King Kong Cometh

Paul.A.Woods

Plexus Press 2005

Australian Distributor is Bookwise.

King Kong Cometh pays homage to the colossal gorilla who has wreaked havoc on the silver screen since 1933. This vividly illustrated compendium traces the evolution of King Kong, from his predecessors in the jungle-movie travelogues of the 1920s and 1930s to B-movies and American and Japanese spin-offs of the legendary motion picture. It is presented as a series of essays and papers from different authors and different perspectives. These range from academic pieces to more personal reminiscences.

While certainly this is a volume packed with fascinating history, anecdotes and memories, there does seem to be a lot of repetition between the various writers and at times you feel you are going over the same material time and time again. This is a definite drawback to this volume but isn’t fatal. The sheer breadth of what is included, especially the rare and superb illustrations, make it an important volume in the history of King Kong cinema. Some of the more memorable highlights include a superb section of colour posters from the 1933 film, a recent interview with Ray Harryhausen on his experience of King Kong, reflections on the infamous faked jungle movie Ingagi and the influence of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World on King Kong.

This well presented volume includes over 100 illustrations and is a great guide to the history of an amazing cinematic creation..