David, there's an interpretation of Kong I keep hearing about (well, Kael mentions it in her review of the remake), that Kong represents the black man--wild, then fettered, then unleashed--and I suppose his fascination for white women. I think I can see some basis for that kind of reading, and that the filmmakers tended to play up this angle in a sort of 'horror of miscagenation' way (that sex with a black man, savage, ape, is horrifying). What do you think? Does it impair your enjoyment of the film?
David Ehrenstein: Well the black angle is very obviously there, for films is all about a white woman being kidnapped in order to be raped.
Except that Kong can't rape he because he has no penis.
We don't see one, true.
Science Fiction writer Philip Jose Farmer (now there's a pervert) wrote a short story ("After King Kong Fell," nominated for a Nebula in 1973) speculating about what happened after the end of the film. Denham was sued, bankrupted, and eventually murdered by one of the island natives, who never forgave him for taking their god; Ann sued Driscoll for 'promises not kept,' which had New York abuzz: what kind of promises? Farmer points out that the gorilla's penis is an inch long when angry, which makes it physically impossible for him to rape a human woman...only with a gorilla forty feet tall, proportionately speaking you're talking about a twelve-incher, to which Farmer concludes 'we may never know.'
Doc Savage makes a quick appearance. Well, it is his territory, after all...
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