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Empire State Building trick shot inserted in 1952??

posted 10 years ago by DickyBettsBass
3 replies | jump to latest

In the trivia section for this movie, it says:

"Actual close-up footage of The Empire State Building was added to the film when it was re-issued in 1952, for the scene where Kong grabs the first plane and tosses it off the side of the building. We see a pristine picture of the Empire State Building as it existed in the 1950s with its TV antenna. In the other scenes the landmark building was part of "Hollywood Set", with archival aerial footage of the New York City skyline added. Consequently, the only actual "on-location" filming was done 19 years after the film's first release. Film processing improved by that time, and the difference in clarity between the 1933 footage and the added 1952 shot is quite evident."

Yes, this shot has always struck me as quite clear and sharp, lacking the grainy quality of other shots, but this comment made me wonder: says who? Inserted by whom? Where is the supposed TV antenna?

Image: http://i57.tinypic.com/339q9m8.jpg

I've never read anything about this. There are photographs of the little biplane model being dropped in front of a blue screen during movie production in 1932 or '33 in Orville Goldner and George Turner's 1975 book.

I more and more get the impression that people can add anything to these trivia sections, without any proper references. If I would say that there are about 10 scenes with an actor in an ape suit, would it get displayed in the trivia section? Well, I'm not one to try, as I don't want to add to even more internet disinformation.

Dicky

[–] sage2112 9 years ago

I think you're probably right about some of the trivia being bogus. During filming Ms. Wray had collapsed, and when she came to, it was a negro holding a smelling salt under her nose. She screamed "Kong!" and passed out again. True story not.

[–] DickyBettsBass 9 years ago

Ha, this sounds too 'bad' to be true indeed! 😊

It kind of irks me too that even TIME Magazine keeps spreading bogus stories about the movie, based on their old 1933 premiere review.

They recently reprinted this bit:

King Kong, “conceived” by Merian Coldwell Cooper, was not made entirely by enlarging miniatures. Kong is actually 50 ft. tall, 36 ft. around the chest. His face is 6½ ft. wide with 10-in. teeth and ears 1 ft. long. He has a rubber nose, glass eyes as big as tennis balls. His furry outside is made of 30 bearskins. During his tantrums, there were six men in his interior running his 85 motors. Naturally no such monster would be limber enough to wrestle with a tyrannosaurus. Most of Kong’s fights were photographed in miniature, some of them in “stop-motion” — using models of which the positions are minutely changed after each exposure, like the drawings in an animated cartoon.

If you can read it, here's the source:

http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,745318,00.html

There was no "50 ft. tall" Kong, just a lifesize arm, a lower leg, and a bust (head + chest) about 20 feet high, which could hold three men inside, not six. How could a 50 ft. Kong possibly move realistically on two legs?

Stories like these perpetuate myths about giant robots and men in ape suits.

Dicky

[–] porfle 9 years ago

Kong was on top of the Empire State Building in that scene. Any "live" shot showing the building's TV antenna, supposedly added in the 50s, would have been conspicuous in its lack of Kong.