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King Kong novelisation by Delos W. Lovelace
01/01/2006 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Gollancz. 201 page hardback. Price: £ 6.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-575-07876-6. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.orionbooks.co.uk
From the start, there is a need to point out that this novelisation is not that of the film from 2005 but from 1932. Yep! It's a reprint of one of the oldest movie novelisations of a fantasy movie. Considering director Peter Jackson used the 1932 'King Kong' as his template for his latest film, any similarities to what is written here has to be more than incidental.
The plot is straight forward enough. Entrepreneur film-maker Carl Denham recruits Ann Darrow for a lead role when he takes his crew on a ship to the mysterious Skull Island to film the legendary beast-god Kong. The local tribe make regular sacrifices of one of their nubile daughters to this Kong but get taken by Darrow's blonde hair and see her as an alternative. When Denham and his crew refuse to hand her over, Ann Darrow is kidnapped and offered to Kong, who turns out to be a gigantic gorilla. Taken by her, Kong takes her home with some of Denham's people following and running into all kinds of hazards which kill them. Denham goes back to get more crew and gas bombs while first mate Jack Driscoll follows Kong's route. Not difficult considering his size although Kong stops along the way to sort out a large snake and pterodactyl before reaching his lair. Driscoll succeeds in getting to Darrow and they escape down a waterfall which takes them back to the front of the island. Kong pursues them and after devastating and killing the village tribe is taken down by gas bombs and taken back to New York for display. Chained and in a cage for display, Kong frees himself from the chains when he is startled by photographers' camera flashes and seeks Ann Darrow, taking her to the top of the Empire State Building. The choice is given because it gives Kong the opportunity to see all about him. It also gives the local air force a chance to finally shoot him down.
The theme of 'Beauty And The Beast' is used throughout and if you watched the original film over Yuletide, it should be obvious some of the details above are not quite what was in the film. The action with Kong is somewhat lighter if not a little different to the film. The reason for this actually comes out from Stephen Jones' afterward about the history of 'King Kong' because the novelisation came out before the film. If anything, this is very much in common with practices today. To ensure a novelisation comes out at the same time as the film release, it gets written from an earlier draft of the script. You can see it in the later 'Alien' and 'Predator' novelisations. Changes and scene omissions happening for various reasons. It wouldn't surprise me the same was true of the original 'King Kong'. I can't see Willis O'Brien wanting to animate Kong fighting a snake when it could be a T.Rex let alone in trying to do it in water. Likewise, it probably looked more dynamic to have Kong as seen chained in the film than to be covered in chains and looking more pathetic in the film. Then again, the book also shows just how much of a killer he is through devastating Denham's men and the Skull Island tribe so all things balance out. Certainly such treatment to subdue Kong would raise more than eyebrows by animal protections rights groups and such if it was filmed in contemporary times. No doubt the original script probably just indicated a particular sort of action to be filled in later by O'Brien which reflects in why there is more attention to the humans than Kong himself.
As such, this novelisation is certainly worth a look at and actually holds up rather well despite being over 70 years old now. Kong is seen more as a primeval force and far more brutal. No doubt if you're going a little 'King Kong' fanatic at the moment then this book is worth adding to your collection. Considering that this is also being used to promote the film, then this is also going to be the only novelisation around, so don't forget to pick it up.
GF Willmetts
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