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king kong (1933)w/ deleted scenes & restored print in new jersey (1 Viewer)

Tino

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For clarification, I'm pretty sure that the version of King Kong that is being shown at the Loews Jersey is the version that has been readily available for years and does not include deleted "lost" scenes like the Spider scene among others.
The "deleted" scenes are the ones that were reinserted years ago, like Kong stripping Fay Wray, stomping and eating villagers, etc...right Pete?
I'll be there Friday night BTW;)
 

Peter Apruzzese

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Yes, this is the "same" version of KONG that's been around. But, and that is a big BUT, this may be the first time that a 35mm print has screened in this area of the version where those "reinserted" scenes are from 35mm material! All previous 35mm versions had those scenes inserted from dupe 16mm footage. So this will be something special.
Also don't forget about Saturday's matinee of GHOSTBUSTERS(brand-new 35mm print) and Saturday night's double feature of FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN (new 35mm print) and Hammer's HORROR OF DRACULA (UNCUT 1958 IB Technicolor print!). Come out and have some fun at a really big theatre! Cheap plug: See my collection of rare HORROR OF DRACULA film memorabilia on display in the Loew's lobby. Maybe I'll finally score a free ticket in exchange for bringing my posters down there... :D
 

MitchellD

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Yes, this will be the version of Kong that has been in circulation since the mid 1970's.

Pete, the "reinserted" scenes always came from 35mm material. I knew the person who found the old 35mm nitrate clips back in 1972. He was a film collector from Pennsylvania who aquired the clips on a reel as part of a trade. After figuring out what he had, he contact RKO which was, and still is, in business as a licensing company, to see if they were interested in restoring the Kong. They were not interested. He then contacted Janus Films, which had the non-theatrical distribution rights to Kong. They were interested, and he loaned the material to them so that they could strike a dupe negative. Janus then "restored" the film and did a major release of it. RKO then went bonkers since they were not making any money on this, and attempted to take legal action against the collector. Nothing came of it, but I remember holding the original reel of nitrate clips in my hands around 1979, and listening to this story which end with him telling me that because of all the hassles, he would never again get involved with a restoration.

/Mitchell
Loews Jersey Projection Staff
 

Peter Apruzzese

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Hi, Mitch. Don't you remember I was with you that same day when we also held the can of "The Blob" as well as touching the C57-D spaceship from Forbidden Planet? I think it was in 1981...

For some reason, I thought those were duped from 16mm, but, now that I think about it, you're correct. But the point is that those restored scenes always looked "dupey" and now they don't...
 

MitchellD

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> restored scenes always looked "dupey" and now they don't...

One of the many reasons I am looking forward to Friday at the Loews.

/Mitchell

Loews Jersey Projection Staff
 

Brian W.

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Pete, the "reinserted" scenes always came from 35mm material.
Not quite correct. Criterion was the first to restore these scenes, on their inaugural release back in 1985 or 1984). (It was a dual release with Citizen Kane.) These scenes were restored from 16mm footage, which was all that was known to exist at the time.

By the time Turner released their own version of the film on laserdisc (as a double feature with "Son of Kong") a few years later, 35mm prints of the missing footage had been located.
 

Peter Apruzzese

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Criterion was the first to restore these scenes, on their inaugural release back in 1985 or 1984). (It was a dual release with Citizen Kane.)
I don't think that this is correct. I saw Kong theatrically in 1982 in 35mm and it had the scenes inserted. I know I also saw it broadcast on New York's Channel 9 in the late 1970s with those scenes inserted. Also, one of the first videocassettes I ever owned was a VHS from The Nostalgia Merchant (purchased in 1982) that had the scenes inserted. And I was offered a 16mm print of Kong back in 80 or 81 that had the scenes inserted.
 

Brian W.

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Are you sure, Peter? Because I distinctly remember Criterion having to dub in these scenes from 16mm -- it said so in the packaging, and the difference was very noticeable. And I remember what a big deal they made about the scenes finally being restored.

Maybe I'll send Jon Mulvaney an email and see what he has to say about the subject. He'd know more than me.
 

Peter Apruzzese

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I'm as certain as memory allows, which, as we all know, is not infallible. I do seem to remember that Criterion did tout the deleted scenes, but I don't know what the reason was. Every indication I have is that the scenes first appeared in prints in the mid-to-late 1970s. Now that I think of it, I think Criterion's publicity about Kong centered around the fact that it was the first LaserDisc to include audio commentary.
This web page - http://www.aboyd.com/kong/kongfaqa7.html - concurs with my dating (and that Janus did the insertion) of the 1970s. I'm going to do more searching, though, for a primary source or a copy of the Nostalgia Merchant cassette (which preceded the LaserDisc).
EDIT:
Found a primary source - Ronald Haver himself on the liner notes (historian and the commentator on the Kong laser):
The sequences deleted in 1938 restored in 1969, with restored footage all coming from 16mm prints, so there is considerable difference in both image and sound quality between these scenes and the rest of the film.
 

Tino

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I was about to back Peter up in regard to when those scenes were reinserted, but obviously there is no need now.
I too remember seeing it for the first time back in the late 70's on Channel 9 in New York. They made quite a fuss at the time about this "new" version of King Kong, deservedly so I might add.:)
 

Blu

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I'm not that familiar with the history of Kong even though I've seen it many times.
How many scenes were deleted and do they even exist in this day and age?
 

Jack Briggs

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When I saw the 1971 reconstruction, two things stood out:

• The audiences. In 1971, anyone under the age of twenty acted and behaved as if this were a comedy. They laughed at 1933 convention and customs and behavior and acting. The laughter was so loud at all screenings I attended I simply could not enjoy myself. And I so dearly love King Kong.

This was an era just before the film conservation movement really took off, and a lot of people I think still looked at film as disposable in a way. Too, coming off the '60s, it was "hip" for some people to laugh at anything from an earlier time.

• The reconstructed prints I saw: The inserted scenes of Kong stomping and chomping on living beings had a distinct blueish cast to them, relative to the rest of the scratchy print. Sort of the way an uncalibrated Sony WEGA looks, ya know. (And the sound systems at the cinemas where I saw the 1971 reissue were not good.)

What's the latest on the DVD, btw? (Ooops! Software question!)
 

Peter Apruzzese

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I think it's due on DVD next year - the 60th Anniversary.

I am so looking forward to this Friday's screening. I'm bringing my seven-year-old son to it as I think this is the right time for him to come under its power.

EDIT - It's the *70th* Anniversary next year.
 

Brian W.

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They laughed at 1933 convention and customs and behavior and acting. The laughter was so loud at all screenings I attended I simply could not enjoy myself...it was "hip" for some people to laugh at anything from an earlier time.
I had the exact same experience a few years ago at a screening of West Side Story, attended mostly by people in their twenties. They laughed at everything -- the dancing, the dated slang, the high drama.
I prayed there would be a flash fire and that only I would make it out alive.
 

MitchellD

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Janus Films did the first major (film) re-release of the restored Kong in the mid 1970's. I still have some of their advertising material. Janus Films was also one of the co-founders of Criterien in the early/mid 1980's.

/Mitchell
 

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