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After King Kong has laid half of New York to ruins (see King
Kong), showman Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) finds himself on the
run from a few hundred lawsuits, and before you know it, he finds himself
on the high seas again, travelling the world on Captain Englehorn's (Frank
Reicher) freighter - but somehow the two manage to earn not even a buck in
the freight business, so when they meet Helstrom (John Marston), a
desperate man on the run from the law, who tells them about a treasure on
Kong Island, they are more than happy to return there - but Helstrom is so
rotten, he tries to have them marooned on the island via a mutiny, but
then is thrown off the ship by the very men he hoped to lead himself,
along iwht stowaway Helene (Helen Mack), the very woman whose father
(Clarence Wilson) he has murdered and the Chinese cook (Victor Wong). On
the island, our shipwrecked heroes (and villain) meet the son of Kong, who
fights quite a few savage beasts, but whom Helene and Denham are able to
befriend ... and then a volcano breaks out, and while Helstrom makes a
cowardly escape and is killed by a dinosaur for it, the others heroically
stick together, and when Denham almost dies saving the others, Kong gives
his life to save Denham ... King
Kong is an undisputed classic, there is no doubt about that, but
this hastily produced sequel is anything but: Admittedly, it starts out
rather amusing with Denham trying to dodge all responsibility for what
happened in the first movie, but then the whole set-up drags on and on,
and we are already half-way through the movie before we even see Kong. Now
this of course worked for the original King
Kong because the wait for the monkey was part of teh build-up of
audience expectations and suspense, but here it's more of a timewaster, as
the story as such is rather obvious from square one. And when we see Kong
for the first time, what a disappointment, he is not the force of nature
his father was, but a good-natured pal to the lead couple who even speaks
to them via gestures every now and again and who is allowed to die a
hero's death in the end. Sure, his scenes are still well-made, but as much
was to be expected, right? In all though, I might have to point out this
is not the worst film ever made, it's a somewhat entertaining (if
totally pointless) B-picture, but nothing more, and certainly no worthy
successor to King Kong.
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