King Kong (1976)

Forty-three years after Merian C. Cooper's monster movie classic of the same name, King Kong (1976) hit theaters in the summer with big ambitions, particularly in showcasing the newly completed World Trade Center in the climax, rather than the Empire State Building. Director John Guillermin followed up both The Towering Inferno (1974) and Shaft in Africa (1973) with this remake that introduced the film world to future queen Jessica Lange, stepping into the legendary shoes of Fay Wray to play the beauty that soothes—and eventually dooms—the savage titular beast! Charles Grodin, hot off his work on Elaine May's The Heartbreak Kid (1972), plays oil tycoon Fred Wilson, a man looking to drill hitherto unexplored regions of the earth in search of crude. He charters a ship in hunt of a particularly promising vein near Skull Island. Concerned hunky primate paleontologist Jack (a bearded Jeff Bridges) stows away on Grodin's ship in hopes of turning them around to avoid the legendary king of the primates who is rumored to live on the island. Then it's pretty much the King Kong story as we all know it, with Kong falling for Lange's Dwan, being transported back to New York City for showcasing to the media, and the giant ape escaping to wreak havoc in the streets of the city that never sleeps. Kong ascends the twin towers, from which he plunges to his death shortly afterward, but you'll wanna monkey around when you get a load of zaddy Jeff Bridges running around in the film's first two acts without a shirt on! Hubba hubba!