More "Skull Island" prep work. It's been a few years since I last watched it. This looks to be the restored 104-minute version with the overture at the beginning.

They aren't shy about showing off the stop motion effects, and Kong gets a bit more screen time than I remember. I can really see how this thrilled audiences in the early 30's.

Some of the effects still look quite good (the shot of Kong climbing Empire State Building) and others haven't aged well- those close ups of Kong are particularly jarring.

One of the original scream queens Fay Wray is gorgeous here and there is a few risqué shots of Kong stripping her (I believe this is still pre-Hayes Code). The violence is quite brutal- men falling to their death, people being eaten by dinosaurs, Kong stepping on natives.

It has a good pace and the dialogue is sharp too- it moves along quite nicely for a film made at a time when a lot of movies were still very stagey.

The Carl Denham character fascinates me. I'm always a sucker for these carny/huckster types in old movies.

I used to have this on a double set with "Son of Kong" but I've either lost it or sold it at this point.