Merian C. Cooper directs this classic monster movie about a magnificent beast who falls in love with a woman. Film-maker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) and actress Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) arrive on the prehistoric Skull Island to shoot a film. While there, they encounter a giant ape known as King Kong, who is worshipped as a god by the island's native inhabitants. The mighty Kong shows his sensitive side by falling for Ann, and, after being transported to New York to be displayed on Broadway, rampages across the city in search of his new love with the military hot on his heels. Synopsis Seeking a backer for his movie, Merian C. Cooper approached a top Hollywood mogul. "You know what a 50-foot gorilla would see in a five-foot girl?" the mogul asked. "His breakfast!" The studio chief wasn't buying but the public was. King Kong saved RKO from bankruptcy and became an all-time classic, ranking 43rd on the American Film Institute's list of Top-100 American Movies. King Kong teems with memorable moments: a moviemaking expedition on a fantastic isle filled with dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures; the giant simian's lovestruck obsession with the film shoot's blonde starlet (scream queen Fay Wray); Kong's capture; his Manhattan rampage; and the fateful finale atop the Empire State Building, where Kong cradles his palm-sized beloved and swats at machine-gunning airplanes. "It was beauty killed the beast." But in these and other great scenes, Kong lives forever.