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Carlo Rambaldi, who designed the animatronic Kong, deserves a ton of credit. Sure, the whole "Man in a Suit" approach isn't nearly as charming or whimsical as Willis O'Brien's stop-motion photography in the 1933 classic, but damn if the work that went into this version isn't nearly as impressive from a 'movie magic' standpoint. He did a lot of behind the scenes work on the film, but his major contribution was giving this Kong some much needed humanity. Grodin has the bright idea to take Kong back to the States to use as some sort of advertising gimmick for his oil company, a plan where nothing could possibly go wrong. Unfortunately this doesn't bode well for Lange's Dwan, since it's love at first sight for Kong when he first lays his eerily human eyes on the woman.Īs for the man behind those eyes? That's makeup effects legend Rick Baker with one of his first substantial gigs on a motion picture. There is however a giant ape named Kong that the local inhabitants worship as a god, performing rituals and offering human sacrifices. Too bad there's no usable oil to be found on Skull Island. Grodin has discovered that a hitherto uncharted island may very well hold the motherload of unclaimed oil, a veritable Dick Cheney wet dream.
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The 70s were a much different time than the 30s, and so this iteration of King Kong deals not with the production of a film, but with the search for oil. He's an oil tycoon with money to burn and he wants everyone to know it flaunting his status at every turn, even bragging, at one point, about bribing the President of the United States.
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Heading up the expedition to the fog shrouded Skull Island is Charles Grodin in full on angry businessman mode. Bridges and Lange are terrific here, no matter how ridiculous the situation may get, the chemistry between the two is palpable and a welcome respite from the cookie-cutter characters in most monster movies. In the director's chair sat John Guillermin, hot off directing the 1974 Best Picture nominee The Towering Inferno, while in front of the camera he cast the young and attractive Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange as the romantic leads.
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But what was Lange like before nabbing those credits? Let's take a look back at what the star looked like way back in the day.Indeed, Laurentiis spared no expense, assembling a crack team to craft his monster movie. She's stolen the show in multiple American Horror Story seasons, and she did the same in Feud, the 2017 anthology about the real-life battle between Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. Lange has joined famed screenwriter Ryan Murphy's posse in a big way. To put it simply: Lange is an icon, and she's still in the spotlight. According to The Hollywood Reporter, she's one of the most Oscar-nominated actors of all time, earning six nods to date and one win for her role in the cross-dressing 1983 comedy Tootsie, opposite Dustin Hoffman. It reportedly took years for another director to give Lange a chance, but Bob Fosse finally did, casting Lange in All That Jazz, and from there, her career really took off. "The film makers have turned a conventional heroine into a pseudo-Marilyn Monroe character who seems less dizzy than certifiably daft, aggressively unpleasant and out of place," The New York Times wrote.
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While the film was (no pun intended) a monster at the box office for its time, grossing a then-impressive $52 million, it negatively typecast Lange - some critics couldn't see more than a former model who was scantily clad and in distress throughout much of the film. Legendary actor Jessica Lange's career took off when she got cast as the lead in the 1976 blockbuster King Kong. Well, it took off in theory.