KING KORN

KING KONG (1976)
dir: John Guillermin

MAD #192, July 1977
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Harry North, Esq.

In this remake, Fred Wilson (Charles Grodin), captain of an oil tanker for the Petrox Oil company, is heading an expedition to Skull Island in the Indian Ocean. Jack Prescott (Jeff Bridges) is a paleontologist who has stowed away to warn the crew not to go there because they would disturb the natives' ritual and because previous explorers have disappeared.

Fred Wilson does not believe his story, and assumes he is a spy from a rival oil company. The crew finds Dwan (Jessica Lange), an actress who was cast away, She was the only surviving member of a yacht explosion and Dwan is a stage name that's an anagram of her real name.

The crew has done a background check on Jack and knowing who he really is, makes him their official photographer while they explore the land. They believe the island to be uninhabited but he knows otherwise. They hear natives and see them performing some kind of ritual. Wilson is more interested in the oil they came to get and asks crew member Bagley (Rene Auberjonois) if that's what the tar he sees is. The native see them and the ritual they're performing is a sacrificial one. They want to offer Dwan and are willing to exchange members of their tribe.

At night, back on the ship the natives come and capture Dwan when nobody's around drug her, and take her back to the island to sacrifice her to their god Kong. Kong is a gigantic ape who is mesmerised by her. The crew rushes to the island to find her.

Bagley tells them the oil they discovered is no good, so rather than decide the expedition was for nothing, Wilson comes up with the idea of bringing Kong back to use him as a promotional gimmick for Petrox with Dwan and Jack starring in a show. Jack is reluctant, and lets Wilson know that the dynamic of the island is ruined without Kong. They capture Kong and put him in a secure place in the ship hundreds of feet below.

It's not shown (see below), but Dwan's scarf falls through the grates in the space where Kong is kept safe from everyone, riling him up and making him tear down pipes and punch through walls. It's only the presence of her that can calm him.

Jack quits the show before its premiere in New York. Kong in shackles is believed to be secure but Jack, watching from a distance, tries to warn reporters not to make Kong angry by surrounding Dwan. They do anyway and he breaks free, trampling the crowd. Jack and Dwan try to flee on the subway and Kong finds her.

In another scene not shown (see bottom link), Jack and Dwan run into a bar, Kong finds her again and grabs her.

Jack knows Kong is headed for the World Trade Center because the Twin Towers are shaped like two mountains from Skull Island. He tells the military that's where Kong will be but tells them to only capture him but not kill him. They do anyway.

Here was Don Martin's take in that same issue.

And Sergio Aragones'

Cover for German edition of MAD.

Cover for the British one, which I think might have also been by Harry North.

From When Women Take Over Movies Completely in MAD #211, by Larry Siegel and Harry North.

KING KON
Bananas #20, c. 1977
w: Jovial Bob Stine
a: Bob Taylor

Bob Taylor is the only cartoonist to work for MAD, Cracked, Crazy, Sick, Bananas, AND National Lampoon. And speaking of National Lampoon...

Tomorrow, in our FOUR-part look at King Kong, we'll post the many parodies from Cracked.

UPDATE:

KING KONG
covers for Kaputt, German version of Cracked

THE 3RD KING KONG REMAKE
Trash #1, March 1978
a: Al Scaduto