As Peter Jackson’s new version of King Kong receives its world premiere on Monday, the BBC News website looks at the lasting legacy of the original film.
King Kong has become one of the most enduring monster films of all time – not bad for a picture made 72 years ago, starring an 18-inch model ape.
Co-directed by the maverick film-makers Merian C Cooper and Ernest B Schoedsack, it was made decades before the computer-generated special effects seen in contemporary fantasy films.
The tale of a gigantic ape who falls for a beautiful woman was partly shot using the stop motion technique – where Kong and dinosaur miniatures were moved an infinitesimal amount, shot, moved again, re-shot, moved again…