The King of the Kongo

The King of the Kongo

Directed by	Richard Thorpe
Written by	Harry Sinclair Drago Wyndham Gittens
Produced by	Nat Levine
Starring	Jacqueline Logan Walter Miller Richard Tucker Boris Karloff
Cinematography	Ernest Laszlo Ray Ries
Distributed by	Mascot Pictures
Release date	August 9, 1929 (1929-08-09)
Running time	10 chapters (213 min)
Country	United States
Languages	Sound (Part-Talking) English

The King of the Kongo (1929) is a Mascot film serial, and was the first serial to have sound,^[1] although only partial sound ("Part Talking") rather than the later (and now standard) "All-Talking" productions with complete sound. The first episode was a "three reeler" with the remaining nine episodes being "two reelers" (approximately 15 minutes per film reel).

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Transcription

Plot

Independently, the two protagonists, Diana Martin and Secret Service agent Larry Trent, are searching the jungle for missing relatives, her father and his brother. Tied up in this plot are ivory smugglers and a lost treasure hidden in the jungle.

Cast

Jacqueline Logan as Diana Martin
Walter Miller as Larry Trent, Secret Service Agent
Richard Tucker as Chief of the Secret Service
Boris Karloff as Scarface Macklin, included in the film as a red herring (Spoiler Alert: He is actually the heroine's missing father).^[2]
Larry Steers as Jack Drake
Harry Todd as Commodore
Richard Neill as Prisoner
Lafe McKee as Trader John
J.P. Lockney as Priest. (some sources list Lockney as Leckray due to poor video transfers. This is an error in transcription.)
William P. Burt as Mooney
J. Gordon Russell as Derelict
Robert Frazer as Native chief
Ruth Davis as Poppy
Joe Bonomo as Gorilla

Music

The serial featured a theme song entitled “Love Thoughts of You” which was composed by Lois Leeson (words) and Lee Zahler (music).

Production

The King of the Kongo was the first film serial to have any sound element. Larger serial-producing studios (for example, Pathé and Universal Studios) were reluctant to change away from silent production (although Universal released their own Part-Talking serial, Tarzan the Tiger, later in the same year) while smaller studios could not afford to do so. Legend has it that producer and studio owner Nat Levine carried the sound discs in his lap from Los Angeles to New York City, by train and aeroplane, for them to be safely developed. For financial reasons, these discs could not have been repaired or replaced if anything had gone wrong.^[1] This was two years after the first Part-Talking film, The Jazz Singer (1927), had been released and a year after the first "All-Talking" film, Lights of New York (1928).

Despite an announcement that two versions of this serial would be released, (a "Part Talking" version and a silent version intended for theatres not yet equipped for sound), no evidence for a silent version's ever being released exists. All current (as of 2024) transfers of the film are the sound version without the sound. Some have the sound credits excised.

King of the Kongo is sometimes misreported as an alternate title for the 1931 serial King of the Wild, which also starred Boris Karloff.^[2]

Stunts

Chapter titles

Into the Unknown
Terrors of the Jungle
Temple of Beasts
Gorilla Warfare
Danger in the Dark
The Fight at Lions Pitt
The Fatal Moment
Sentenced to Death
Desperate Chances
Jungle Justice

Preservation status

Chapter 1 (three reels) • Into the Unknown (reel 1 and 2 missing, reel 3 exists)
Chapter 2 (two reels) • Terrors of the Jungle (both reels exist)
Chapter 3 (two reels) • Temple of Beasts (no sound exists)
Chapter 4 (two reels) • Gorilla Warfare (both reels survive)
Chapter 5 (two reels) • Danger in the Dark (sound discs for both reels survive) restoration was finished in 2013
Chapter 6 (two reels) • The Fight at Lions Pit (sound discs for both reels survive) National Film Preservation Foundation project began fall 2014 finished 2015
Chapter 7 (two reels) • The Fatal Moment (sound disc for reel 2 survives)
Chapter 8 (two reels) • Sentenced to Death (both reels survive)
Chapter 9 (two reels) • Desperate Choices (sound disc for reel 1 survives)
Chapter 10 (two reels) • Jungle Justice (National Film Preservation Foundation restoration project began as of June 2015, finished 2016)

In 2011, collector/historian Eric Grayson, owner of a 16mm silent print, restored the sound to several scenes of the film, using discs from Ron Hutchinson's Vitaphone Project. These reels were Chap 5 r1, Chap 5 r2, and Chap 6 r2. The results of some of the talking scenes have been posted on YouTube.^[3]

In 2012, a Kickstarter^[4] successfully helped fund a restoration of Chapter 5. National Film Preservation Foundation grant is underway for Chapter 10.^[5] A grant for Chapter 6 was issued in June 2014.^[6]

In 2019, preservationist Grayson initiated a massive search for surviving materials and has an updated restoration scheduled for 2024. This includes mostly 35mm footage and a few 16mm inserts plus all of the surviving discs.

In 2024, restoration completed, and released on DVD and dual-layer Blu-Ray discs.