El regreso de King Kong

This movie is a follow-up to 1962's "King Kong vs. Godzilla." This time, King Kong was kidnapped by a mad scientist, who planned to use him to dig up Element X (a key ingredient for a nuclear bomb). Along the way Kong battles a giant sea snake, Gorosaurus (Godzilla's buddy) and a replica of himself called Mecha-Kong. The directing and special effects were OK, and the story was serviceable. I think that Toho intended to give this movie a James Bondish treatment, since "You Only Live Twice" (1967) was released the same year and actress Mie Hama, who appeared as bond girl Kissy in the 007 flick, appeared in this movie.

The movie could have used more suspense and human action. The monster scenes were OK, though some scenes, especially with the helicopters, were really cheesy. If Kong was almost the same size as Godzilla, I wouldn't think that he would be dwarfed by the Tokyo Tower (and having the ability to climb it). Nonetheless, I think the tower scene where the two monsters duke it out was a pretty remarkable special effect.

Four major problems I have with this movie are about the characters. First of all, Commander Nelson (Rhodes Reason) is supposed to be one of the heroes in the story, but he basically didn't do anything important. He lost a little Karate-fight to the main villain, and then played chess with him afterward while his two friends were confined to a below 0 degree cell! Also, his acting was plain. Second, Lieutenant Watson (Linda Miller) was a very annoying character and had such an irritating voice. However, her role is of some importance (especially in the parts where she told Kong to stop shaking the sub she and the crew were in and where she calmed Kong down while he was on the loose in Tokyo). Third, the part where Lt. Nomura (Akira Takarada) told an official he's Lieutenant Nomura (he's not in uniform) and asked to let him take command is a bit awkward. How would the official be sure he's who he claimed to be? Fourth, the henchmen in the movie were just stupid. To sum it all, the better acting actually goes to the two main villains! Dr. Who (Eisei Anamoto) gave an outrageously cruel performance. He's wildly funny, with his wild white hair and long black cape, and he's pretty darned skillful with the trigger. And, Madame Piranha (Mie Hama) steals the show. She's bewitching, spellbinding and beautiful. She is the true hero of the movie *spoiler* since it was she who destroyed Mecha-Kong's control system, thereby, defeating the robot completely. I wish she would have had a better fate in the movie.

The monster action was OK. City destruction was limited, though, and King Kong looked pretty dumb. The costume used for the monster was hideous, but still better than the one used in "King Kong vs. Godzilla."

Above all, this movie was very average - not the best from Toho. The plot lines really go all over the place. What made up for this movie was Akira Ifukube's great, haunting music score and Mie Hama.

Grade C+

I had to move this review over from "Kingu Kongu tai Gojira." Hard to keep the Japanese movies straight when the same monsters keep reappearing. I saw this one under the title "King Kong versus Doctor Who" (that's this one, right?) and cheap though the movie was-- and evidently completely unrelated to the famous Doctor Who of British TV-- I was impressed that Kong and his karma are faithfully characterized in a new story. The writers here understand that the thing about Kong is how his power makes him attractive to ignoble exploiters who, although he could crush them with a finger, have technology and craftiness that level the playing field for them against Kong, more or less. The "more or less" is where the tension of the story comes from. That and the second thoughts about whether civilization is using its dominion over nature wisely. In the original movie Kong was exploited by humans for entertainment; here he is exploited for labor and finds himself in the role of a John Henry whose strength is matched against that of his mechanical counterpart. The symbolism of the original film is not violated but only enriched.

I've seen "King Kong Escapes" several times on American television with English dubbing, commercial interruptions, scenes omitted, and full-screen format. Despite all that, I found "King Kong Escapes" to be a fun, silly, enjoyable fantasy movie. One criticism I have is that the fight between Kong and robot Kong was too short.

Many reviewers have complained about the annoying voice of Linda Miller, but this was actually the voice of another actress. For some reason, the producers decided to dub Miller, even though she spoke English.

I recently purchased a DVD copy of this movie on eBay, with the original Japanese dialogue, uncut, in wide-screen. The script is slightly more mature and sensible, and the Japanese dubbing of the English speaking actors (Rhodes Reason, Miller) is done very well. Even the Japanese version is silly, though. But like I said, silly in an enjoyable way.

As it states under 'Trivia', 'King Kong Escapes' was a tie-in to the Rankin-Bass 'King Kong' cartoon series, and to be honest, this film is very much a children's movie, featuring a cartoonish super-villain, a faintly ridiculous plot and comical fight scenes. This shouldn't be taken to mean that I hate the film, however. While it's not as good as Toho's previous Kong outing, 'King Kong VS Godzilla', it's still okay if you're in the mood for that kind of thing. I've never seen the cartoon, but the plot of this film is straightforward enough that you don't need to.

The film does have a number of flaws, the most notable being King Kong himself. I personally thought the ape suit from KKVG looked pretty impressive, but KKE's version is more than a little silly, particularly the face, with its wide, staring eyes and permanently open mouth, which makes Kong look like he's high. Also, the fights with the other monsters aren't overly impressive; the battle on Mondo Island (Kong had obviously moved from Skull Island after it was destroyed at the end of Son of Kong) with Gorosaurus is actually quite funny, particularly when Kong gets repeatedly drop-kicked, but the showdown with Mecha-Kong is a bit anticlimactic, particularly compared to the city-destroying smackdowns of KKVG and the best of the Godzilla series.

The plot is some silly gubbins about mining a radioactive element, and King Kong comes into the story after the evil Dr Who (not the time-travelling character from the long-running British T.V series) builds a robot ape, only for it to fail. He then kidnaps the real Kong, but he escapes (hence the title) and the usual Kaiju action ensues. The human element is rather bland, although this is probably the fault of the script rather than the actors. Linda Miller is the ersatz Fay Wray of this picture, her role generally consisting of being picked up by Kong and trying to save the big ape from getting into trouble. Rhodes Reason is solid if unspectacular, and Dr. Who makes a good, over-the-top villain.

Having said that, I do think it's a shame Toho never made any more Kong movies. Personally, I would have loved to have seen Mecha-Kong come back, perhaps in a Godzilla movie. Given that Godzilla battled so many monsters over the years, it might have been interesting if he had come up against King Kong again, maybe in a scenario that forced them to work together against one or more of the many monster that big G faced.

Kaiju fans like me always know well enough to check our desire for (a) believable dialogue and (b) completely realistic special effects at the door when we settle ourselves down to watch what Japan has specialized in for five decades now. As quality filmmaking, King Kong Escapes is of course laughably bad, especially to those who deify the 1933 original. But in the context of Japanese giant monster kaiju, King Kong Escapes is one of the better entries to be found, coming in the 1960s when the focus was less tounge in cheek, more action-oriented, and free of the kiddie thrust that REALLY made Japanese monster movies annoyingly bad in the 1970s (Gamera sequels and Godzilla vs. Gigan anyone?). In a ways, after the dark,brooding seriousness of the original "Godzilla" in 1954, the 1960s saw movies more in the Armageddon-Mummy vein of action, special effects and empty-headed scripts. And while those weaned on GCI will find this hard to believe, the work of Eiji Tsuburaya was considered top of the line for its day (when you stop to think of it, how different are the SFX of Japanese monster movies all that different from American movies, pre-2001: A Space Odyssey? Not much really). And truth be told, I find these kaiju movies of the 60s to have a lot more charm than their 90s American counterparts like "Armageddon" or the Tri-Star "Godzilla."

Eisei Ammamoto, a veteran of Japanese sci-fi, deliciously chews the scenery as the villainous "Dr. Who" while Bond girl veteran Mie Hama ("You Only Live Twice") provides lovely visual distraction as "Madame X", and is far more appealing than the bland non-actress Linda Miller (badly dubbed by cartoon voice Julie Bennett who also dubs Hama!) as the object of Kong's affection (and let's set the record straight, this is NOT the woman of the same name who is Jackie Gleason's daughter, no matter what the erroneous IMDB data base says). The most amusing part of the script is how they almost seemingly plagiarized from "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" in their basic premise (a sub commander named Nelson for goodness sake!). No matter though. Bad dubbing, lame script notwithstanding, "King Kong Escapes" is pleasantly mind-numbing fun from the peak period of kaiju cinema.

Incidentally, I'm glad to note that Rhodes Reason, who by his own admission "knew the film was lousy but couldn't pass up the trip to Japan" to make it, was able to overcome this in the long-run and earn better notices as Daddy Warbucks in numerous Broadway productions of "Annie."