THE KING OF THE KONGO (1929 restoration)

Fans of cliffhanger serials know that The King of the Kongo was the first film serial to have any sound element. Larger serial-producing studios (for example, Pathe and Universal Studios) were reluctant to make the upgrade from silent to sound (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. This was, naturally, 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 complete silent version (for theatres not yet equipped for sound), no evidence for a silent version being released exists. 

 

The King of the Kongo was not a marvel to behold when it comes to the type of plots commonly found in cliffhanger serials. Independently, the two protagonists, Diana Martin and Secret Servie 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. But the highlight of this serial was the fact that it was the first to have sound and the role of the villainous Scarface Macklin was played by Boris Karloff.

 

Karloff falls victim to an ape.

Because King of the Kongo was rushed into theaters to make the record books as the first sound serial, it was not fully sound: it featured music, sound effects and usually one talking sequence for each of its 21 reels, a typical method of production in the early sound era. Unlike modern films, this soundtrack was recorded only on fragile shellac discs, which were found in four private collections. 

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.

 

Of the 21 sound discs, all but six of them have been recovered. A breakdown of the history: 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. Ron’s project was to seek out sound discs for those early Vitaphone films that lacked sound. The results of some of the talking scenes were then posted on YouTube. 

 

In 2012, a Kickstarter successfully helped fund a restoration of Chapter 5. A National Film Preservation Foundation grant was issued for Chapter 6 in June of 2014.

 

In 2019, Grayson initiated a massive search for surviving materials and had an updated restoration scheduled for release in 2024. This includes mostly 35mm footage and a few 16mm inserts plus all of the surviving discs. Among the sources was the Library of Congress, which had some elements – but not all.

 

As of this week, my copy of the BluRay/DVD combo for pledging money to support the preservation project on Kickstarter, arrived. After watching half of the serial so far, I can clearly say this film has not looked or sounded this well since 1929. It is a full 4K restoration from archival prints and negatives at the Library of Congress, 95% of which is from 35mm. (Prior, collectors like myself could only enjoy the Blackhawk-style 16mm prints.) 

 

This release also includes commentary from a number of film historians and Ed Hulse’s commentary on track two for a number of chapters, is awesome. Ed truly provides a historical perspective of the production. On a personal note, I enjoy cliffhanger serials as much as the next guy but I find the silent serials are much better. Once the studios switched over to sound, and discovered young children were frequenting theaters more often, I found the serials started dumbing down for a juvenile audience. By comparison, Republic in the late forties and early fifties released Canadian Mounties vs. Atomic Invaders and Zombies of the Stratosphere. While those serials have their own flavor and formula, I enjoy the silent serials more. With serials like The King of the Kongo, the serious nature of the jungle drama prevails. 

 

You can buy the serial from other companies but those are the inferior prints. The link below is the only place you can get the restoration and, believe me, you won’t go wrong with this purchase. After you enjoy the 221 minutes of Karloff, dinosaurs, gorillas, lions, cougars, alligators, elephants, and lost jungle temples, take time to enjoy Ed’s commentary.

 

https://www.drfilm.net/blog/?product=the-king-of-the-kongo-blu-ray-dvd-pre-order