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“If it isn’t true that Dino De Laurentiis, John Guillermin, and Lorenzo Semple Jr. (the producer, director, and screenwriter of the 1976 King Kong, respectively) actively never liked the 1933 film, it’s pretty clear that they thought it was broken and needed to be fixed. And the “solutions” they have provided for the “problems” of King Kong ’33 are almost all the most grievous no-scare-quotes problems with the film: the depiction of Ann Darrow, now Dwan, and gender and race politics by extension; the repurposing of the voyage to oil exploration and repositioning of the Carl Denham character to professional mustache twirling; and that guy in that ape suit.

“I was going to write about all three, but the first issue is so monstrous that it ate the other two. What has been done to the heroine in this film makes me prone to hyperbole and paroxysms of rage. The bottom line problem, that which I think all other problems regarding Lange and her Dwan flow from, is a directorial decision that the idea of this giant ape running off with this woman, her kicking and screaming in fear, is hot. They think it’s sooooo sexy. And oh man, do they want you to think it’s sexy too. And the worse part is, I think they think it’s smart to think it’s sexy.” [Read more]

Read this and more in our first month at ThePotemkin.com. We look at King Kong, 20th Century, and all things March 1933. 

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“In 1932, in a country reeling from the Great Depression, there might have been some pleasure in seeing the mighty like Jaffee fall and the “little nobody,” rise so high. Though Broadway was arguably more affordable in the 30s than it is today, not many Americans got to savor this role reversal on stage, but its certainly possible they enjoyed it when Howard Hawks brought the story to the screen in 1934. The movies of the 1930s managed to incorporate both the realities of America’s situation (primarily through gritty crime dramas) and the escapism of musicals like 42nd Street. 20th Century, as an early standard bearer of a genre specific to the 1930s, the screwball comedy, managed to do a little bit of both, while perhaps also pointing towards a new direction for American women.” [Read more]

Read the rest of Lois Anne DeLong’s article on the play 20th century and its various revivals and adaptations over the years.

At The Potemkin, we aim to reconstruct our world through multiple lenses, one historic month at a time.  Every month we feature a movie that was released that month some time in the past, write thoughtfully about it, and consider it from multiple angles. We put other film, literature, art, comics, culture, design, food and cocktails of the time in conversation with one another, aiming to recontextualize moments of the past. We strive for personal connections with our topics and aim to generate both joy and critical understandings of our subjects. We are attracted to oddities, idiosyncrasies, and anachronisms. We approach the past with an eye to celebrate it, and maybe tease it a little.