Spider Pit

The insect pit as shown in "King Kong 1933"

### Inhabitants

Giant Spider, giant Pseudoscorpion, four-legged lizard, two-legged lizard, giant crab, tentacle beast, snake

The spider pit is a gorge that the crew of the S.S. Venture fell into by the actions of Kong.

The same set and miniature appear briefly from an entrance shot and side shot at the top of the cliff showing the log within The Most Dangerous Game (1932).

Most of the scene was cut from the film changing to the sailors falling to their instant deaths.

It was achieved with dummies falling photographed with a camera running 8x normal speed to create a bulk effect in the slow motion of the impact. Weights were placed in different parts of the dummies to make them bounce in a desired way when impacted. Murray Spivack did the voices of the falling men, like the shipwreck sequence of The Most Dangerous Game.

In the final version a Two-Legged Lizard replaced the spider climbing up the vine which was filmed for the previous version.

The original sequence was meant to be in the 14-reel cut, but was removed when the reel was cut down to the 11 reel version. As claimed in the THE SPAWN OF SKULL ISLAND, co-written by Orville Goldner.

Famous fantasy author Ray Bradbury insisted until the day he died that he vividly remembered seeing the spider sequence at an early screening of King Kong in the 1930s. However, many experts dispute this, because Bradbury didn't move to LA until he was 14, and the film didn't have test screenings outside California. Even Bradbury's close friend Forry Ackerman has said many times he doesn't think the lost sequence was ever screened for a paying audience.

Famous Monsters published the spider photo in ~1962, it was a revelation. Forrest J Ackerman said the scene was only in preview prints and was pulled because it "stopped the show".

According to studio correspondence, Stacy Woodard was hired in mid-January 1932 to shoot "some microscopic animal shots" and "some shots of a fish sequence" for "possible use in the proposed picture Kong." It is not known if any of Woodard's footage was used in the final film, though it seems likely that this footage was designed for the deleted spider crab scene. [1]

## Creatures:

Giant Lizard

Huge Spider

Pseudoscropion (or Small Spider/trapdoor spider)

Giant Crab

Insect with Octopus Arms

Two-Legged Lizard (Replaces the Huge Spider In the final vine climbing sequence)

Snake?

## Was the scene with the insects, spiders and lizards every filmed?

Cooper cut the scene before it was scored, and the sound mix was not finalized until the score was recorded. Spivack discusses in interviews at the time balancing the total sound effects with the score.

There is documentary evidence that Murray Spivack and his crew created sound fx for the triceratops (that might of blocked off the log)

Bert Willis describes shooting footage of snakes wrapping around stuntmen to simulate the tentacles of these creatures. Edgar Wallace describes watching the shooting of two stuntmen standing on a rock fighting off creatures that would later be added by cinema technology. I think all of the log fall movie imagery we now have is from a much later shooting version.

"My understanding was that the footage was cut from the film before Max Steiner scored it; no audiences (including Ray Bradbury) ever saw the scenes. On the other hand, RKO execs in New York who saw the original test reel wrote about seeing the spider pit. Darlyne O'Brien told me several times that OBie regarded the sequence as his finest work."

This is the only surviving slop test print documenting an actual cut; the other surviving images - all from the OBie scrapbook - are behind-the-scenes photos, not frame prints. Possibly taken by the crew's new 35mm Leica still cameras.

"In late January of 1933, Cooper told David O. Selznick that KING KONG was ready to be previewed in its finished form. Selznick set up a preview in San Bernardino. The film played well until it got to the scene when Kong shakes the crew members off the log into the gorge. At the bottom of the gorge the men are attacked and eaten by huge insect-like creatures, and as loud as the dying men were screaming, the audience was screaming even louder. Some audience members fled the theater outright. Many who remained kept talking about what they had just witnessed, which had gone beyond anything else they'd seen in the film thus far, or in any other film. The graphic nature of the scene distracted the audience so much that they didn't pay all that much attention to the picture for the next several minutes as many sat in the theater talking about what they'd just seen. Feeling that the spider-crab sequence stopped the film cold, Cooper cut it out the following day at the studio. O'Brien was crushed, believing that it was the finest work he'd ever done, and even Cooper agreed that it was magnificent, but it was just too good. O'Brien had outdone himself and created a scene that was greater than Kong himself." (excerpt from "Hot Blooded Dinosaur Movies", by James Van Hise, 1993.)

Max Steiner told interviewers that he never scored the scenes because Cooper had edited the scenes out, so how would anyone have seen the pit? Of course, that didn't stop Ray Bradbury from insisting to me - at a dinner party at Ray's Pacific Pallisades home - that he had seen it. Ray seemed very skeptical but respectful of his friend's assertion. Don Glut might remember this.

As for Max Steiner not scoring the pit sequence, there is no score for the Allosaurus encounter either, which only increases the tension at that point in the film. It very well may be that the pit sequence was filmed without a score as well. Murray Spivack's notebook, dated July 19, 1932, lists the following sound effects, "men landing in mud", "log and men landing in mud", and "insects-lizards-spiders".

Well there seem to be a couple of reputable sources that talk about the scenes. : Edgar Wallace's diary entry about observing shots that equate only to the spider pit sequence. Bert Willis description of filming snakes wrapping around a stuntman to replicate tentacles. Also a "slop test" from a camera set up and a few BTS images.

"Max Steiner said that the scenes were gone (Pit, Kong ascending and descending Skull mountain, etc) when he got the print to score. I suppose it's possible that the test audience saw it with a temp (stock) score thrown over it?"

Steiner also said that all those scenes were present at some earlier point when he viewed it.

"OBie did love his triceratops families, didn't he? I asked Marcel about the triceratops footage that was shot, but he didn't recollect anything (except building models)."

"There are a few photos in the OBie scrapbook of a single triceratops in the jungle; nothing as complex as the CREATION chase."

## Concept Art

Concept art falling log.Concept art falling sailor.Concept art creature attack in the pit.Concept art creature attack in the pit.
## Pit Creatures

Pseudoscorpion and CrabFour-legged LizardPseudoscorpion side view
## Log

Log Side ViewStitched View SideStyracosaurus and Kong combined attack on the Sailors
## Sailors

Foreground may be looking out of a cave. May of first been seen by the public in a pamphlet that accompanied a Willis O'Brien exhibition in Oakland in 1984
## Spider Pit Script:

EXT. LOG - FULL SHOT - DAY

Kong on the bank yammers down at the men who have fallen.

Driscoll can be seen in the cave below.

EXT. RAVINE BOTTOM - LONG SHOT -

The men at the bottom of the ravine are attacked by **giant**

**insects** who come out of caves and fissures to eat them.

EXT. RAVINE BOTTOM - CLOSE UP - DAY

The surprised face of a sailor lying in the mud as he see

this.

EXT. RAVINE BOTTOM - CLOSE UP - DAY

Face of another sailor staring up in horror from the mud.

EXT. RAVINE BOTTOM - CLOSE UP - DAY

Face of a third sailor in the mud, horrified as he sees --

EXT. RAVINE BOTTOM - MED. SHOT - DAY

An i**nsect with octopus arms** takes a man. (Projection)

EXT. RAVINE BOTTOM - SEMI CLOSE UP - DAY

Its arms wind around the struggling man.

EXT. RAVINE BOTTOM - SEMI CLOSE UP - DAY

Two men on their backs staring up at a **spider** who attacks

them. (Projection).

EXT. RAVINE BOTTOM - CLOSE UP - DAY

The face of a fourth sailor, fallen in mud, staring in horror

as he sees --

EXT. RAVINE BOTTOM - FULL SHOT - DAY

A **giant lizard** takes a man.

EXT. CAVE - FULL SHOT - DAY

Kong on the bank senses Driscoll's presence in the cave

below. PAN down to the cave with Driscoll. He looks up,

warily watching for Kong above. Continued to PAN DOWN

revealing a **huge spider** climbing up on a vine from the ravine

bottom to the cave.

EXT. CAVE - MEDIUM SHOT - DAY

Driscoll in his cave notices the vine shake. He looks down to

see --

EXT. RAVINE - FULL SHOT - DAY

The **spider** coming up the vine. (Previous angle)

EXT. CAVE - MEDIUM SHOT - DAY

Driscoll whips out his knife and starts cutting the vine.

EXT. CAVE - FULL SHOT - DAY

Driscoll cuts the line just in time to prevent the **spider**

reaching him. The **giant insect** falls to the ravine bottom.

PAN UP to Kong again. He reaches in the cave trying to get

Driscoll.

EXT. CAVE - MEDIUM SHOT - DAY

Driscoll eludes the hand, stabbing at it.

## Peter Jackson

Peter Jackson made an adaptive recreation of the Spider Pit: " The Lost Spider Pit Sequence" in 2005 and added onto a re-release of King Kong (1933) for home media.