King Kong Escapes (1967 film)

King Kong Escapes, released in Japan as King Kong no Gyakushū (キングコングの逆襲 ,Kingu Kongu no Gyakushū, which literally means "King Kong's Counterattack"), is a Japanese/American tokusatsu film. A co-production from Toho and Rankin/Bass, it was released in Japan in 1967, and in the United States by Universal Studios the following year.

The film was an adaptation of episodes of Rankin/Bass and Toei Animation's The King Kong Show cartoon series. As with King Kong vs. Godzilla, Eiji Tsuburaya served as director of special effects.

Plot Synopsis
An evil genius named Dr. Who (no relation to the popular science fiction character) creates a robotic version of King Kong, named Mechani-Kong, in order to dig for a highly radioactive element called "Element X", found only at the North Pole. The extreemly rare compound, once unearthed, will be sold to an asiatic country (never identified in the film) and used to give said country nuclear domination of the world. The Docter, along with a benafacor from the unidentified nation knwn only by the alias "Madame Piranha", watch as Mechani-Kong enters an ice cave and begins to dig into the glacier. However, as the robot digs, the unbelievable radiation produced by the glowing substance destroys its systems and shuts it down. Meanwhile, a submarine from the United Nations is damaged and forced to weigh ancher off the coast of Mondo Island, an island where, acording to legand, the real King Kong resides. As it so happens, the sub's Commander Carl Nelson has spent many years studying the legand of Kong and is all to pleased to venture ashore to explore, along with with Lt. Commander Jiro Nomura and Lt. Susan Watson. Once on the Island, the crew see an old man atop a hill shouting at them to leave the area, for it is taboo to enter the territory of Kong. Nelson and Nomura go to confront the old man, leaving Susan alone with their landing craft. However, no sooner have the men left then a gigantic theropod dinosaur (later dubbed Gorosaurus in the film Destroy All Monsters) emerges from the forest and makes to attack Susan. Suddenly, from out of a nearby cave, a roar is heared, and a few seconds later, King Kong himself emerges, belowing and beating his chest. Seeing Susan, he realizes she is in danger and places her in a tree. Then, Kong attacks Gorosaurus with all he has. Unfortunatly, the bipedal preditor posseses a powerful "kangaroo-kick" that floors Kong several times and prevents him from getting to close to inflict serious damage. As the two titans duke it out, Nelson and Nomura return and, with Susan in tow, escape in their hover-craft. Behind them, Kong finally defeats Gorosaurus by breaking its jaw. He fallows the hover-craft to the coast of the island just in time to see a Giant Sea Snake heading for them to. Kong dives into the water and grabs the snake, buying time for the crew to return safely to the sub. The giant ape then defeats the huge serpant and swims over to the sub. He begins to shake it and bang on the hull, hoping Susan will appear again. Knowing she is what Kong wants, Susan volunteers to exit the sub to try to calm him down. She succedes, and after saying goodby to a crestfallen Kong, she returns to the sub and the crew leaves for New York.

Once in America, the submarine crew relates their amazing discoveries on Mondo Island to the United Nations. They also state that the sub will be returning to the island to study Kong and his fellow kaiju on the island. However, they are unaware that Madame Piranha is at the meeting, and after it ends, she sneeks into the ladies restroom and contacts Dr. Who. She relates the details of the crew's discoveries, and she and Who begin to hatch a plan. A few days later, Dr Who arives on Mondo and a fleet of helecopters fly out and attract Kong's attention. They drop gas bombs around the great ape, and the either soon knocks him out cold. The helecopters then lower large shackles down, and a ground crew secures them to Kong's wrists and ankles. Suddenly, the old man errupts from the jungle and points at the the now secured ape, and as he attempts to get answers from Dr. Who (unfortunatly in a language only the speaker can understands), the evil scientist shoots him three times and leaves him in the underbrush to die. As he departs, the four helecopters lift King Kong from Mondo Island and lower him into the cargo hold of their huge ship. They then head back to the North Pole. Soon after, the United Nations sub returns and the trio of Commander Nelson, Lt Commander Nomura, and Lt Watson venture onto the island. They descover evidence of something neferious, and are unable to locate Kong. What they do find, however, is the old man bleeding in the bushes. As the islander lays dying in Susan's arms, he tells Carl, who can understand the language, that "An oriental skeleton, a devil with eyes like a gutter-rat, kidnapped Kong and took him away into the skies." He then dies, but he has told Carl all he needs to know: Kong was kidnapped by Dr. Who, an old "friend" of Carl's. In fact, Who's Mechani-Kong was built using blueprints based on Nelson's own detailed diagrams of the real Kong. The Doctor had stolen the drawings and used them to create a robot that he believed would secure for him the Element X. However, the robot had failed, and now Who planned to use the real Kong to do his bidding. However, in order to do that, he needed to put the next part of his plan into action. He sends several of his minions to Mondo Island who, posing as the Japanese SDF (Self Defence Force), collect Carl, Jiro, and Susan, claiming that Kong has swam ashore at Tokyo. The trio are suspicous, but can do nothing as they are flown off to the North Pole. Menwhile, Dr.Who decides to try another method of controlling Kong. His reason for kidnapping the three crew members were not only for their familiarity with Kong, but for the ape's relationship with Susan Watson imparticular. On Mondo, Kong had been so infatuated by Watson, that he began to listen to her and do what she asked. Although Dr. Who believed that he could use this connection to get Kong to extract the Element X, he is not willing to wait for the prisoners to arive and puts an alternative idea to the test. In the cage whare the still unconcious King Kong lies, workers attach both a recieving speaker and camera to the beasts ears. When Kong awakens, his first sight is a flashing light that soon places him in a state of hypnosis. From the speaker, the voice of Dr. Who commands Kong to enter the cave and dig out the Element X. Kong complies and ventures into the cave and begins to dig. However, the hypnotized Kong soon snaps out of it, and tears both the speaker and camera off of his ears. He then turns around and attempts to return to the base, but Who orders the gate shut, and Kong is trapped in the cave. Soon after, Carl, Jiro, and Susan arive and are greated by Dr. Who. He explains his plans and requests their assistance. All three refuse, and are put into a holding cell. A few minuites later, Carl is released and brought to the room of Madame Pirahna, who explains her view of the whole situation. As she attempts to buy Carl off, Dr. Who enters and promptly breaks up the meating. Only a few minuites after Carl is returned to the cell, he is once again summoned, this time by Dr. Who. In an attempt to gain Carl's assistance in controlling Kong, he turns the prison cell's temporature down to zero, which puts both Jiro and Susan in a freezing environment. Carl refuses to help, even as his friends slowly begin to freeze to death. A while later, Dr. Who enters the cell and states that Carl has been canceled. He then shackles Jiro to the wall and attempts to press Susan's face against the ice-covered metal walls. Fortunatly, outside Kong has almost broken through the caged door and his banging begins to shake the entire lair. Who and his minions leave the cell, and Jiro and Susan quickly make their getaway. Outside, Kong has crawled out of the underground lair and begins to flee. The great ape then dives into the fridged ocean and quickly swims away. Back inside, Jiro and Susan discover that Carl is still alive, but the three are once again captured and loaded onboard Dr. Who's ship as the evil scientist sets sail in persuit of Kong.

The ship soon arives in Japan, where King Kong has swam ashore. Dr. Who plans to unleash his Mechani-Kong against its organic counterpart. However, Madame Piranha is hesitent to be a party to the inevitable collateral damage, and erges the docter not to let the two kaiju fight in Tokyo. After all, thousands would be killed. Dr. Who ignores her sudden change in charactor as well as her pleas, and prepairs his robot for combat. Down below, the submarine crew are chained in a cell, unable to help Kong. Suddenly, Madame Piranha enters and frees them, begging them to do their best to save the lives of the people in the city by leading Kong away before his mechanical doppleganger can engage him. The trio flee the ship and arive safely in Tokyo, where the JSDF are preparing to fire on Kong. As Carl warns the army not to attack, Susan runs to Kong, whom picks her up gently. She calms him down and assures him that he will not be attacked. However, there is a loud crash behind them, and suddenly Mechani-Kong emerges through the remains of a destroyed building. Susan trys to warn Kong not to fight the machine, as it will most assuredly be a losing battle. Kong, however, carefully places Watson on the ground, and then turns to fight his robotic clone head-on. However, Mechani-Kong has been outfitted with the hypnosis device and, as Kong charges, the light, now attached to the top of the robot's head, begins to flash. Kong stops dead in his tracks and begins to slow down again. On the ground, Lt. Commander Nomura takes a shotgun and aims at the titular monster, eventually shooting and destroying the blinking light. Kong once again snaps out of it and finally charges to meet his opponent. The two seem evenly matched for a while, but Dr. Who suddenly turns the tides of the battle and controlls his robot to scoop up Susan. The giant mech then begins to assend Tokyo Tower with Susan as his unwilling captive. Kong follows, and begins to climb after his foe. On the ship, Madame Piranha pulls a gun on Dr. Who and threatens to shoot him. However, he triggers the silent alarm, and he and his minions quickly overpower her, leaving her with a bullet wound in her arm. Back in the city, the mouth of Mechani-Kong opens and the voice of Dr. Who eminates from a speaker within. He warns Kong that if he does not return to the ship, the robot will drop Susan. Kong, however, continues to persue his metal clone up the tower, and soon enough, the robotic ape lets go of its prioner, sending Susan falling towards the ground. Kong catches her and sets her safely down on a platform within the tower, and then begins to climb after Mechani-Kong, finally able to fight it again. Below, Jiro climbs up the tower and rescues Susan. As the two monsters get higher and higher, the tower begins to shake more and more. Susan slips and nearly falls off the tower, but is saved by both Jiro and a team of policemen who bring them both safely to the ground. Back in the controll room on Dr. Who's ship, Madame Piranha decides to tip the balance in Kong's favor, and makes one last attempt to save the lives of the people of not only Japan, but of the world. where he fights Kong. Kong wins and destroys the robot while fighting on the famous Tokyo Tower landmark before killing Dr. Who and swimming back to Mondo Island. This was the first film to feature Gorosaurus, the "kangaroo-kick" theropod kaiju who would reappear in Destroy All Monsters and in Godzilla's Revenge through the use of stock footage.



English Version
The film opened in the United States in June 1968 on a double-bill with the Don Knotts comedy, The Shakiest Gun in the West Contemporary American reviews were mixed. New York Times film critic, Vincent Canby gave it a particularly insulting review, calling Toho's Kong an "Uncle Tom," and commenting, "The Japanese... are all thumbs when it comes to making monster movies like 'King Kong Escapes.' The Toho moviemakers are quite good in building miniature sets, but much of the process photography—matching the miniatures with the full-scale shots—is just bad... the plotting is hopelessly primitive..."

The July 15, 1968 Film Bulletin, however, gave it a more positive review, saying "Grown-ups who like their entertainments on a comic-strip level will find this good fun and the Universal release (made in Japan) has plenty of ballyhoo angles to draw the school-free youngsters in large numbers..."

Credits

 * Eiji Tsuburaya - Special effects director


 * Sadamasa Arikawa - Secondary special effects director


 * Teruyoshi Nakano - Assistant special effects director


 * Takeo Kita - Art direction


 * Fumio Nakadai - Wireworks director


 * Yasuyuki Inoue - Special effects sets

Cast

 * Rhodes Reason - Commander Carl Nelson　(voice actor: Kei Taguchi)


 * Akira Takarada - Lt. Commander Jiro Nomura


 * Linda Miller - Lt. Susan Watson　(voice actor: Akiko Santou)


 * Eisei Amamoto - Dr. Who


 * Mie Hama - Madame Piranha


 * Ikio Sawamura - Old Man of Mondo Island


 * Yosihumi Tajima - Chief


 * Nadao Kirino - Dr. Who’s assistant


 * Sachio Sakai - Dr. Who’s assistant


 * Naoya Kusakawa - Dr. Who’s assistant


 * Susumu Kurobe - Dr. Who’s subordinate


 * Tooru Ibuki - Dr. Who’s subordinate


 * Kazuo Suzuki - Dr. Who’s subordinate


 * Shigemi Sagawa - Dr. Who’s subordinate


 * Yoshio Katsube - Dr. Who’s subordinate


 * Haruo Suzuki - Dr. Who’s subordinate


 * Jun Kuroki - Jet helicopter crewman


 * Takuya Yuki - Jet helicopter crewman


 * Masaki Shinohara - Carrier sailor


 * Andrew Hughes - United Nations journalist


 * Al Kramer - United Nations journalist


 * Ryuuji Kita - Police inspector


 * Syouichi Hirose - Submarine Explore crewman


 * Rinsaku Ogata - Submarine Explore crewman


 * Ousmane Yusef - Submarine Explore crewman


 * Yutaka Oka - Submarine Explore crewman


 * Yū Sekida - Headquarters guard


 * Kazuo Hinata - Headquarters guard


 * Akio Kusama - Headquarters guard


 * Masaaki Tachibana - Self-Defense Force soldier


 * Tadashi Okabe - Self-Defense Force soldier


 * Hideo Shibuya - Self-Defense Force soldier


 * Haruya Sakamoto - Self-Defense Force soldier


 * Keiichirou Katsumoto - Curious spectator


 * Haruo Nakajima - King Kong, Curious spectator


 * Yū Sekida - Mechani-Kong, Gorosaurus



Trivia

 * Akira Ifukube would reuse and rewrite Mechani-Kong's theme for his score to Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II.
 * In this film, the kaiju dinosaur Gorosaurus is not given a name. He is only given the name "Gorosaurus" in the 1968 film Destroy All Monsters.
 * Mechani-Kong was Toho's first robot kaiju, and inspired Mechagodzilla in the 1970's.
 * This film was described by an american critic as a "disgustingly vulger abortion"!
 * Kong's battle with Gorosaurus is a restaging of the famous battle in the original King Kong between the great ape and an Allosaurus (or a Tyranosaurus). The two battles have many similarities, in particular the conclusion where Kong defeats its opponent by breaking its jaw.  The battle with the Giant Sea Snake is also reminecient of Kong's bout with a plesiosaur in the original film.