King Kong is a 1933 American pre-Code adventure horror monster film[5] directed and produced by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, with special effects by Willis H. O'Brien and music by Max Steiner.

The film follows a giant ape dubbed Kong who feels affection for a beautiful young woman offered to him as a sacrifice.

[10] In New York Harbor, filmmaker Carl Denham, known for wildlife films in remote exotic locations, is chartering Captain Englehorn's ship, the Venture, for his new project.

The men encounter living dinosaurs; they manage to kill a charging Stegosaurus, but are attacked by an aggressive Brontosaurus and eventually Kong himself, leaving Jack and Denham as the only survivors.

Capitalizing on this trend, Congo Pictures released the hoax documentary Ingagi (1930), advertising the film as "an authentic incontestable celluloid document showing the sacrifice of a living woman to mammoth gorillas."

Ingagi is now often recognized as a racial exploitation film as it implicitly depicted black women having sex with gorillas and baby offspring that looked more ape than human.

"[20] Initially Cooper planned to film in Africa and Komodo Island, but the idea was abandoned when RKO executives decided it would be too expensive.

[58] King Kong is well known for its groundbreaking use of special effects, such as stop-motion animation, matte painting, rear projection, and miniatures, all of which were conceived decades before the digital age.

[3] Even though funding for the film was nearly gone, Cooper and Schoedsack decided it needed an original score because they worried that Kong might be too unbelievable as a character and also did not want to use a generic soundtrack.

[92] During composition he took inspiration from Debussy and Ravel, specifically for the music that was to play during the ocean scene when Denham and his crew travel to Skull Island.

[114] Later in life Cooper expressed that "much of the reason for [King Kong's success] is because Maxie Steiner was able to create what no other man that I knew of in Hollywood at that time could".

The Production Code's stricter rules were put into effect in Hollywood after the film's 1933 premiere and it was progressively censored further, with several scenes being either trimmed or excised altogether for the 1938-1956 rereleases.

[1][128] An additional scene portraying giant insects, spiders, a reptile-like predator and a tentacled creature devouring the crew members shaken off the log by Kong onto the floor of the canyon below was deemed too gruesome by RKO even by pre-Code standards.

[131]RKO did not preserve copies of the film's negative or release prints with the excised footage, and the cut scenes were considered lost for many years.

[74][136] U. S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared the four-day nationwide bank holiday three days after the film's premiere in New York City.

In 1984, King Kong was one of the first films to be released on LaserDisc as part of the Criterion Collection, and was the first movie to have an audio commentary track included.

[149] The VHS release from Turner was a 60th-anniversary edition in 1992 featuring a front cover that had the sound effect of Kong roaring when his chest was pressed.

[152] The DVD release had numerous extra features, including a new, third audio commentary by visual effects artists Ray Harryhausen and Ken Ralston, with archival excerpts from actress Fay Wray and producer/director Merian C. Cooper.

Disc 2 included more in-depth features, with a short biographical film on Cooper, and "RKO Production 601: The Making of King Kong", produced by Peter Jackson.

The DVD was also sold in a limited edition with Son of Kong and Mighty Joe Young[153] Warners issued a US digibook-packaged Blu-ray in 2010.

[158] The periodical included a multi-page booklet in its March issue, featuring production stills and concept sketches alongside critical praise for the film.

[169] The Washington City Paper called it "a movie upon whose foundation we’ve built a sizable section of contemporary pop culture".

[171] While Ed Symkus of USA Today claims the film "stands tall as a groundbreaking piece of jaw-dropping, eye-widening entertainment",[172] James Berardinelli writes that "advances in technology and acting have dated aspects of the production".

[173] Brian Eggert claims that "King Kong's greatness remains in part because it demonstrates a compendium of Classic Hollywood production strategies."

Even allowing for its slow start, wooden acting, and wall-to-wall screaming, there is something ageless and primeval about King Kong that still somehow works.

[177] In the 19th and early 20th century, people of African descent were commonly represented visually as ape-like, a metaphor that fit racist stereotypes further bolstered by the emergence of scientific racism.

[184] The film was later criticized for racist stereotyping of the natives and Charlie the Cook, played by Victor Wong, who upon discovering the kidnapping of Ann Darrow, exclaims "Crazy black man been here!".

[190] Author Daniel Loxton suggested that King Kong inspired the modern day legend of the Loch Ness Monster.

[201][202] American Film Institute Lists Delos W. Lovelace was hired by Cooper to compose a novel version of King Kong.

[205] In 1976, producer Dino De Laurentiis released a modern remake of King Kong,[204] following the same basic plot, but moving the setting to the present day and changing many details.