Inane, live-action derivative of the Rankin-Bass "King Kong" cartoon (1966) fusing Japanese kaiju aesthetics with Bond-like spy shenanigans. Although the Toho production is directed by Ishiro Honda with music by Akira Ifukube and special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya (all known for 1954's "Godzilla"), this juvenile outing is far from their best work. Briefly, 'supervillain' "Dr. Who"* (an over-acting Akira Takarada) builds a robot King Kong to mine a rare radioactive material. When this doesn't work out, he ape-naps the original Kong to dig, which also fails and eventually results in a showdown between the two giant simians in Tokyo. Filling in the gaps is an intrepid American submariner (Rhodes Reason), his heroic 2IC (Akira Takarada), and eye-candy nurse Lt. Susan Watson (Linda Jo Miller), all of whom travel from the tropics to the U.N. to the arctic to Tokyo, always managing to be the thick of things. Not much in this movie works. Neither the miniatures nor the optical special effects are very effective, especially the interactions between the humans and the apes (such as when Lt. Watson is picked up or dropped). Similar to the suit used in "King Kong vs. Godzilla" (1962), Kong has a cartoonish, rubbery face and arms that change lengths (long and ape-like when standing or walking, short and man-like when climbing or fighting). Mechani-Kong is slightly better (but not as impressive as the various MechaGodzillas Toho has fielded). The other two kaiju in the film, a giant sea-snake and "Gorosaurus" are not bad, and the fight between the great ape and the latter, while a little overly-kinetic, is typical Toho for the era (Gorosaurus' 'jump kicks' presage the disemboweling kicks of the Velociraptors in Jurassic Park, 1993). The script and the acting (especially by the American leads and by Takarada) are abysmal. English speaking Linda Jo Miller is dubbed and given that the dubbed voice is awful, I can't imagine what her natural voice must have sounded like (although given the fatuous lines she delivers, it probably wouldn't matter). Her principal role is 'helpless screaming female': despite being a nurse and a Lieutenant in the Navy, she dives for the nearest male comfort when encountering an injured man and is introduced to the UN as "Miss" by her CO. She also establishes early on in the story that Kong (like all foreigners) will understand English if you speak slowly and loudly (a key plot point, as Kong's ability to follow instructions is essential to both Dr. Who's evil plan and to his ultimate, righteous comeuppance). Generally, while perhaps a notch above the cartoon from which it was spun, "King Kong Escapes", IMO, is one of the lowlights of Toho's kaiju legacy and watchable only by hard-core fans of the genre (or of 'camp'). (*no official relation to "The Doctor" although perhaps intentionally similar in look to William Hartnell's contemporaneous character).
Review of King Kong Escapes
