Seeking a backer for his movie, Merian C. Cooper approached a top Hollywood mogul. You know what a 50-foot gorilla would see in a five-foot girl? the mogul asked. His breakfast! The studio chief wasn't buying but the public was. King Kong saved RKO from bankruptcy and became an all-time classic, ranking 43rd on the American Film Institutes list of Top-100 American Movies. King Kong teems with memorable moments: a movie-making expedition on a fantastic isle filled with dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures; the giant simians love-struck obsession with the film shoots blonde starlet (scream queen Fay Wray); Kong's capture; his Manhattan rampage; and the fateful finale atop the Empire State Building, where Kong cradles his palm-sized beloved and swats at machine-gunning airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast. But in these and other great scenes, Kong lives forever.