Classic Intel: King Kong Escapes - DVD Review

With the original film reaching its 80th birthday this year, Ben has set out on a journey to a land that time forgot, watching all of the King Kong films along the way.

'Although not nearly as hideous as he looked when battling Godzilla, Kong is still a bloke in a manky monkey costume.'

The second of Kong’s Toho appearances, co-produced with US company Rankin/Bass, 1967’s King Kong Escapes is to date also the giant ape’s last. Stylistically similar in many ways to the earlier King Kong Vs. Godzilla (although, somewhat confusingly, not a sequel), King Kong Escapes is thankfully a largely more satisfying experience than Kong’s first Japanese outing.

Admittedly, there are still issues here linked to the gimcrack style of kaiju cinema. Although not nearly as hideous as he looked when battling Godzilla, Kong is still a bloke in a manky monkey costume. His nemesis, Mechani-Kong, comes across somewhat better with a pleasingly simplistic yet futuristic look. The final battle between Kong and his robotic adversary however is notably lacklustre after a pleasing build-up, and will likely leave you wanting more. Other creatures that appear throughout do the job though - including Gorosaurus, another Toho monster here in his first film appearance, who is arguably more convincing against Kong than Godzilla ended up being.

If you can buy into the ridiculousness of it all (Mechani-Kong, for example, is constructed at the start of the film as a means to mine a rare radioactive substance known as “Element X”), there’s fun to be had with the film’s story. Kong’s origin is retold once again, this time with perhaps a surprising amount of faithfulness to the 1933 film. There’s even a human love interest for the gigantic gorilla in Linda Miller’s navy lieutenant Susan Watson, joining the ever-growing list of women to pale in comparison to Fay Wray’s Ann Darrow. Carl Nelson (Rhodes Reason) is a more straightforward hero than his quasi namesake from the original film, but Reason does well playing things light-heartedly straight and is a pleasing presence on screen throughout.

The antagonists too are enjoyable: Eisei Amamoto as Doctor Who (in no way related to the BBC’s wisecracking timelord) makes for a suitably over-the-top villain, a snaggletoothed hybrid of Count Dracula and Ernst Stavro Blofeld. The Bond franchise comparison is in fact quite apt, with the narrative echoing the campier 007 outings a fair amount of the time. Mie Hama’s mysterious Madame X also plays into this mould, beginning as a seemingly straightforward villainess but becoming a much more ambiguous femme fatale as the story wears on. It’s just a shame that her most intriguing plot thread is frustratingly left hanging at the end of the film.

King Kong Escapes certainly has discernible flaws. The story takes too long to get going, and there are patches here and there which become irritatingly unfocused. Along with the low budget Toho-style visual effects, you’ll also have to contend with some distracting sound editing (English-speaking Miller is inexplicably dubbed along with the Japanese cast). But whilst the flaws can’t be ignored, a lot of the time they can be forgiven. Go into King Kong Escapes looking for kitsch, throwaway fun and you’ll more than likely have a good time with it. At the very least, when weighing up Kong’s cinematic adventures in the Orient, this is consistently the superior of the two.

By Ben Broadribb. Ben is a regular contributor to Film Intel, having previously written at Some Like It Hot Fuzz. He is normally seen in the wild wearing t-shirts containing obscure film references. He is a geek, often unashamedly so. He's also on Google+ and Twitter.