Sunday, April 6, 2008

Tune in to TCM: Kong at 75

"Smile, it's your birthday."

In the 75 years since it made its debut, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack's King Kong has withstood censorship, cries of racism, a few remakes and numerous rip-offs, but more importantly, it has stood the test of time.

Even today, with all the computer imagery and technically razzmatazz one can throw on the screen, the simple story of "boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy is a giant ape that terrorizes Manhattan" still resonates with all the energy and wonder of when one saw it for the first time as a child on a black and white TV set, covering your eyes just enough whenever the lumpy behemoth crossed the screen. Kong may have been the monster of this "monster movie", but you still cried when he made that faithful plunge off the side of the Empire State Building ... and you still do when you re-watch it today.

In celebration of this anniversary of the original release of the original Kong, Turner Classic Movies will be airing it, along with four other classics from 1933 (Dinner at Eight, Little Women, 42nd Street and Queen Christina), tomorrow night beginning at 8:00 PM EST.

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