WE'VE LONG had a very skeptical view of the sequel. All too often we see what is not any true attempt to continue the spirit of the original, but more of an attempt to exploit the success that was generated by the critical acclaim and/or the boffo box office $ucce$$ of its popularity generated with the public.THIS WAS PARTICULARLY true in the era of the "Roman Numeral" Series. We really liked and enjoyed the heck out of JAWS and DEATH WISH; but firmly believed that there should never have been any extensions. ROCKY was a fine little picture with a small budget, but the follow-ups always left a little to be desired.* SOME NOTABLE EXCEPTIONS to this rule of ours are BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and THE GODFATHER, PART 2; both of which improved on the originals.THIS PRODUCTION OF a sequel to KING KONG is yet another story. It exists purely as a tool to make up for some co$t overruns of the original "DADDY" KONG. There was no other series pictures planned, with only this budgetary silver parachute being its only purpose.SIMPLY STATED, WE join up with a now broke and depressed Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong), finding him sulking over the total flop on Broadway (pun) that his big gorilla show was. Bankrupt and dejected, he meets up with another lady, (Helen Mack); with whom he journeys back to Skull Island to recoup his losses.JOINED IN THIS new voyage we have Captain Engelhorn (Frank Reicher reprising his role), as the skipper of the ship. They go to the island, meet up with the native leadership team (Steve Clemente as Witch Doctor and Noble Johnson as Chief). Both Church and State are represented, but they are separate but equal.TRAVELING AROUND THE island (which seems much more docile by now), the pair meets up with a small fry version of KONG; who hasn't developed his appetite for female human sacrifice. He befriends the, protects them from some less than spectacular beastly foes and eventually manages to hand a bag of treasure to Carl as the island; as little KONGY sinks into the ocean with the island. (The End).THAT'S IT AND that's all. We know that the audiences of 1933 were surely disappointed, as we were in the 1950's EARLY SHOW on Channel 7, WBKB in Chicago.AND YOU NEVER have seen it being revived or featured in any of the great film magazines and journals.AND JUST WHY was this so? We can only surmise:"SMALL WONDER!" ISN'T THAT RIGHT, Schultz? NOTE: * The Stallone ROCKY Movies do manage to fall somewhere between the polar opposites that we've enumerated. Maybe that's why Sly is making yet another installment after nearly 30 years.

The Son of Kong is directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack and written by Ruth Rose. It stars Robert Armstrong, Helen Mack, Frank Reicher, John Marston, Victor Wong and Edward Brady. Music is by Max Steiner and cinematography by Edward Linden.The makers wisely realised that to try and emulate King Kong would be folly, especially as this sequel was hurried out within the same year. Instead a more fun approach was taken, and as a result it's not half bad entertainment as it happens.After the devastation caused to New York by King Kong, lawsuits are abound for Carl Denham (Armstrong). So when he gets the chance to go out on the ocean again with Captain Englehorn (Reicher), he grabs the chance. There's no plans to go near Skull Island again, but a sequence of events will see them pitch up there, to be met by a myriad of creatures and The Son of Kong.Little Kong is actually friendly, well to the humans he is because he is grateful to their help when he was stuck in quicksand. However, to other beasts of the island he is not so forgiving. For the first 33 minutes it's all about setting up the action carnage later in the play, characters are introduced, their reasons for being out at sea and etc. Then we get to the island and off we go. Kong scraps with dinosaurs, a bear, lizards and mother nature! The castaways are in the mix as well of course, and naturally they are thrust into a perilous life and death situation.And that's it, barely 70 minutes have passed by and it's nigh on impossible not to be smiling come the close. 7/10

This is a hastily produced, low budget sequel to the mammoth box office smash, King Kong. It is a legitimate sequel with some of the original cast returning and many of the same production personnel.The film starts almost after King Kong's death with Denham (Robert Armstrong) being pursued by creditors and sued by various people because of the chaos and destruction caused by King Kong in New York. Feeling guilt as to how he treated Kong, he quickly boards a ship to Asia until the promise of hidden treasure lures him back to Skull Island.There he encounters the son of Kong who is stuck in quicksand and Denham helps him out for which Kong is grateful. Also in the island are various pre historic creatures such as dinosaurs and a cave bear who gets involved in a fight with Kong.The film's short running time, almost a hour belies the fact that it has a lot of padding. We have the weasel villain, Helstrom, a drunk loser who cannot be trusted. Hilda, the damsel who hides out in the ship to Skull island. The staunch captain of the ship from King Kong and various mutinous crewmen.Son of Kong is almost a comic character in this film. Junior is lesser in size, frequently simpering in pain, pulls funny faces at the camera and badly animated. It seems the producers realised that King Kong was wrongly misconstrued as the villain in the original when it was forcibly kidnapped out of its natural environment.There are some nice fight grapple scenes featuring Kong, in fact Vince McMahon stole some of the moves for his WWE wrestlers by the look of it. However away from Kong the film is dull because it was quickly made as a cash in.

I cannot blame RKO for rushing this film into production. After all, "King Kong" made a fortune and the public was clamoring for more. However, I wished they'd rethought plot just a bit before they began filming, as it started off so great but then the movie degenerated into a bit of a sappy affair.The beginning of "Son of Kong" was great. Now that Kong was dead, a LOT of New Yorkers were mad at Denham (Robert Armstrong)--and everyone was ready to sue him because of all the damage the creature did! I loved this, as too seldom do sequels talk about the public's reaction to the idiot who orchestrated the big mess! And so, he sets off to sea and goes in search of a fresh start.Now you would think with a planet this big that the chances of Armstrong's character to stumble upon another enormous ape would be practically nil. Yet, despite not trying to do so, he ends up finding what appears to be Kong's younger and a bit smaller son! What are the odds?!?! However, and here is where the film falters, this Son of Kong is nice...really, really nice. He smiles and mugs for the cameras repeatedly AND is incredibly helpful and kind towards Armstrong and his new hot babe (Helen Mack). The end result is a film that might please little kids and those who don't want a violent monster film....but the other 98% probably will be disappointed by this kindler, gentler sort of ape! Watchable but it could have been a lot better.