Panic about King Kong

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Movie
German title Panic about King Kong
Original title Mighty Joe Young
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1949
length 94 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Ernest B. Schoedsack
script Ruth Rose
production Merian C. Cooper
for Argosy Pictures
music Roy Webb
camera J. Roy Hunt
cut Ted Cheesman
occupation

Panik um King Kong (original title: Mighty Joe Young ) is an American adventure and fantasy film directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack from 1949. Although the German title of the film is a sequel to the original King Kong film King Kong and wants to portray the white woman from 1933, this is not the case. Willis O'Brien , who had already worked on the 1933 film, was responsible for the stop-motion animations . In addition, Panik about King Kong marks the first movie in which Ray Harryhausen was able to prove his skills in stop-motion animation.

action

The little girl Jill Young, who lives with her widowed father John Young on a farm in Africa , one day trades a little gorilla for a few small things and an expensive flashlight . The father, initially slightly angry at the loss of the flashlight, allows his little daughter to raise and care for the primate, now called Joe .

Twelve years passed and seedy Max O'Hara, an American nightclub owner, wanted to capture lions and other wild animals for his new Africa show to show to the paying audience. To do this, he hires a few cowboys , who are supposed to get hold of the wild animals with lassos on their horses, which initially works.

One evening, however, there was unrest in the cowboys' camp when Joe, who had now grown to a stately size, caused panic among people and animals. Max O'Hara, on the other hand, sees him as an opportunity to get even more profit out of his planned show and has the truck-sized gorilla hunted down.

In view of the superhuman strength of the giant ape, however, any attempt to capture him fails and O'Hara himself is grabbed by Joe. Only through the courageous intervention of Jill Young, who has meanwhile grown into a young, attractive woman, can Joe be appeased.

After Jill's father passed away, she took over the management of the farm and continued to take care of Joe, who now more or less obeys her.

With empty promises and the prospect of fame and profit, Max O'Hara can convince Jill to appear with Joe in his new show at the nightclub "Golden Safari" in Los Angeles . The first appearance: Jill, who plays the piano, sits on a platform that slowly floats up. Not visible at first, you finally see Joe balancing the platform, Jill and the piano with ease over his head.

In the second appearance, Joe's strength is used even more effectively by letting him pull the rope against the “10 strongest men in the world” (the actor in this scene was, among others, the former boxing world champion Primo Carnera ). Naturally, after the monkey initially gives in, the musclemen lose and one after the other ends up in a water reservoir modeled on an African torrent . The height of the humiliation shows up in one of the following appearances. You can see how Jill as the organ player and Joe as the companion wearing a hat are pelted with cardboard coins by the now drunk audience. Everyone who can put their coins in Joe's hat receives a prize. For some of the drunk guests this performance is not enough and instead of coins they throw (empty) bottles at him. Between these humiliating shows, Joe is locked in a much too small, cold cage.

Jill and Gregg, one of the cowboys, don't like this situation. Since the two have grown closer in the meantime, they ask O'Hara to release Joe and return to his African homeland.

But it doesn't even get that far, because a group of three completely drunk men manage to get to Joe's cage and get him drunk with a few bottles of alcohol. When Joe has also emptied the last bottle on ex, one of the men gets angry about the loss of the same and injures Joe with a burning lighter. Joe, no longer in control, breaks out of his prison and demolishes the entire nightclub.

He is captured and a court order is made to shoot him. Max O'Hara then plagues his conscience , and he organizes the escape using several trucks. His vehicle serves as a distraction so that Joe, Jill and Gregg can escape in another truck.

On their way to freedom, they pass a burning children's orphanage , and Jill and Gregg decide to save the burned children. Except for one thing, they also succeed. Joe comes into play using a large tree next to the house to get to the upper floors of the burning house. He grabs the child carefully, is about to get down the tree to safety, but realizes that more than half of the child has already caught fire. The tree slowly gives way and Joe, who is clutching himself tightly, saves the last of the orphans through his deed and at the risk of his life. Because of this, grace is allowed to rule and Joe, Jill and Gregg are allowed to go back to the farm in Africa.

criticism

The lexicon of international film found the film to be “comical and sentimental” and only attested it to “isolated sensational highlights” . Marcus Littwin (tierhorror.de), on the other hand, says “If you don't know this film, you 've really missed something” and thinks the story is “told with a lot of heart and humor” .

background

Awards

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Panic about King Kong. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed April 7, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ↑ Panic about King Kong. (No longer available online.) In: tierhorror.de. Archived from the original on April 8, 2017 ; Retrieved April 7, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tierhorror.de
  3. ↑ World premieres according to IMDb

Sources and web links