King Kong

I was watching the upcoming restored DVD edition of “King Kong,” listening to the commentary with Ken Ralston and stop animation genius Ray Harryhausen, when I came across this hilarious exchange, around when Kong is about to make his appearance and snatch the primed-for-sacrifice Fay Wray, right after the native chief has the big gong hit:

Ralston: “Ah, the dinner bell. I hope he’s not too hungry, because it’s a small meal.”

Harryhausen: “What I want to know is, what happened to the other girls?”

Ralston: [pauses, thinking about what must have been countless nubile girls strapped to the alter over the years] “”Yeah, how about that?” [chuckles]. “I don’t want to know!”

It’s a good question, considering Kong doesn’t eat Fay Wray and, indeed, she wouldn’t make much of a meal for such a big monkey, anyway. One must only assume that Kong’s previous blind dates just didn’t strike his romantic fancy and got the gong themselves.