Director
Ishiro Honda
Cast
Rhodes Reason - Comm. Carl Nelson
Linda Jo Miller - Lt. Susan Watson
Hideyo Amamoto - Dr. Who
Mie Hama - Madame Piranha
Haruo Nakajima - King Kong
Yu Sekida - Mechani-Kong and Gorosaurus
While I was growing up in the San Francisco Bay area, King Kong Escapes was the kind of movie that would air on a Sunday afternoon on KOFY TV 20 or on KBHK TV 44's Saturday night movie.
I can still hear the station bumper jingle. "We've got what you're looking for! K-O-F-Y TV Twenty! [whisper] Stereo."
With the sun streaming through the drapes into the living room and reflecting off the screen of our old family Zenith, and a tub of Costco gummy worms next to me on the floor, these Toho movies were fun to watch, and still are.
I searched for a copy of King Kong Escapes for quite sometime, and finally found a newly purchased copy at my local library.
Co-produced by Toho Studios in Japan (the company that brought us Godzilla and other Kaiju monsters) as well as Rankin/Bass Productions (the company that brought us Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and those other claymation Christmas movies) I wasn't sure if this was a sequel to Toho's third Godzilla movie King Kong vs. Godzilla from 1962.
King Kong Escapes was released in Japan as King Kong's Counterattack so, well, it can easily be considered a sequel. I don't see why not though Godzilla doesn't make an appearance. Instead, Kong squares off against Mechani-Kong - the remote controlled robot double of Kong. Oh, how I love you, Japan! 💖
The movie was directed by legendary Toho director Ishiro Honda who directed the first Godzilla movie Gojira (1954) and several other Godzilla films proceeding that. He also directed other Kaiju films such as Rodan (1956), Mothra (1961), War of the Gargantuas (1966), and Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965) - I'm still searching for a copy of this one. And of course he also directed King Kong vs. Godzilla, the remake of which is set to be released later this year.
If you've seen any Japanese monster movie from the 1960s, then you probably know what to expect with this movie.
An evil scientist (seriously, he's both of those things) named Dr. Who (No! Not that Dr. Who. This doctor is played by Hideyo Amamoto) builds a towering 60-foot robot version of King Kong in order to dig below the earth's service in the North Pole as he's searching for a substance called Element X.
So Mechani-Kong walks into an ice cave and starts digging through a glacier. Radiation shorts out its circuitry causing it to shut down.
Dr. Who decides the real King Kong could take over Mechani-Kong's work, and attempts to capture him.
On top of this, a supervisor named Madame Piranha (Mie Hama) berates the doctor as her country is financing his work yet he manages to fail.
Meanwhile, an American pretty boy named Comm. Carl Nelson (Rhodes Reason) is commanding a submarine to Kong's home, Mondo Island. I guess they didn't want to put him on Skull Island?
Seeing the name Rhodes Reason in the credits, I imagined Crow or Mike or someone on Mystery Science Theater 3000 saying "Rhodes stands to Reason." That's just what came into my head watching this.
Seeing the name Rhodes Reason in the credits, I imagined Crow or Mike or someone on Mystery Science Theater 3000 saying "Rhodes stands to Reason." That's just what came into my head watching this.
With Nelson is Lt. Susan Watson, whom Kong sees and falls in love with similarly to Kong falling in love with Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) in the 1933 movie King Kong.
Nelson finds Kong battling the giant dinosaur, Gorosaurus, and a sea serpent. It's a scene reminiscent of the classic scene from the original King Kong where Kong is duking it out with a T-rex, finally killing it by snapping its jaws in half. The same thing happens here. Classic!
Dr. Who also heads over to Mondo Island, kidnaps Kong, and furnishes him with an earpiece to control him.
He takes Kong back to the North Pole so he can send him to retrieve Element X.
The ear piece fails, so Who kidnaps Watson as she's the only person Kong will respond to.
And of course, obviously Kong and Mechani-Kong are going to fight once Kong escapes captivity and makes his way to Japan.
The movie is a fun sci-fi movie. It's entertaining, and a bit schlocky. Kong's appearance is on the cheesy side, but it's simply a product of its time. I can't in good conscience critique that. He looks just as he did in King Kong vs. Godzilla.
This is meant to entertain and impress audiences as they munch on their popcorn, or make out at the drive-in. Now it has a welcomed nostalgic feel to it. It's all that. Fun. Neat. Entertaining. Nostalgic. Kaiju fans should check it out.
This isn't necessarily a horror movie. It's obviously sci-fi. Still, I used to have nightmares about being chased by a giant gorilla or monster when I was young. I'd run through homes, and into an apartment, and could see a huge gorilla peering through windows looking specifically for me. So, this is a little retrospective for me.
This isn't necessarily a horror movie. It's obviously sci-fi. Still, I used to have nightmares about being chased by a giant gorilla or monster when I was young. I'd run through homes, and into an apartment, and could see a huge gorilla peering through windows looking specifically for me. So, this is a little retrospective for me.
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