Customer Reviews

Spawn of Skull Island

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While informative "Spawn of Skull Island" is "not" the definitive work we "all" hoped for. If you want that find a copy of "Making of King Kong". "Spawn of Skull Island"'s format while hard cover lacks the full page illustrations and much of the impact of the earlier book. (Some of the prints are reproduced so badly they are impossible to discern most details (example p 184 the animated cave bear from Son of Kong). Others are simply to small and low resolution to be useful. As to the writing it is poorly organized and has the feel of an appendix to a larger volume many chapters simply lists of other films with short reviews.

I read the original 1975 book "The Making of KING KONG" when I was pursuing my degree in film production, and the book proved to be a fabulous source of information regarding the movie KING KONG, as well as early film history. But one of the pleasures of the 1975 edition was its plethora of full and two page images of behind the scenes photos and artwork that were created during the film's development. To my dismay, I found some images reduced to a quarter of their original size and others to be missing altogether. This, to me, is hardly an improvement, and actually detracts from the brilliant presentation of the 1975 edition.

Since this is the only way some can own "The Making of King Kong" without paying a ridiculous price, I find it somewhat irresponsible and disappointing that the authors saw fit to change the pictorial presentation of the original book this drastically.

. . . or "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about KING KONG but Didn't Know Whom to Ask."

This book, a revision and expansion of 1975's out-of-print THE MAKING OF KING KONG, tells all about the making of that 1933 classic and more - including a chapter on gorilla and dinosaur films from 1898 to 2000; another on 24 films relevant to the work of Kong's directors/producers, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, and chief technician, Willis O'Brien; the text of Schoedsack's 1971"Song of Kong"; book writer George Turner's ANCIENT GREAT PLAINS comic strip, and a promotional comic strip for the 1935 version of SHE. But the major focus remains on the Big Fella himself, told in an entertaining, breezy, and always fascinating style by editor Michael H. Price, co-writer with George Turner of the FORGOTTEN HORRORS series and HUMAN MONSTERS, among others.

Midnight Marquee Press publishers Sue and Gary Svehla, under their Luminary Press imprint, have produced a splendid SPAWN. Between hard covers, they've supplemented the revised text and new material with some 200 illustrations, most of them unique to this volume.

Can you tell that I like this book?

As "Making of" books go, I can't say enough good things about this one. It covers the creation of Kong from the first glimmerings through story revisions to the whole production process in as much detail as you can stand. Anybody interested in Kong will obviously love it, but it's also a priceless resource for anyone interested in the development of special effects technology, or in filmmaking in the early talkie era.

It stumbles only a couple times--the paleontology is occasionally unreliable (it's been a long time since there's been any debate over the number of fingers a tyrannosaur had; some researchers of the time had postulated that large flying reptiles were cliff-climbers; no hadrosaur reached 100 ft....), but this doesn't detract at all from the book. A bit more of a shame is the complete dismissal of the 1976 "Kong" in only five derisive lines; regardless of whether you liked or loathed the DeLaurentiis "Kong", it should at least be given a little credit for keeping Kong fresh in the public mind. Critiques aside, it was undeniably beautifully photographed, with a wonderfully expressive Kong, and it incorporated several elements from earlier drafts of the 1933 story (fighting the snake in the crater, the idea that petrochemicals might be found on the island, the "washing" scene, and Jack's anticipation of Kong heading for the tallest place in New York City (and why) were all to be found in the original at one time or another before being removed for various reasons). The modern backlash against the '76 "Kong" is surprisingly fierce, and it's a shame that the authors didn't at the very least take the opportunity to explain why they feel it's so awful.

That said, it's still a terrific, well-written book, crammed with details about the making of the original and chock full of extra stuff--chapters on "Creation", "Son of Kong", and on precursors and rip-offs, plus so much more. Buy it, buy it, buy it.

This is a fine book, really. It is as informative as you can hope on the subject of King Kong...and I hate to be a naysayer in the light of such a nice book - but, honestly, if you're going to spend the forty bucks, get a used copy of the original version. The Making of King Kong is much bigger, the photos show more detail - and really, a lot of the added bonus stuff is just B.S. - there's a bunch of pages wasted on gorilla movies and the like, and the original book is focused on Kong and the filmmakers, and there is simply tighter focus. Tighter focus, plus a sense of awe and magic. You hold the old version in your hand and you are enamored with Kong. Again, this version is fine...but for the money this costs, you can get a used version of the original here on Amazon, torn or faded cover - even in totally questionable condition - and it is still going to be more worth your forty dollars. This book is really dinky compared to the original. The first one is like a coffee table book - this version is about 6 x 9. The original version is 8.5 x 11. Still great, but just...you know, not quite the same.

If you can track down a used copy of the original Making of King Kong book by Goldner and Turner, get that. This is more like a collection of appendices to that book than a replacement for it. It is scaled down, and missing a lot of the illustrations - especially the big double-page spreads of the production drawings of Larrinaga and Crabbe, which either don't appear at all, or are 1/6th the size with poor resolution. One for the Kong Completist perhaps.

I found the book very disappointing. Kong is the type of film that people will discuss happily for years to come and it just didn't seem like it had that enthusiasm. Was sort of dry, and although it discussed alternate analyses and opinions of the film such actions were done in a very blase manner, as were handlings of many of Kong's cinematic kin, with some such criticisms passingly hinted at but never explained. Yes, the 70s version is a renowned terror, but how many times do we need to hear that?
It goes, steadily and pretty darn completely, through the making of the picture. However, due to Kong's immense status most of what was said can be found in other, much cheaper, books or in the reader's own mind. (Or even the vastly superior making-of feature on the DVD.) And the book itself barely gets off the ground - after a resounding introduction by the Rays Bradbury and Harryhausen among others, roughly 30 pages are spent devoted to Kong's aforementioned "cinematic kin," with how many of the films regurgitated again in another such section at the end of the book. Not recommended for major fans, but maybe bought used for introductory devotees.

Whether you are a fan of the original King Kong, or are just someone looking for insight into the making of classic adventure/fantasy films of the 1930's, this book is simply a must-have. Packed with information about the behind-the-scenes of this american icon, it covers everything from the amazing lives and films of the director/producers, information about the stars, and the general processes used (and often pioneered) in the making of this great movie. While slightly biased (against anything not of stop-motion animation) in its reviews of the film's 'spawn', such as Godzilla, Sinbad, Konga, etc, it does effectively explain so much of why and what 'King Kong' inspired. I waited years for this book to be made available, always looking for the definative book about the original 'Kong', and I am not dissapointed.

This is a revised version of the Goldner/Turner book MAKING OF KING KONG. I've never owned a copy of the original to see where the revisions came in, but this edition suits my movie reference library quite well. The editorial blurb above is more than an accurate description of the contents.
If looking deeper into the Kong mythos is your bag, then this might be a great place to start. Probably the only thing missing would be a complete review of the presskits, poster selections, full interviews with the cast and even script as seperate chapters simply for completist sake. But needless to say, you do get that type of information mixed in throughout the book, be sure. This is a labor of love and it shows. It's more of a history lesson mostly in the form of text, rather than a full-on filmbook like MagicImage puts out. But it's close, and it's still quite exhaustive and loaded with rare stills & artwork, that this is truly a must-have reference piece to own. This is one of my favorite films so finding a good reference book was at the top of the list, and this is darn near perfect. The price is kinda steep, but I'm glad I took the dive!

I've been hunting for this item in enlgand for weeks so its quite a joy to find it easily available on American Amazon. Its a great find with loads of work on the original King Kong that would interest even a passing reader. Big fan. Thumbs up holiday fun.