The "spider-pit" scene
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The "spider-pit" scene is one of the names used to refer to a scene cut from from the original King Kong at some point in its development. While it has long been believed to have been present in the test print shown to RKO producers, the reasons for its scrapping, and to what extent it may exist as lost media are hotly debated.[1][2] This has earned it a legendary status, and decades of speculation, hearsay, and misinformation created many pop cultural myths surrounding the sequence.
Popular theories dating back almost to the release of the film posit that it was cut for frightening test audiences, or at the behest of producers before it was sent to theatres.[3][2] This idea has become popular enough to make it into some reference books based on the film and series.[4] The mania surrounding the existence of the scene was spurred largely by the publication of test photos published in Famous Monsters of Filmland #108. Perhaps as a result of its notoriety, depictions of this scene have appeared in nearly all adaptations of the Kong story. It has been suspected that Cooper burned the film it was shot on, destroying the scene forever, which was a common practice at the time.[2] Despite this, some hopefuls believe that based on its release date and shipping times, it may have been in-tact for the film's release in Asia, but nothing has ever come of these searches.(SAUCE)[2] Later in life, Merian C. Cooper would claim to have cut it because it "stopped the story dead," indicating that it was removed for pacing reasons rather than its disturbing content.[2] It was alleged by Willis O'Brien's widow that he considered the scene his best work.(SAUCE)
Despite this, Kong and cinema scholar Ray Morton posits that it was never filmed at all, and was cut, alongside a scene of Kong on New York rooftops, and the triceratops battle that directly preceded the pit battle, much earlier in development than is popularly believed. Given the film's immense budget at the time, Morton finds it likely that they were cut to save money. Each of these scenes were in the original screenplay, and in the 1932 novelization of the film based on the screenplay, but none were featured on the filming schedule,[5] and can be seen crossed out of shooting scripts.[6] However, numerous models, and even sets for the spider-pit, and asphalt flat triceratops battle were produced, and may well have had test footage taken, but were never filmed for actual use in the picture.[7] The film's composer Max Steiner is on record saying he never produced a score for the scene, indicating that it was cut before that part of production began.(SAUCE)
The intrigue surrounding the scene lead to its re-creation as a short fan-film by Peter Jackson and Weta Workshop using period techniques and study of Merian C. Cooper's methodology. This short film was released as a special feature on the DVD and Blu-Ray releases of King Kong (1933) as "The Lost Spider Pit Sequence".
Production
The "spider-pit" was present even in the earliest publicly available drafts of the film by Edgar Wallace. Cooper later went on record claiming that "The present script of Kong, as far as I can remember, hasn't one single idea suggested by Edgar Wallace.[8] While this can be contested, it would suggest that the pit was one of the parts of the story imagined by Cooper before handing his outline off to Wallace and the other screenwriters. As early as December 23, 1931, O'Brien, Delgado and Larrinaga were modeling "prehistoric" creatures for the film, even before Wallace began writing the script. Whether or not the models he saw included the pit creatures is unknowable.(SAUCE) It is known that effects shots featuring two men battling a creature were being filmed before Wallace's death in February 1932, but his letters to his daughter describe human actors in front of a bluescreen. Whether or not the effects for this scene, or if it was from the pit at all, is not known. Art depicting the scene in Wallace's draft was created by Byron Crabbe during production. This is evidenced by the men falling into the pit wearing prison jumpsuits, as James S. Creelman and Ruth Rose would replace the prisoners with the crew of the Venture during rewrites in February and March of 1932.(SAUCE) At this time, Wallace described the pit creatures as a giant crab, a giant spider, a lizard, an octopus, and a nondescript 'curious creature' (SAUCE). Crabbe's art, which Cooper's other scenes tended to follow very closely, depicts a few snakes, and a more traditionally sized crab to the mix.
After Wallace's death, and the revision of his script by Creelman and Rose, the octopus became an "Octopus-insect," possibly to avoid the idea of an aquatic creature living naturally in the air, and the giant crabs were downplayed in favor of the giant spiders and lizards. This version of the script was adapted by Delos W. Lovelace for the novelization of the film. The script dated to the first week of September, 1932 features a number of indistinct "giant insects." The film is not known for its taxonomic clarity, but given how the novelization depicts them explicitly as spiders, it can be presumed that "giant insects" refers to spiders. Despite this, it is unknowable if these are meant to be the same kind of spider that attacks two men at once instead of swarming in a group, or the spider that climbs the vine to menace Driscoll.
Test footage depicts an Arsinoitherium chasing the sailors to the pit, while the final script and novelization depict a Triceratops. Ultimately, this was replaced with a Styracosaurus before the scene was cut altogether. The pit scene would have been preceded by, and intercut with Kong and the horned beast's posturing, as it caused more sailors to fall to their doom.(SAUCE)
During production of King Kong in 1932, the scene was cut from the final version, likely at the behest of the studio.[9] Unlike the scenes that were censored from the film for 1938 post-Hayes-code screenings, that were later rediscovered, it has been popularly alleged that the film was burned by Cooper himself, as he made a habit of doing so to film he did not want to be used.(SAUCE) However, in the mid-1960s, Famous Monsters of Filmland published photos believed to be of the scene, sparking hope that the full sequence might still be in tact somewhere. Despite this, later photos that have surfaced featuring the same set with different creatures placed around it gives credence to the idea that the published photographs were simply test photos and not clippings of the apparently destroyed reel as is commonly believed. Given the scene's absence in the film's official shooting schedule, it is unlikely that it ever made it past test shots or photos, which are the most likely explanation of the "Filmland Photos". Ergo, if Cooper did indeed burn anything of this sequence, it would likely have been the test reels.
Plot
While fleeing a quadrupedal "horned beast", either an Arsinoitherium, Triceratops, or a Styracosaurus depending on the draft, the crew of the Venture make their way onto a log bridging a massive chasm, only to find Kong on the other side. Stuck between two titans, the men have nowhere to run. Carl Denham and Jack Driscoll manage to escape and hide on either side of the log, but Kong shakes the remaining sailors into the pit and throws the log down after them. They fall into the thick mud and slime at the bottom, and are attacked by all manner of monsters. One man is swarmed and eaten by "giant insects", while another is mangled by "An insect with octopus arms." Two men are set upon by a huge spider, and another is eaten by a giant lizard.
Appearances
- Styracosaurus [Promotional art]
- Monoclonius [Wallace Draft 01/1932][10]
- Arsinoitherium [Test Reel ]
- Triceratops [Novelization]
- "Giant insects" ["Final" Draft 09/1932]
- Octopus-insect [Rose Draft 09/1932]
- Octopus [Wallace Draft 01/1932]
- Huge spider ["Final" Draft 09/1932]
- Unnamed giant lizard ["Final" Draft 09/1932]
- Unnamed crab creature [Crabbe concept art]
- Smaller lizard [Crabbe concept art]
- Small crab [Crabbe concept art]
- Snakes [Crabbe concept art]
Gallery
Pre-production
1933
Art depicting Kong shaking the log by Byron Crabbe
Crabbe's rendition of the horrors of the pit
Art of the pit by Mario Larrinaga
Art of the spider by Marcel Delgado
The spider model
Production
1933
An image of some of the creatures in the pit
An image of the spider and lizard props published in Famous Monsters of Filmland #108
The giant lizard (right) posed in the pit
The spider (left) and the crab mangling a sailor (right)
The spider (left) and a fallen sailor (center)
Post-production
A promotional picture depicting the cut Styracosaurus
The spider pit depicted in the promotional King Kong comic strip
Trivia
- In the script and novelization, the scene following the pit scene of Jack being menaced by Kong's hand, a giant spider climbs a vine to get to the sailor. In the final film, the spider is replaced by a strange looking reptile known as a Polysauro. It is unknown where this model came from, or what inspired the change, as the only lizard seen in production stills is much larger and has more legs.
- A popular fan theory supposes that the puppets created for the Spider Pit sequence were re-used in the 1957 film The Black Scorpion. The rumor spread from an image caption in the 1993 book Willis O'Brien: Special Effects Genius by Steve Archer, wherein an aside claims that the spider from The Black Scorpion was re-used, despite evidence pointing to their being in RKO's storage at the time.[11] There is some similarity in their designs, but this can be put down to having the same designers. Furthermore, it is unlikely that given the models' construction of rubber, wood, and glue would have stayed in-tact for the twenty-five intervening years.
- Despite this, in addition to supporting the myth of the late-cutting of the "spider-pit scene", the book also purports this urban legend as fact.[12]
References
This is a list of references for The Boy Who Cried Godzilla/Sandbox/Spider Pit. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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Bibliography
- Fiscus, James W. (2005). Famous Movie Monsters: Meet King Kong. Rosen Publishing Group. ISBN 1-4042-0270-6.
- Jones, Stephen (2023). Kong: An Original Screenplay. PS Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 978-1-78636-881-2.
- Morton, Ray (2005). King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon from Fay Wray to Peter Jackson. Applause. ISBN 1-55783-669-8.
- Goldner, Orville; Turner, George E. (1975). The Making of King Kong. A.S. Barnes and Company. ISBN 9780498015106.
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