Item Details:

KING KONG BRITISH TRADE AD

EDGAR WALLACE

GOLDEN AGE OF SCIENCE FICTION, 1933

Original Movie Trade Ad

Publisher: RKO

Three-color Photogravure

Depicting Edgar Wallace's original early concept artwork for his immortal creation, this Kinematograph Weekly British Cinema Trade depicts the originally-controversial scene as Kong selectively peels off the layers of character Ann Darrow (played by Faye Wray), then proceeds to curiously fondle her, a scene which was deemed unacceptable to the censors.

The 1933 film King Kong is pre-Code, meaning it was released before the Hays Code went into effect in 1934. The film is considered one of the most influential pre-Code films, and some say it created a brutal cinematic experience full of sex, violence, bombs, and death. The Hays Code is a self-imposed industry set of guidelines for all the motion pictures that were released between 1934 and 1968. The code prohibits profanity, suggestive nudity, graphic or realistic violence, sexual persuasions, and rape.

King Kong was progressively censored after its 1933 premiere, with several scenes being either trimmed or excised altogether. For example, one scene was when Kong peels off Ann's clothes. Other scenes that were censored include Kong biting off the head of a villager and squashing another with his foot, and the scene in which Kong snatches the wrong woman from a New York hotel and drops her.

The film was re-released in 1938, when the Hays Code censorship was in full effect. However, some say that filmmakers found creative ways to get around these rules. For example, theProducers of King Kong did not hang on to the original negatives, and audiences that first experienced the film in 1938 saw a very different version of the movie until the late 1960s.

Private Collection