– Directors: Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack

– Stacker score: 93.4

– Metascore: 90

– IMDb user rating: 7.9

– Runtime: 100 minutes

Former army pilot Merian C. Cooper was living in New York City and working on a script treatment about gorillas when he looked up and saw a plane flying over a skyscraper. At that moment, the seed for “King Kong” was planted in his mind. Soon enough, Cooper was co-directing this 1933 classic about a giant ape who falls in love with a young actress and ultimately ends up terrorizing the Big Apple. Numerous remakes followed, none of which truly capture the magic of the original.