Current Forum: Session 9: Horror and Race	Read 7 times 	
Date: 20-Mar-2001 00:06:48	
Author: MCKAHAN, JASON G. <jgm8530@garnet.acns.fsu.edu>	
Subject: King Kong and Great Depression 	
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       Thomas Doherty in Pre-code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema, 1930-1934, argues that Hollywood in the early 1930s addressed the Depression with “more vigor and directness than is usually credited” (44), particularly in preachment yarns which commented directly on social policy and aimed to “dramatize a crisis” (50) rather than find easy cures. King Kong (Cooper 1933) relates well to this historical setting of the Great Depression. Like the Gold Diggers of 1933, King Kong is very concerned with class and narratives of economic mobility. The real cinematic effect flaunts money and fame on the screen and functions a sort of release valve for the economically repressed spectators. Yet, the average spectator was of course alienated from this free flow of cinematic cash.
       Interestingly, Ann Darrow can be seen as a female protagonist with whom most spectators could identify. At her introduction, she is no doubt the love interest of a metanarrative, heterosexual subplot. She embodies the desire of male spectators in the audience and is reduplicated in a movie about making a successful movie. However, Denham’s search beginning at the women’s shelter establishes a space for a narrative of class. The tracking shot of women standing on cue in the soup line, demonstrates the growing mobility of the camera following the birth of sound and is quite appropriate for representing the length of the penurious line. This social structure between the rich and poor is propped up by the policeman who upholds “order” (class structure), pacing in the background. When Ann “gets her 
break” she is literally “discovered” by a dolly-in as she steals an apple and simultaneously discovered by a movie mogul. Thus, Ann is not only a gendered object of fetishistic scopophilic 
pleasure; she is also a classed subject, through which the spectator can imagine the amelioration of economic depression. 
       Denham has often been seen within the context masculine imperialism. To be sure, Cooper must have entertained this reading himself, as is obvious in Denham’s reckless aspiration to be famous at the cost of human lives. However, Denham can also be seen in the direct context of executives of the 1930s, who were at pains to present dreams for the average spectator and thus revive their suffering studios. On the other hand, Doherty notes that 1930s narratives criticized the professional classes, as in Skyscraper Souls (1932) (58-67). It is noteworthy that Denham’s lust for wealth can only result in disaster and therefore the spectator is more like to criticize than identify with him. Such a narrative retains the status quo of class for the average spectator in the depression. 
       The narrative reinforces class stereotypes of economic mobility within the imaginary relations of production, a dream which is not irrelevant for spectators today, but during the real 
economic hardships of the 1930s, must have either fascinated or disgusted spectators.