"The part in the cave where Juanito is chased by that one creature, I heard that was actual footage from the spider pit scene. I may be wrong though, but if it is, It would prove the pit scene still exists."
No....the surrounding miniature set on which the spider puppet is scrabbling on is not a match up to the "pit" scene...it's a setting for Black Scorpion (including the little glass painted foreground). Obie had all of the Kong and Son of Kong models in a box or shed. Then Peterson had them and then Dennis Muren and David Allen came into possesion of them after Peterson's death.
I remember at a science fiction film convention in San Diego back in 1975 I think it was, there was a huge display of stop motion artifacts and one of them was the head and first few segments of the Black Scorpion worm. It's armor was green in color with a yellowish tan color between the armor plating....the tail and the tentecles were long gone, but judging by the size of the little head it must've been about three feet long, fully extended.
When shooting I LOVE LUCY, executive producer Desi Arnaz had outtakes from the film vaults at RKO (which was under the umbrella of his company DESILU) stripped of silver and "reclaimed"...it is a process of taking imaging (the silver particles of black and white film) off of a piece of celuliod plastic and putting them back on in a virgin state. I don't know the technical details, only that he was able to have thousands of feet of film "reclaimed" so that he could have new, cheap footage to shoot I LOVE LUCY on.
The ONLY reason that the Kong outtakes were not stripped and later salvaged in the late 1960's, was that Kong was "edited" for it's 1952 re-release.
The spider sequence was taken out in early 1933 because Cooper felt it "stopped the action dead in its tracks." All of a sudden Kong...Denham...and Jack...are watching the critters coming out of their hidey holes and devouring the still alive sailors. So Cooper told Ted Cheesman to cut the spider attack which happened AFTER the log was thrown down.
I'm a spoiled brat when it comes to stop motion and I would LOVE to have seen the sequence edited INTO the movie even if Cooper thought it stopped the flow of the action.
So the next time you see I LOVE LUCY and you watch Lucy try to get into one of Ricky's shows at the Club Tropicana, well, there's your damn spider pit sequence.
What?
Don't you recognize it?
I hate Lucy....................................................................
http://www.woodywelch.com
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wallerworld
16 years ago
Looking at "The Black Scorpion" dvd, at 50:43 there's a shot of the worm (and a continuation at 51:03) that has a lot more scratches than anything else in the movie. This looks to me like it could have been a Kong outtake or some O'Brien test footage (for "Creation", perhaps). Note that there are no other "Black Scorpion" characters like Juanito in that footage. Framing the shot is a stalactite painting; this easily could have been matted in, to give more of a "cave" feeling to the spider pit.
As for Desi Arnaz, I'd need to see a little more documentation to believe he personally gave the order to reclaim the silver from historic RKO footage. Why not Howard Hughes, when he owned it? It was SOP in Hollywood to save a buck whenever possible; they weren't concerned about future film historians.
There's some footage of Arnaz in the Desilu prop house, proudly holding what he refers to as "King Kong" (it's actually the "Mighty Joe Young" animation puppet). Desi comes off as another Kong fan, just like us. To see the footage, search for "Desilu tour" on youtube or click on http://youtube.com/watch?v=IaFjqPTAilI&feature=related
BTW, I've heard Desi being blamed for financing the assassination of JFK, because of the Bay of Pigs debacle. I think people just like to make him a scapegoat.
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bok602
15 years ago
I agree with waller.
The worm footage looks an awful lot older (and more damaged) than any of the other footage.
I'm willing to support the possibility that the models may have been the actual ones used in the spider pit, the footage might just possibly be outtakes or even TEST FOOTAGE of them from Kong.
"If you don't know the answer -change the question."
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StormSworder
11 years ago
The two models were certainly re-used King Kong props. Or at least the spider/crab is. There still exists a couple of stills from the spider pit sequence where you can clearly see the spider/crab. One of the stills also shows a lizard with spikes on its back. Apparently there was also a tarantula.
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Skye_Reynolds
9 years ago
Fantastic discussions in this topic. It's hard to believe it's been nearly 9 years since I last saw this film. I knew it had been a while, but not that long.
Watching it again, and seeing how the worm operates, I think its presence would have changed the tone of King Kong. It has that weird two-legged lizard climbing up the vine. Adding a worm with tentacle-like arms would have really pushed Kong a lot further down the sci-fi / fantasy avenue.
I enjoyed getting to see the "What if?" scenario that this film provides, and I'd love to see the spider pit sequence if it still exists, but it's probably for the best that it never made it into King Kong.
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