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It might seem that any creature answering the description of Kong would be despicable and terrifying. Such is not the case. Kong is an exaggeration ad absurdum, too vast to be plausible. This makes his actions wholly enjoyable. King Kong, "conceived" by Merian Coldwell Cooper, was not made entirely by enlarging miniatures. Kong is actually 50 ft. tall, 36 ft. around the chest. His face is 6½ ft. wide with 10-in. teeth and ears 1 ft. long. He has a rubber nose, glass eyes as big as tennis balls. His furry outside is made of 30 bearskins. During his tantrums, there were six men in his interior running his 85 motors. Naturally no such monster would be limber enough to wrestle with a tyrannosaurus. Most of Kong's fights were photographed in miniature, some of them in "stop-motion"—using models of which the positions are minutely changed after each exposure, like the drawings in an animated cartoon.
From Hell to Heaven (Paramount). Beginning with Jack Oakie's first speech, "People come and people go but nothing ever happens around here," this is a frank but entertaining composite of Grand Hotel and its imitations. An innovation is showing the characters at a racetrack. Carole Lombard comes to the track to test the faithfulness of her lover (Sidney Blackmer) before announcing to him the tidings of her divorce. David Manners and Adrienne Ames come as a harried young couple attempting to recoup purloined funds, closely tracked by Detective Jackson who is persuaded to content himself with shooting Crook Churchill. Jockey Eagles rides the good race for Shirley Grey. Nydia Westman and Donald Kerr are teamed as a talkative hotel clerk and telephone operator. The brighter moments are furnished by Jack Oakie as a radio announcer with an overpowering weakness for crooning at crucial moments, and Clarence Muse as a Negro bellhop.