***EXTRA***King Kong 1976
One over-hyped movie that I skipped in 1976 was the remake of what had become one of my favorite films--KING KONG. This one received a ton of publicity regarding everything from robotic apes to its more-or-less newly discovered starlet, Jessica Lange. It also had this amazingly cool poster with Kong straddling the still-new Twin Towers in a scene nothing like anything found on-screen!
I pieced this one together from a two-page ad in TV GUIDE 35 years ago last week. The film was not well-received critically nor by fans of the classic version but it didn't do that badly. Jessica Lange has actually been in the news this week in 2011 for her break-up with Sam Shepherd.
I finally saw the picture when it aired on network TV a year or two later.
I bought the movie soundtrack which a great poster of Kong breaking down the gates of the massive wall that divided Skull Island. I also had a puzzle that was the movie poster as well as the scale model. I collected all those thing even though I found the film terribly disappointing. As fourteen year old I apparently had plenty of disposable income.
ReplyDeleteAlberto Ramirez Jr.
I SAW KING KONG 76 IN Nashville, TN. THE THEATER WAS JAMMED AND WE HAD TO SIT IN THE 1st OR 2ND ROW Our heads tilted Up THE ENTIRE FILM.
ReplyDeleteWORST SEATS EVER! Almost the worst movie I ever saw in a theater. Some kid cried at the end...Screaming Crying! Miserable. Bah!
King Kong is the first movie poster I recall seeing at our local Salisbury Mall in Maryland (had a picture reminder of the poster in the background of me and my sister going there dressed up to see a special in'store appearance by Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. The World of Disney characters were perhaps our biggest pop culture obsession at the time; We watched "The Wonderful World.." every Sunday night, the old and the New Mickey Mouse Club in syndication. got books and a plastic book holder from "The Wonderful World of Reading" series as seen on TV, even went to Disney World in Florida that summer of '77...)
ReplyDeleteWe also had a jigsaw puzzle of that King Kong movie poster. I knew nothing of the actual King Kong movie til I saw the MAD Magazine parody "King Korn" 5 years later. Watched a made-for-TV version a year later. Caught the full version on VHS in 1986. Not a great movie but truly a lesson in over-hype-ness. And would rewatch every now and then..