King Kong Escapes (1967)

King Kong Escapes (1967)

Directed by: Ishirô Honda

Starring: Rhodes Reason, Mie Hama, Linda Miller

I picked this one up while I was watching all those Godzilla movies, which you might be able to tell since it’s directed by Ishirô Honda, who also directed most of the other series. Also he did King Kong vs. Godzilla, which was actually kinda better than King Kong Escapes. Yikes.

A submarine from the UN (because they have a navy, apparently…) finds King Kong’s island and reports it to the world. Unfortunately, an evil guy in the North Pole kidnaps him so he can make him dig for the radioactive Element X. He built a robot version of King Kong to do it, but it didn’t work out that well. Eventually, of course, the story culminates in King Kong vs MechaKingKong fighting on Tokyo Tower, and ’twas BEAST… killed the beast. Mechano-beast. Something. I’m still working on that one.

I’m really curious as to why the be-caped villain in this film thought that King Kong, of all fucking things, was the optimal design to dig up ore from the North Pole. Wouldn’t like… some sort of crane or those digging machines from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or something be better? You know, instead of a giant monkey? Monkeys aren’t even renowned for their digging abilities or anything! THIS IS RIDICULOUS!