King Kong: The Toho Movies (1962–67)

King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)

Dir. Ishirō Honda

I reviewed KKvG in my Godzilla: Shōwa Era Films (1954-74) post, but it was from a 'Godzilla movie' perspective, not a King Kong one. Logic says I should re-watch it from a Kong perspective, but I vowed never to suffer its woeful story ever again, so I've simply copy/pasted from the previous post, with some minor editing. I don't think my overall opinion would've changed much, anyhow.

The most positive thing that I can muster to say about KKvG is that it's the first King Kong movie to be shot in full widescreen and on colour stock. It's pretty terrible otherwise.

Fans who only want a monster bash will have to wait an hour before the two titans even meet, and when it happens it's laughable.

Kong looks idiotic as he beats his tits and throws rocks. Godzilla waves his arms like a kid with limited pocket money in a toy shop getting excited over clearance goods. I could ignore all of that if the human story was up to scratch, but it isn't. KKvG is a giant sized misstep that skipped all rungs on the ladder.

King Kong Escapes (1967)

aka King Kong's Counterattack

Dir. Ishirō Honda

Because KKvG did well, Toho wanted more ape. The result is a joint production with Rankin/Bass that's part US monster movie and part Japanese kaijū movie, with an American lead and a Japanese evil-doer.

The plot is bonkers: a rich madame (Mie Hama) wants a rare element mined from the earth, so seeks aid from Dr Who (not that one), a crazy James Bond-esque scientist (Hideyo Amamoto), who builds a mecha version of Kong to do the dangerous work.

Shit happens (radiation, naturally) and Mecha ends up battling the real King Kong, while dashing US submarine commander Carl Nelson (Rhodes Reason) stays dashing, especially during (contractual?) close-ups.