When it comes to talking about the 1933 film, King Kong, what else could I possibly say about it? It remains a groundbreaking work of art that pushed the boundaries of special effects and film making techniques, it's THE classic monster movie that remains the definition of iconic. But I can talk about one aspect of it that doesn't get brought up all the time.
It's common knowledge that the original film was released in black & white, but in 1989, another version of the film was released on VHS and LaserDisc presented in full color! It was a pretty popular release and some later versions came with a mechanism inside the case where you push a button and you'd hear Kong roar.
But that now begs the question: Why and How did King Kong get colorized?
It all started when a man named Ted Turner, the founder of Turner Entertainment, bought the rights to several films in RKO's library including King Kong which had been previously sold by RKO to United Artists, only to then be bought by MGM which was finally acquired by Teddy.
Poor Kong can't escape any rights issue roller coasters, can he?
Anyway, now Teddy now has all these black & white films including Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Citizen Kane and Mighty Joe Young (just to name a few) in his possession and he's under the assumption that most audiences aren't big into movies if they aren't in color. So he gets an idea: "What if I were to purchase black & white films and disguise them as color films?" And he did.
While some found it interesting, others did not take kindly to this practice. In fact, many in Hollywood directly opposed the idea including James Stewart, John Huston and George Lucas.
They argued against colorizing older movies against the wishes of the filmmakers, even going so far as to take this to the US Congress to try and pass legislation to prevent such practices. But Teddy didn't care, even going so far as to say he'd colorize Casablanca purely out of spite.
Orson Welles himself went to great lengths to ensure that NO ONE would be able to legally colorize Citizen Kane. (For the best, the original tests looked like crap.)
But there's a lot more to this story than I have time to tell, so let's actually talk about King Kong. (Kolor Kong?)
Poor Kong can't escape any rights issue roller coasters, can he?
Anyway, now Teddy now has all these black & white films including Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Citizen Kane and Mighty Joe Young (just to name a few) in his possession and he's under the assumption that most audiences aren't big into movies if they aren't in color. So he gets an idea: "What if I were to purchase black & white films and disguise them as color films?" And he did.
While some found it interesting, others did not take kindly to this practice. In fact, many in Hollywood directly opposed the idea including James Stewart, John Huston and George Lucas.
They argued against colorizing older movies against the wishes of the filmmakers, even going so far as to take this to the US Congress to try and pass legislation to prevent such practices. But Teddy didn't care, even going so far as to say he'd colorize Casablanca purely out of spite.
Orson Welles himself went to great lengths to ensure that NO ONE would be able to legally colorize Citizen Kane. (For the best, the original tests looked like crap.)
But there's a lot more to this story than I have time to tell, so let's actually talk about King Kong. (Kolor Kong?)
It is interesting to see the original King Kong transformed this way, if for no other reason to see what it might have looked from the perspective of being on the sets. Most behind the scenes material of the original film is pretty scarce and without color, so to see the special effects scenes play out like this does have that fly on the wall effect of being on Willis O'Brien's sets and seeing the action play out. But while the colors aren't terrible and thankfully don't undermine the special effects, I can't help but feel that most of the time the film appears too bright, like someone turned up the contrast too much.
It also makes the lesser quality of the reinserted scenes stand out a little more.
I'll give it this, at least it doesn't look like Cozzilla (look it up.)
But now, where do I stand on colorizing old black and white movies? I'm mostly against the process. While I can see the appeal of it as a "what if" exercise, I wouldn't want it to overshadow the original and certainly not against the wishes of the original filmmakers or related parties.
Any changes or alterations made to films should always be done with their consent, not the studios, corporations or even the general audience. If Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack had been alive and able to give the green light to Teddy's companies to add color to their films, that'd be a different story. But they weren't.
Any changes or alterations made to films should always be done with their consent, not the studios, corporations or even the general audience. If Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack had been alive and able to give the green light to Teddy's companies to add color to their films, that'd be a different story. But they weren't.
Orson Welles and John Huston were in the right to say no to their films being colorized, just as George Lucas absolutely has the right to change and make improvements to HIS Star Wars films, no matter what fans or so-called "film experts" who pretend to understand anything about real film preservation have to say about it.
But I digress.
Although nowadays, it seems like we've gone in the opposite direction since there's been a surge in taking color movies like Logan, Mad Max: Fury Road, Parasite and even the recent Godzilla films from Japan and having them presented in black and white. But again, those were done while the creators of those films were still alive and able to make those decisions.
In the end, Teddy, still refusing to believe he did anything wrong, sold the film rights he purchased to Time Warner in 1996 and the color versions have been mostly forgotten. Although "King Kong in Color" still exists as a strange curiosity to monster movie fans. The VHS and Laserdisc copies are popular items for collectors, although you can probably find it online if you know where to look.
Also, when I bought my VHS copy at G-Fest in 2022, it didn't have the electronic function to make Kong roar. So that's disappointing.
But I digress.
Although nowadays, it seems like we've gone in the opposite direction since there's been a surge in taking color movies like Logan, Mad Max: Fury Road, Parasite and even the recent Godzilla films from Japan and having them presented in black and white. But again, those were done while the creators of those films were still alive and able to make those decisions.
Also, when I bought my VHS copy at G-Fest in 2022, it didn't have the electronic function to make Kong roar. So that's disappointing.
Till next time, I have been your host Gryphon
and thank you for joining me here in my lair.
So long...
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