Son Of Kong is the son I never knew the original King Kong had!

One of the real pleasures I’ve found in blogging about movies is the joy of discovery. Inevitably, blogging about movies leads you to a far broader range of genres and filmmakers than you might otherwise have encountered but sometimes, it’s the thrill of discovering films you simply never knew existed. SON OF KONG is one of those. In fact, when I embarked on a short series of monkey business in the run-up to GODZILLA VS KONG, I was completely unaware that far from being a sequel-free zone, the only version of KING KONG which never had a sequel was Peter Jackson’s lavish 2005 remake.

Released a mere nine months after the original broke the cinematic mold and box office records, SON OF KONG brings back many of KING KONG’s iconic cast with three notable exceptions. The apex ape himself, of course, is just so much monkey stew for the army by this point but also absent without leave (or explanation) are Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot) and Anne Darrow (Fay Wray), although recordings of Wray’s benchmark-setting screams do find their way into the movie.

Set a month after the destruction of downtown New York by Kong, filmmaker and erstwhile ape impresario Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) is hiding from process servers and has almost been sued into bankruptcy. When he learns he’s about to be indicted by a grand jury, he meets up with Captain Englehorn (Frank Reicher) and the two of them set off for the far east. In Dakang, they meet up with Norwegian skipper, Nils Helstrom (John Marston), who had originally given Denham the map to Skull Island. He convinces Denham that there is treasure on Kong’s island and Denham sees an opportunity to return to Skull Island and restore his fortunes. The three men set off, not realising that they have a stowaway aboard: Hilda Peterson (Helen Mack), a Dakang showgirl.

Returning director/ producer team Ernest B Schoedsack and Merian C Cooper were given half the budget of the original and six months to get a sequel to RKO’s smash hit into cinemas for the lucrative Christmas period, so it’s hardly a surprise that SON OF KONG runs a very trim sub-seventy minutes and still finds time to spend on an excruciatingly bad musical number early in proceedings. It’s a deliberately lighter and somewhat sillier affair, as returning screenwriter Ruth Rose decided early on that they wouldn’t be able to make the sequel bigger, so they’d better make it funnier.

Robert Armstrong clearly relishes being the leading man here and seems to have more fun with his character now that’s he’s properly front and centre. There’s not even a giant ape to upstage him this time, as Kong Jr is merely twice the height of a normal person and, unlike his pitch-black pa, a snow-white albino gorilla. He also doesn’t turn up until about forty minutes into the movie so Armstrong has plenty of room to strut his stuff.

There’s something very satisfying about this kind of sequel because it picks up almost every dangling thread of the original. As well as the consequences of Kong’s Broadway rampage, Denham finds there are those who hold him responsible for the destruction on Skull Island too, namely the natives who are none to pleased to see him again after he, Englehorn, Helstrom, Hilda and Charlie the Cook (Victor Wong) wash up on their shores following a mutiny aboard Englehorn’s ship.

There are, of course, a whole load of few – and some familiar – perils awaiting our plucky band of heroes in the jungles of Skull Island, as well as an enormous jewel from an abandoned stone idol which Denham takes ‘for safe keeping’. Little Kong turns out to be a more convivial companion than his predecessor, too, and develops quite a sweet bond of trust with Denham after the latter rescues him from quicksand.

SON OF KONG has the same standard of pioneering special effects as KING KONG did – sometimes exactly the same as models and even footage is reused for some Skull Island sequences but it’s understandably not quite as impactful as the original and there are moments where the effects aren’t quite so special. Then again, it does feature some rock ‘em sock ‘em ape vs cave bear/ ape vs dinosaur action, Little Kong’s goofier personality makes for an appealingly different screen presence to his brooding, primal papa and there’s a poignant echo of the first film’s ending in how this one concludes.