“He says we’re trespassing on Kong’s home.” “You mean he actually exists?”
At the North Pole, evil genius Dr. Who (Hideyo Amamoto) has created a giant robot called Mechani-Kong. It is a mechanical version of King Kong. He wants to use it to dig for a highly radioactive substance called Element X. The element is only found at the North Pole. While digging for Element X, Mechani-Kong’s circuits get scrambled by radiation. Dr. Who decides he needs the real Kong to finish the job. Madame Piranha (Mie Hama) is a representative from a foreign country that finances Dr. Who’s evil operation. So far, she is not impressed.
Meanwhile, the submarine “Explorer” is having some mechanical problems of its own. They stop at Mondo Island for repairs. Commander Carl Nelson (Rhodes Reason), Lt. Commander Jiro Nomura (Akira Takarada) and Lt. Susan Watson (Linda Miller) do some exploring (in a really cool hover car) on the island. They find King Kong. A dinosaur attacks Linda and Kong saves her. Kong is smitten. Kong wants to keep Linda but she convinces him that she needs to go. The sub gets repaired and the commander heads for New York to tell the UN about their discovery. The UN agrees to send a research expedition to study Kong.
Before the research team gets to the island, Dr. Who steals Kong and brings him back to his secret base at the North Pole. Kong is hypnotized and a radio transmitter is attached to him. Dr. Who now has control over Kong. Dr. Who commands Kong to dig out the Element X but once again his invention fails and there are problems with the transmitter. Madame Piranha is still not impressed.
Dr. Who kidnaps Susan, the only person who can control Kong. He wants to use Susan to get Kong to do what he wants. Kong escapes and, of course, heads for Japan. Dr. Who sends Mechani-Kong after the real Kong.
“King Kong Escapes” was released in 1967 and in 1968 in the US. It was directed by Ishiro Honda. The film was co-produced by TOHO and Rankin/Bass. The Japanese version of the film was about 104 minutes long and the US version about 96 minutes long.
Rhodes Reason is the younger brother of Rex Reason. Even though Linda Miller (Lt. Susan Watson) was an American that spoke fluent English, her voice was dubbed by Julie Bennett in the American release. Julie was also the voice of Mie Hama (Madam Piranha). It is the second and last TOHO film to feature King Kong. Their rights to use the character lapsed after this film.
The movie was a bunch of fun. Espionage, spies, giant gorilla, huge mechanical robot, Element X, evil genius Dr. Who. What more could you ask for? Yes, it was silly and a little campy but who can resist an evil genius?
Rankin/Bass had some success with previous joint ventures with Toei Studios. They approached another studio, TOHO about a collaboration using King Kong. TOHO had previously done “King Kong vs Godzilla” in 1962. Rankin/Bass was looking to capitalize on their animated series “The King Kong Show”. Rankin/Bass felt that what TOHO came up with for a story did not reflect close enough to the animated series so TOHO came up with the new concept which brought in some of the shows concepts including Mondo Island, the Dr. Who villain and Mechi-Kong. The rejected concept TOHO repackaged with Godzilla and called it “Ebirah: Horror of the Deep”.
English dubbed
Japanese subtitled