Monster Movie Matinee

Does anybody remember last Saturday when I went adventuring and got a good three posts out of one afternoon? Well, that was then, this is now, as the man said (I think if was in some movie or other).

Saturday I did not feel well. The adventures I had planned, I put on hold. The most Mohawk Valley thing I did was to drink my morning coffee out of the Dyn’s Cider Mill mug. I love that mug.

Saturday afternoon I intended to take it easy, and my husband Steven graciously agreed to take it easy with me. I suggested we watch an old movie, King Kong from 1933 with Fay Wray. After all, Saturday afternoon, monster movie matinee, what could be more appropriate?

I made some popcorn. Alas, I’ve eaten all of the bag I bought at Dyn’s, so no local connection there. I pop my corn on the stove, in oil, and melt real butter to put on it. Yum. Then it lasts me a few days, because I eat some, then wash my hands so I can crochet. That’s how I roll.

Our video of King Kong was purchased by me a number of years ago (seeing that it is a video, some people already guessed that). I got it at a good price from Avon, of all places. A lady I work with sold it; this was later than my own ill-fated attempts to be an Avon Lady. We don’t pop it in very often. Steven is not usually anxious to watch King Kong. All of Fay Wray’s screaming gets on his nerves. I confess, I like her better in Mystery of the Wax Museum, where she has more character and more gumption, but you can’t have everything, after all.

For being all about beauty and the beast, the movie is fairly anti-woman. From the start, the movie producer is disgusted he has to hire a girl for his next picture. He can make a swell picture, he says, but the public wants a girl! OK, he’ll give them a girl. Enter Fay Wray. Cue the handsome first mate to tell her women are nothing but trouble, especially on board a ship. I have to wonder if there ever really was a superstition about women on a ship. Women used to sail on ships all the time, whenever they had to cross an ocean. But in old movies, you’ve always got some old salt saying women don’t belong on a ship.

The movie isn’t so hot from a race relations point of view, either. There are a lot of black actors in the picture, but they’re all savage natives. About all they get to do is beat drums and run away from the big gorilla.

But what do I want from a movie made in 1933? It was entertaining, I admit. Oh, one more beef: at the end (sorry to give away the ending, but you really should have seen this one or one of the remakes by now), the man says, “It was beauty that killed the beast.” No it wasn’t! It was getting shot by an airplane and falling off the Empire State Building! Hello! Sorry, just had to say it.