Thelma Todd On The Cover Of MON CINE

MON CINE
French film magazine
No. 610
October, 26th 1933

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Not A Faithful Remake Of KING KONG

The 2005 "remake" of KING KONG was not a faithful remake, despite claims to that effect. In this movie, Kong is even shown as picking up and throwing away a girl who appears to represent Fay Wray in the original movie.






Fay Wray had been tied between two stakes as a sacrifice to Kong in the original movie. Something that was not done in the 2005 version.



In the original movie the heroine screamed and struggled to get away from the monster, but in the 2005 movie the girl decides to side with the monster against the world, something which appears to have been taken from the 1976 version. There are a number of other discrepancies. I could go on, but I didn't catch them all I didn't actually watch the thing.

The special effects in the 2005 movie failed to live up to all the hype. I didn't think the computer animated monsters were very well done.


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Merian C. Cooper Feature in FAMOUS FUNNIES #10

Merian C. Cooper is profiled in ABOVE THE CROWD. Cooper was a movie producer who made KING KONG, FLYING DOWN TO RIO, and many other movies. He was also said to have been the only man to make it out of a Russian prison camp and then Russia while the communists were in power.

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MON CINE With Page On KING KONG

MON CINE for October 26, 1933 had a blurb about KING KONG on the cover above a photo of Thelma Todd,

 

and here is a page about KING KONG from inside this magazine.

 

 

 

Another page on KING KONG from an unidentified Belgian magazine from the same period.

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The movie KING KONG was a smash hit. No remake will ever take it's place, despite the claims of various hucksters looking to make a fast back.


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KING KONG Review Compares Fay Wray To Thelma Todd

A reviewer of the original KING KONG was so impressed with Fay Wray's ability to come through it all unscathed that he said she'd surpassed even Thelma Todd's ability to absorb punishment at the hands of slapstick comedians in her own movies.

Originally published March 31, 1933 in THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR



Nightmares Lose Their Terror After An Exciting Session With "King Kong"

By Corbin Patrick

WE WERE THANKFUL for the daylight and the solid foundation of North Illinois street as we emerged from a "Poetic" flight of the imagination in the screening room at the RKO film exchange yesterday afternoon. We had seen "King Kong," which has the mark and stamp of a thrill picture to end all thrill pictures. No more shall we be discreet about that  midnight snack, for nightmares have lost their terror. The bogey man who disturbs sleep is like a child with a cap pistol compared with King Kong.

We had followed an adventurous movie producer from New York to an uncharted island in unexplored seas where superstitious natives worshipped a mighty being from which they protected themselves by a tremendous wall. Beyond that wall they discovered Kong- fifty feet high, a gigantic ape who could hold a human being in the palm of his hand.

The huge beast captures the pretty leading lady and carries her away to his mountain retreat through swamps infected with dinosaurs, dragons, and other prehistoric monsters. Most of the men who follow to save her are destroyed like flies. While Kong is defending prize against a great bird of prey, one of those who escaped carries her away. Kong follows in a rage, back to the very edge of the sea, where the producer and members of the crew who had remained behind overcome him with gas bombs and hope to make a fortune with him as "the eighth wonder of the world".

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THEY RETURN to New York and exhibit him on Broadway. Then the excitement really begins. Maddened by the sight of the woman who had eluded his grasp, Kong breaks his mighty bonds and runs amuck, carries her to the top of the Empire State Building. Airplanes spin about his head and pepper him with machine gun bullets He slaps one down as you would a sparrow. But the weapons of man finally take effect, and Kong crashes from the pinnacle to the earth. He had put his captive down to fight these strange mechanical birds and she is rescued, none the worse for her experience. That's the end of it.

THIS IS THE MOST amazing heroine in all screen history. It is the most remarkable feature of this very remarkable picture that she not only is alive but still in her right mind when the menace is finally removed. We have always admired the capacity of Thelma Todd, as foil for slapstick comedians, to absorb punishment, but she never suffered as Fay Wary suffers in "King Kong". Do they make it look real? Don't ask.




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Author Corbin Patrick must have been a Thelma Todd fan, although I don't remember him writing a lot about her for this paper even during that period. He continued to work for THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR for many years and was still at it when I was a young man. But at length he did retire, and I imagine he has since retired from this plane of existence as well.






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