King Kong

The grandaddy of all monster movies remains one of the screen’s most awe-inspiring achievements: a landmark in both special effects and modern mythmaking. Original scream queen Fay Wray stars as Ann Darrow, an actress hired to star in a jungle adventure being filmed on a remote island in the South Pacific. It’s there she encounters the gargantuan god-ape known as Kong—setting into motion a strangely touching love story that takes the smitten beast from his jungle home to the footlights of Broadway to the top of the Empire State Building for one of the most memorable climaxes in all of cinema.