King Kong Escapes (1967) – Review

How do you top a film like King Kong vs Godzilla? Well, one step in the right direction is to make Kong’s nemesis a giant robot version of himself. There is so much to enjoy from a viewing of King Kong Escapes as it has something for all ages – when I was a kid I grabbed a bunch of building blocks, a tube of Elmer’s glue to build my own Mecha Kong. Seeing it this many years later one thing stands out perfectly clear, which is the fact that every military in the world should at least have one giant robot Kong in their arsenal.

King Kong Escapes was produced by Rankin/Bass too tie in with their animated series The King Kong Show, which ran from1966 to1969, but as part of their licensing deal they had to deliver a new live-action feature film as well, so they united themselves with Toho Productions allowing us once again to be treated to the sight of Kong stomping Tokyo into the dust. Of course, this film is in no way a sequel to King Kong vs. Godzilla as this time out Kong is a “mere” 60ft tall as opposed to his 160ft height he had when battling Godzilla. Also, characters once again mention Kong as if he were a legend with no reference to him either climbing the Empire State Building or fighting Godzilla across Japan. They even changed the name of the island Kong was found on; it’s neither Skull Island as it was called in the 1933 original, nor is he from Farou Island as he was in the earlier Toho film, nope, this time out Kong is from Mondo Island.

 The film begins with a submarine gliding through the depths of the South Pacific on an oil-seeking mission for the United Nations. Lieutenant Susan Watson, a nurse aboard the sub, walks in on Commander Nelson (Rhodes Reason) – and no not the guy from I Dream of Genie – along with Lt. Commander Jiro Nomura (Akira Takarada) who are going over some artist rendering of Kong. The idea of a giant ape intrigues Lieutenant Susan Watson (Linda Miller), who is this film’s Fay Wray, and even though their mission goes near Mondo Island they can’t be making pit stops on the UN’s dime.

A girl and Kong’s rivals.

Meanwhile, at the North Pole inside a secret base, we get our first look at robot Kong. Dr. Who (Hideyo Amamoto) – sorry, not the Timelord one – has built the robot under the exact specifications from drawings stolen from Commander Nelson. Madam X (Mie Hama), a representative of the government that hired Dr. Who, is not convinced it’s not just a giant toy for Dr. Who to play with, but he assures her that his robot can do everything the real Kong could. For those of you wondering exactly what one would need with a robotic replica of Kong, well, the answer is simple, to dig out element X (and no it isn’t the shaving cream atom, that’s Illudium Phosdex and located on Planet X), a mineral that will apparently lead Madame X’s country to nuclear domination of the world within 100 days. Unfortunately, Mecha-Kong’s first trial does not go that well as the magnetic mass of element X fries the robots circuits and Dr. Who is forced to re-engineer Mecha-Kong with shielded circuits.

Behold the awesomeness that is Mecha-Kong.

Back aboard the submarine an underwater rock slide causes damage to the ship’s reactor and rudder, so they put into the bay on Mondo Island to make repairs. While the sub is being repaired our three heroes take a hover vehicle over to the island to explore. After being warned by a native Ben Gunn wannabe (kio Sawamura) that they are trespassing on King Kong’s home the men ditch Susan to go exploring on their own, with the parting words, “You’ll be safer here, watch yourself.” These are our heroes? As we all know you can’t leave a blonde girl alone in a jungle for five minutes without having some nasty beast show up, so one shouldn’t be too surprised when a T-Rex-like-dinosaur suddenly approaches. Susan screams her lungs out – her screams reach scary decibels – alerting the men as to what boneheads they are, it also wakes the mighty Kong.

Kong to the rescue.

When Kong arrives on the scene he spots the carnivorous beast but pays him no mind as he has also spotted Susan, and its love at first site. He picks her up, gives her goo-goo eyes for a bit, pokes her with his finger and then when, finally, realizing he should maybe get down to some dinosaur stomping action he puts Susan in the crook of a tree so he can start some prehistoric smackdown. If the whole scene seems vaguely familiar let’s call it an homage to the 1933 original and not theft as it’s already more exciting then the 1976 remake of King Kong, so let’s cut it some slack. The T-Rex gets a few good drop kicks in but is no match for the king of the summersault, and dino is quickly pounded into submission. Kong claims his prize and is about to stride off into the jungle when Susan telling him to put her down. Kong does and then sadly watches her run into the arms of another man, but before he can make an issue of this (I’m completely on Kong’s side here as Nelson is a complete boob) the T-Rex, who was only stunned, clamps its jaws on Kong’s leg. Taking this an opportune moment to get away our “heroes” leg it back to the sub. Kong pounds on the dinosaur for a bit before going for his trademark jawbreaker move, but what is strange here is that instead of blood pouring from the beast’s broken jaw we get soap bubbles Another mystery for paleontologists to ponder I guess. While their hovercraft makes its way to the sub they are intercepted by a sea serpent, only to have Kong chuck a rock at the beast, braining it, and saving our heroes…again. Kong wrestles with the serpent, dredging up memories of the Rick Baker snake wrestling scene in the 1976 remake, while the hovercraft safely docks with the submarine. As the sub is unable to dive due to its still busted rudder Kong is able to catch the craft and gives it a good rocking. Susan climbs out of the conning tower to placate Kong while the ship finishes it repairs, giving such stirring dialogue as, “Kong don’t shake the ship. I sleep and I eat on this ship.” How could any 60ft ape argue with that? After convincing Kong that she really, really doesn’t want to go with him, the heartbroken ape let’s them go.

Back in New York Nelson briefs the UN council on the nature of Mondo Island and of the plans to return, and study the inhabitants. One of the reporters turns out to be Madame X and she alerts Dr. Who about Nelson’s plans, and they decide to scrap the whole fix Mecha-Kong idea and grab the real Kong, believing they can use Susan to control Kong and get him to dig out element X for them. So getting a jump on the Nelson expedition, Dr. Who arrives at Mondo Island, captures Kong with the help if gas bomb-dropping helicopters, and then with claw and cable they airlift Kong, but not before Dr. Who shoots the annoying Ben Gunn character (I’m really starting to side with the bad guys here). Kong is lowered into the hold of Dr. Who’s ship, and they sail for the North Pole just as Nelson and company arrive.

The expedition finds traces of a battle, remnants shell casings, and ether residue, but it’s the finding of dying Ben Gunn that tips them off, with his last words he tells them that, “An oriental skeleton, a devil with the eyes of a gutter rat, kidnapped Kong, and took him away into the sky.” This is enough for Nelson to deduce that the man behind it all must be, “My old friend that international Judas, Dr. Who.” (This guy is better than Sherlock Holmes)

The nefarious Dr. Who.

Dr. Who’s plan is to use hypnosis to control Kong, with the back-up plan of kidnapping the easily duped Nelson, Susan, and Nomura, and using them to control Kong. Once again things don’t go quite as plans as no sooner does the hypnotized Kong begin digging out the element X then it’s radioactive properties free Kong from his hypnotic trance, so on to the back-up plan. First they attempt to seduction and bribery, with Madame X to work her wiles on Nelson, and of course, this fails as Nelson is you know, heroic and stuff. Next Dr. Who invites Nelson for a game of chess while the cell with his friends inside is turned into a deep freeze. Stoically our hero plays chess while Susan and Nomura freeze their asses off. (Is this guy really the hero?) In the frigid cell, Nomura offers Susan his shirt, but she refuses and proceeds to wrap her arms around him for warmth. (Wow, looks like the sidekick may get lucky)

On to Dr. Who’s next brilliant move, he arrives at the cell and proceeds to threaten to scar Susan by pressing her face against the freezing steel walls, luckily this when Kong, who had been locked in the mining tunnel behind a huge steel door, decides to make his escape. Dr. Who and the guards rush to see what is going on allowing Susan and Nomura to get free and hook-up with Nelson…and Madame X. Mecha-Kong is quickly sent out after Kong, while the trio is recaptured while sharing a drink with Madame X.

After a nice swing Kong arrives in Tokyo, with Dr. Who and company in hot pursuit. In the hold of Who’s ship are trio are in irons, but not for long as Madame X cannot sit idly by while thousands may be killed in a battle between Mecha-Kong and King Kong, and she frees them and helps them off of the ship.

              Just as the army is about to engage Kong Nelson arrives at army headquarters and tells them that to attack Kong will only ensure the destruction of Tokyo, while Susan and Nomura have made it to the front lines and manage to calm Kong down…well, he’s calm right up until Mecha-Kong shows up. Susan tries to get Kong to run away, telling him that he can’t beat a machine, but being a guy Kong ignores her and goes onto prove he’s got the right stuff. Mecha-Kong seems to have the advantage as he has been outfitted with the hypnotic device, and when it’s engaged Kong is powerless. Luckily Nomura is a sharpshooter and is able to disable the device with a few well-placed shots (well folks looks like we may have found our hero). Freed once again from the hypnotic trance Kong goes into battle mode. After tossing Kong around for a bit Mecha-Kong picks up Susan and proceeds to climb Tokyo tower. Then from loudspeakers in Mecha-Kong’s mouth Dr. Who orders Kong to return to the ship or he will have the robot drop the girl.

Meanwhile, on board the ship Madame X makes her move, it’s not a brilliant move, and results in her getting shot in the arm with her own gun.

King Kong climbs up after Mecha-Kong, I guess he doesn’t give into blackmail…that or he’s an ape and had no idea what Dr. Who was babbling about. Kong reaches the robots foot and starts tugging on it. This causes Mecha-Kong to drop Susan, and Kong makes the catch of the day. Kong places her in a “safe” place on the tower and continues to climb up after the robot, and getting kicked in the head quite a few times for his troubles. The titanic struggle is not doing the structural integrity of the tower any good, and soon it is been shook to pieces. Nomura races up the tower and rescues Susan as the two giants’ battle far above them. Mecha-Kong steps on a power cable which seems to short out some of his controls, and before Dr. Who can switch to his back control Madame X makes her move (yeah they kept her around after that first brilliant move of hers), and she pulls out all the control cables. Dr. Who puts to rounds in her chest, but as she dies so does Mecha-Kong, as it topples to the streets below, smashing to pieces.

Goodbye you beautiful robot, you.

Nelson arrives and Susan runs into his arms, wait…WHAT?  She goes with Nelson who has done nothing in this film but deserts her, plays chess with the villain, and makes time with Madame X, while Nomura has put his ass on the line for her time and time again. Man, he was so jipped! For a minute there I thought this film was going to be really progressive and the Japanese dude was going to end up with the chick. I guess I was just being delusional.

Well, the movie is quickly wrapped up as Susan sicks Kong on Dr. Who’s ship and Kong dives in after it. The big ape gives the boat a right royal pounding and the international Judas know as Dr. Who is no more. As Kong starts his long swim back him Susan tries to call him back but is told to let him go as, “Kong has enough of what we call civilization.”

The End

King Kong Escapes is a much more straight forward story, and nowhere near as goofy as King Kong vs. Godzilla, and for sheer coolness of Mecha–Kong it gets my vote. But I highly recommend both films for a guaranteed fun evening.