Birthday Party Monster

What could I have been thinking? I missed the big guy's birthday, and not just any birthday. On April 7, King Kong turned seventy-five years old. He doesn't look a day over forty feet tall.
In hindsight, I should have known that something was going on, since WTBS and TNT were taking the time out of their busy programming day to simulcast Peter Jackson's remake to commemorate the occasion. A lot of folks sneered at that one, saying that three hours plus of a giant ape chasing a pretty blond girl was just excessive. To which I would say, "Excessive? Maybe, but necessary."
Necessary because, long before I starred in films made by my older brother and later made my own, I learned film magic by watching Merian C. Cooper's original. That little beauty clocks in at just about half the running time of its 2005 remake, but it hits all the same high points: Skull Island appearing out of the fog. The first look at that really big gorilla. The battle with the Allosaurus. The crash through the wall. The rampage through New York and the climb up the Empire State Building. The girl in the hairy paw.
My mother got me out of bed when I was seven to watch it the first time, and I'm still watching today. The psychological aspects of the story aren't that hard to dissect, and the subtext may be what gives the story such an enduring appeal. Sure, it's "Beauty and the Beast", as Carl Denham will tell you more than half a dozen times in the course of the film, but it's bigger than that. Lots bigger.
Or maybe it's lots smaller. The real King Kong was just eighteen inches tall when he prowled around Skull Island. When he got to New York, he had grown an additional six inches to appear ever more menacing - at a staggering two feet. It is a testament to the skill of Willis O'Brien, the special effects genius who animated the fur-covered armature that became one of the most beloved screen characters of all time, that size doesn't really matter. This stop-motion puppet has moments of comedy and pathos mixed in with all the stomping around. Dino De Laurentis may have imagined that people would cry when they saw his Kong die, but it they did, it was only upon reflection of the one, true King.
Happy Birthday, Kong.