While it may not have been the first, _King Kong_ is undeniably the grandfather of monster movies. Shot in the pre-code days, its cavalier attitude and abundance of eye candy probably had just as much influence on the industry’s forthcoming, self-imposed laws of decency as it did on Godzilla, Gamera and their kin. _Kong_ was a major event in the early ‘30s, a big box office hit in the midst of the Great Depression and an indelible pop culture monument. Its magnitude, no doubt, gave the Hollywood elite much to consider. Dozens of men are violently killed on-screen. A three-story ape curiously peels off a woman’s clothes and sniffs his fingers. Should we be showing this stuff to our kids? And so, subsequent re-releases were trimmed and cut. Repeatedly. One famously gruesome scene, in which a handful of men are devoured by spiders and insects, has never been restored. Not for lack of trying, let me tell you. It’s one of film’s most famous lost relics.

Suffice to say, the uncensored, old school version of _King Kong_ is a trip. Once the first act’s setup is out of the way, it’s all about the uncompromising spectacle, all the time. Some effects hold up astonishingly well in the modern light (especially set pieces like the fifty-foot gate) while others, particularly the creature effects, are clunky but well-intentioned relics. This flick goes hard, pushing and experimenting at every opportunity, but always with the intent of broadening the world and deepening the immersion. So the giant ape close-ups look toothy and silly. Maybe the stop-motion action scenes stutter and jump from time to time. These pioneering filmmakers were flying without a manual, inventing skills that wouldn’t be fine-tuned for decades. I find their dedication to trailblazing, in the name of richer cinema, admirable. If nothing else, it’s fun to watch. On multiple levels.