The chosen scenes.
Most famous of the lost scenes is the spider sequence, the scene
involving the rescue party encountering Kong as they cross a log at which point
the enraged Kong tips the log, tossing them into the chasm, in the original
only two characters survive, the remainder die from the fall, however
originally they were to fall into a pool of soft mud, at which point they would
be attacked by all manner of terrifying creatures, such as a giant lizard,
giant spider, giant crab and an unknown octopoid. The look of horror on Jack’s
face as he looks into the ravine was originally due to a large insect eating
one of his crew mates, although this was reworked so it appeared he was
horrified by the sight of his friends hitting the rocks in the fall. Original
concept art remains, as well as some stills, but the original footage is
ultimately lost. Merian C Cooper decided to cut this scene as it slowed the
pacing, and people found it too disturbing, and it was considered one of the
most memorable yet controversial by test audiences, not the desired outcome for
the director. It also diverted the audience from the threat of Kong.
A scene where right after the raft scene with the Apatosaurus
attack, a trio of triceratops charge the sailors of the Venture. Kong stumbles
upon the confrontation and an epic battle ensues. He throws a giant boulder at
one of the dinosaurs, which severs one of its horns. At which point the fight
ceases and then one of the dinosaurs chases the sailors further into the jungle
and impales one of them to death with its horn. This sequence was scripted but
never filmed. Cooper believed from the start that a scene such as this would
take too long and the production would be too great. As well as slow down the
pacing of the film. The Triceratops chasing the sailor was filmed though (minus
the impalement).
Actually it was originally a test shot from the canceled
film CREATION (1932) that O'Brien was working on before KING KONG. He shot prototype
footage of a Triceratops chasing a sailor and goring him with it's horn after
the sailor had shot and killed its baby. The sequence of the Triceratops
chasing the sailor was to be incorporated to KONG to save time. This explains why
the men are still running long after the Apatosaurus had stopped chasing them,
because a Triceratops had sprung from the Jungle and chased after them, eventually trapping them on the log. It also partially explains why the sailors didn't run back across the log away from Kong.The
sequence was never used because it didn't match up well the King Kong footage
and time taken to fix continuity would have been too time consuming and thus it
was left out of the finished picture.
Fan made reconstruction
Another scene cut from
the New York sequence had Kong peering into a window and breaking up a poker
game. This sequence was cut because a similar scene had appeared in Harry
Hoyt’s adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s THE LOST WORLD (1925).
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