilshire-located Regina Theatre's August sock-cess of Frankenstein and Dracula, combined for a first time and making history for showman Emil Umann. Less noted then or since was fact that Son Of Kong tagged along, at least for a first few weeks of the sensation, which also boasted nightly in-persons from Bela Lugosi. Whereas Frankenstein and Dracula ("The Pair That Curled Your Hair") went on to nationwide money-spinning, Son Of Kong made do with isolated bookings, RKO disinclined to widen its revival. Sightings to follow were spotty, most notable as mid-40's backseat to King Kong in key situations that included Chicago (a "wow" $13K, said Variety, for a first of two weeks), Minneapolis, and others. Beyond that, Son Of Kong was television's product to play, beginning in 1956. Exposure since has included DVD, part of a set with King Kong, and now streaming at Warner Instant, where Son Of Kong looks better than ever before.