The "spider-pit" scene
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The "spider-pit" scene is a name commonly used to refer to a scene cut from from the original King Kong during its development. It is 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][3] Nearly a century of speculation and hearsay has earned it a legendary status among fans, centering it in innumerable pop-culture myths.
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.[4][2] This idea has become popular enough to make it into some reference books based on the film and series.[5] It is sometimes stretched to imagine that the producers themselves were the ones who were frightened and demanded it be cut. After around 30 years of obscurity, photographs featuring never-before-seen models from the cut scene were published in Famous Monsters of Filmland #108. The magazine makes the mistake of not mentioning the test reel, furthering the false notion that a fully animated and integrated scene existed, and could easily be slotted into the film if discovered. It is popularly believed that Cooper burned the film it was shot on, destroying the scene forever, which was a common practice at the time.[2] The film's composer Max Steiner was never produced a score for the scene, indicating that it was cut before that part of production began.[3][6] Later in life, 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]
The cutting of two additional scenes using miniatures, one of which directly preceded the "spider-pit," and the film's immense budget requiring great diligence to keep costs down, supports the notion of necessity in cutting a scene that would be quite costly to produce, and added nothing to the film's story progression [7][8] Each of the three cut scenes were in the original screenplay, and in the 1932 novelization of the film based upon it, but none were featured on the filming schedule,[8] and can be seen crossed out of shooting scripts.[9] 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.[10]
Despite this, some believe that based on its release date and shipping times, it may have been in-tact for the film's release in the Philippines, but this is widely accepted as untrue due in no small part to the lack of evidence.[6][2]
Perhaps as a result of its notoriety, depictions of this scene have appeared in nearly all adaptations of the Kong story. 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.[11] 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. Based on letters written by Edgar Wallace to his family, it is known that as early as December 23, 1931, O'Brien, Delgado and Larrinaga were modeling creatures for the film, even before Wallace began writing the script.[12] Whether or not the models he saw included the pit creatures is unknowable. 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.
Development art of the scene by Mario Larrinaga is clearly based on Wallace's draft of the script, which is evidenced by the men depicted falling into the pit wearing prison jumpsuits, as James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose would replace the prisoners with the crew of the Venture during their respective rewrites in March and August of 1932.[13][14][15] At this time, Wallace described the pit creatures as a giant crab, a giant spider, a lizard, an octopus, and a nondescript 'curious creature' [16]. Larrinaga's art, which Cooper's other scenes tended to follow very closely, depicts a few small snakes, and a more traditionally sized crab to the mix. Art by Byron Crabbe adds a giant lizard, and a sizable snake.
After Wallace's death, and the revision of his script by Creelman and Rose, the octopus became an "Octopus-insect," and the water at the bottom of the ravine is no longer mentioned. 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.
In February of 1932, Cooper and O'Brien began filming a test reel as a proof-of-concept.[12] It is believed that Max Steiner was surprised that he was not asked to score the spider-pit scene. It is difficult to say how he learned of it, either by reading the script, or by watching the rough cut test reel.[3] With this in mind, it is likely that if any filmed footage of the pit ever existed, it would likely be from this test print. 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 described in the novelization.
During production of King Kong in 1932, the "spider-pit" scene and two other special effects heavy shots were cut. Scholars suspect that it was done at the behest of the studio as a response to the ballooning budget.[17] They can be seen crossed out on shooting scripts, and they are not present on the shooting schedule. This stands in contrast to the considerable legend built up around the scene, which alleges that it was finished and finalized before being cut following a soft opening/test screening for frightening studio executives/moviegoers. Several scenes were censored in aa similar manner for 1938 post-Hayes-code screenings, but were later recovered, which rekindled the sense of mystery and the fantasy surrounding the "lost scene." It has been popularly alleged that the film was burned by Cooper himself after becoming censored, as he is alleged to have made a habit of doing burning film he did not want to be used.
In the mid-1960s, Famous Monsters of Filmland published photos that they claimed to be of from the scene, once again 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. This 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. Ergo, if Cooper did indeed burn anything of this sequence, it would 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
Monsters
- Styracosaurus [Promotional art]
- Triceratops [Novelization 12/1932]
- "Giant insects" [Final Draft 09/1932]
- Octopus-insect [Final Draft 09/1932]
- Huge spider [Final Draft 09/1932]
- Giant lizard [Final Draft 09/1932]
- Arsinoitherium [Test Reel 02/1932]
- Monoclonius [Wallace Draft 01/1932][18]
- Octopus [Wallace Draft 01/1932]
- Giant crab [Wallace Draft 01/1932]
- "Curious creature" [Wallace Draft 01/1932]
- Giant crab creature [Crabbe concept art]
- Giant lizard [Crabbe concept art]
- Giant spider [Crabbe concept art]
- Giant snake [Crabbe concept art]
- Giant crab [Larrinaga concept art]
- Octopus creature [Larrinaga concept art]
- Giant spider [Larrinaga concept art]
- Smaller lizard [Larrinaga concept art]
- Small crab [Larrinaga concept art]
- Snakes [Larrinaga concept art]
Gallery
Pre-production
1933
Art depicting Kong shaking the log by Mario Larrinaga
Larrinaga's rendition of the horrors of the pit
Art of the pit by Byron Crabbe
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.[19] 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.[20]
- It has been claimed that Willis O'Brien's widow said that he considered the scene his best work.
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]
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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