[HorrorScience] Son of Kong (1933)

In today's cinema we are accustomed to many films being shot with the sequels in mind, leaving loose ends or avoiding using specific ideas or characters in order to use them in the sequels, which will surely be shot at the same time to give birth to a trilogy.

This "immediate sequelitis» in which one does not even wait to see the result of a film to shoot the next is something quite current, (although in the past there have been some similar cases) so it is normal that we are surprised when we discover that some films that had a great success at the box office waited 2, 3, and even 5 years to have their first sequel.

However, there are also some opposite cases, when a film has such a thunderous success that the producers realize that they have to take advantage of the moment, which forces them to shoot a sequel at full speed, a situation that will surely be reflected in the final quality of the product.

So, today I am going to talk about one of those “express sequels”; specifically of Son of Kong (The Son of Kong), sequel to the world famous king kong (1933) which hit theaters the same year as the original and which It is considered the first sequel in the history of cinema (although I haven't bothered to check to what extent this is true).

Carl Denham, best known as the man who brought King Kong to New York, is hiding in a hostel room, avoiding all the people who send him court summons or demand money for his injuries and losses after Kong's attack.  Because he is in total ruin after his failure with Kong and the high number of complaints he accumulates, he is about to be put on trial, so he contacts Captain Englehorn (owner of the ship he used to go to the island where he found Kong) to find some way to escape his legal problems.

Due to their bad situation, they decide to flee the city and start a new life using Englehorn's ship as a freighter, with which they can go to another part of the world to try to make their fortune. At their first stop they discover that their situation is worse than they thought, as they barely have the money to support the grumpy sailors they hired.

In order to alleviate his problems, Denham decides to convince Englehorn to go see a small show, where they will meet a young girl named Helena and her father, who was once the ringmaster of one of the largest circuses in the world, but who fell into misery due to his alcoholism.

From that habit he still has the meetings he has with Captain Hellstrom, a rather deplorable man who sank his ship to collect the insurance, but when he failed to do so he was also left in ruin. Due to an argument Hellstrom accidentally kills the owner of the circus and also as a result of that argument the tent of the small circus he owned is the victim of a fire.

Hellstrom turns out to be the man who gave the map of Kong Island to Denham and due to the recent event, the circus convinces him and Englehorn to return to the island to get the treasure there, which would solve everyone's financial problems.

Young Helena, devastated after the loss of her father and his show, strikes up a friendship with Denham, who gives her money to start over in another place and tells her that he will soon leave that port to take a long trip.

On the high seas, they will discover that Helena has hidden on the boat, so they will have to take her to the dangerous Kong Island. Hellstrom, after learning what happened on the previous visit, dedicates himself to spreading fear among the sailors, assuring them that they will not leave the island alive, thereby getting them to stage a mutiny and throw Denham, Englehorn, Helena and the cook (who does not trust his companions) from the ship, when they are on the coast of the island. The sailors, showing enormous common sense, do not accept Hellstrom as the new captain (we are not going to get rid of a good captain, to serve a bad one) whom they throw overboard, at the same time as they leave with the ship.

As soon as they arrive on the island, our protagonists are received in a very hostile manner by the indigenous people of the place, which forces them to look for another more secluded area of ​​the island to land and explore the surroundings to look for food and shelter.

Denham and Helena quickly find a “little” albino Kong, which is trapped in quicksand. Out of pure remorse for what happened to King Kong, Denhan decides to help him out by throwing a tree so that the little ape can save his life. This fact will make Kong become attached to them, and he will follow and protect them throughout the film.

Will the protagonists be able to leave Skull Island alive? Will they find the treasure? What will happen to little Kong?

Son of Kong It is a short, light-hearted, excessively humorous film with worse special effects than the first part, which shows that The rush they took to do it did not compensate for the final result., which is very far from the original.

The good thing about this film is that it gives us the possibility of seeing the consequences of the previous film, as well as seeing the development of Carl Denham, who not only regrets having taken Kong to New York, but also seeks to redeem himself in some way.

The other protagonist of the film is the baby Kong, who is used in a totally bipolar way and without much sense, interspersing stupid moments (blows and falls with sounds worthy of Scooby Doo either The Flintstones) with brutal combats against beasts of the island.

Despite this exaggerated contrast, baby Kong becomes a quite affable character, especially in the final stretch of the film.

In summary, Kong's son It is a passable film, designed for a younger and broader audience than the original. The speed at which it was shot deprived us of many scenes that would surely have improved the final product, which means that this sequel falls far behind what was seen in the first part, but despite this it includes very epic moments such as the end of the film.

Curiosities of the film:

• Ruth Rose (the screenwriter) said that she made the film more humorous than the previous one because “if you're not capable of making something bigger, at least make it funnier.”
• When this film was filmed, the existence of albino gorillas was unknown since the only specimen found (Snowflake) was found in 1966.
• Robert Armstrong (Carl Denham in the film) prefers this film to the previous one, because his character is developed much more and shows his more human side.
• Kong's son was named Kiko during post-production, but that name is never mentioned in the film.
• The ending of this film was going to include a stampede of prehistoric beasts, but that scene was ultimately not included due to time constraints.