King Kong
by Delos W. Lovelace, Edgar Wallace (Story), Merian C. Cooper (Story), Greg Bear (Introduction)

The giant prehistoric gorilla King Kong is one of the most recognized images in our culture. So great is the mighty Kong’s hold on the popular imagination that his story–a gripping yarn of man versus nature, coupled with a fantastical update of the Beauty and the Beast legend–has been thrice made into a motion picture (most recently in 2005) and referenced endlessly in every medium, from books to prime-time sitcoms.

Beneath King Kong’s cultural significance, however, is a tense and surprisingly tender story. One cannot help but be frightened by Kong’s uncontrollable fury, be saddened over the giant’s capture, mistreatment, and exploitation by venal showmen, or sympathize with the beast’s ill-fated affection for the down-on-her-luck starlet Ann Darrow.

This Modern Library edition of a true colossus among adventure stories is reprinted from the original 1932 novelization of the movie script, and includes a Preface by Mark Cotta Vaz, the preeminent biographer of Merian C. Cooper, producer of the original 1933 classic film.

I was pleasantly surprised that I really enjoyed this novelization of King Kong, the classic movie from 1933. Of course, unless you were born under a rock, this is the story of how Carl Denhem, a movie producer in the 30s, seeks out the legend of Kong based on a map and story he received from a Norwegian sailor. He travels on a steamer to Skull Island along with his mate, Jack Driscoll, and Ann Darrow, the young woman he finds on the streets of New York who he wants to play the lead in the story of the adventure. And when they do get to Skull Island, Ann is captured by the colossal prehistoric gorilla King Kong. And of course, Kong is subsequently subdued and brought to New York as the "Eighth Wonder of the World" where in the end "Beauty killed the Beast."

This edition was published by Modern Library and included a preface by Mark Cotta Vaz and an introduction by Greg Bear, the science fiction author. These additional 30 pages added a lot to the book. The preface tells how Kong came to be and tells the story of Merian C. Cooper who produced the film. It also gives some good information on how the film was made including the use of stop-action filming using miniature models of Kong and the dinosaurs in the movie. The introduction tells more about the novelization of the film and why many movies get novelized. It also described some of the differences between the movie and the book. The book was actually issued a few months before the release of the movie and some of it was based on earlier scripts that were changed during the filming. For example, there is one scene in the book where the heroes were chased onto a log over a pit full of large spiders and lizards which ultimately got to feast on the dying sailors. A similar scene was evidently filmed but was cut after the first preview because it scared the audience into screaming fits! The original issue of the book published by Grosset & Dunlap is quite rare as well. I've seen copies of it on eBay going for hundreds of dollars.

Releasing at the Walnut Grove library used books shelves.


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