Films directed by
Ernest B. Schoedsack

Mighty Joe Young

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★★★★★[/types]]

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It took them sixteen years, but they finally made a real sequel to the original King Kong. Okay, Mighty Joe Young is not technically a sequel to the 1933 classic, but they definitely share the same DNA. Like Kong, Joe Young was produced by Merian C. Cooper and directed by Ernest B. Shoedsack from a screenplay by Ruth Rose. Stop motion animation pioneer Willis H. O’Brien is still around, supervising his young protégé, Ray Harryhausen. From the cast, Robert Armstrong is back as nightclub owner Max O’Hara, who has a lot more ideas than sense. While he’s not playing Carl Denham, it’s easy to imagine O’Hara as Denham still living under an assumed name to evade the lawsuits stemming from the problems he had with the last big ape he ran into.

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Son of Kong

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★★★★★[/types]]

If you thought that rushed, unnecessary and inferior sequels to hit films were a recent phenomenon, think again. Son of Kong is proof positive that wringing every last dollar out of success has been standard operating procedure in Hollywood almost since before the ink was dry on Thomas Edison‘s patents.

This quickie sequel reunites most of the creative team from the original King Kong, including producer, Merian C. Cooper, director Ernest Schoedsack, screenwriter Ruth Rose and special effects supervisor Willis O’Brien, but with a fraction of the budget and time allotted to the first, this film lacks virtually every quality that made its predecessor a classic.

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King Kong

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★★★★★[/types]]

King Kong is one of those movies that, like Casablanca, has far exceeded even its creators’ expectations for longevity. The fact that, 70-plus years after its debut, its first release on DVD is big news should give some idea how this modest little monster movie turned into something more than what the filmmakers thought they were putting into it. In short, by overcoming the technical obstacles that stood in the way of it getting made, the creators of King Kong wound up inventing the special effects industry, sound effects editing and the modern concept of the motion picture musical score.

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