Carl Denham

Carl Denham is a character who appears in every incarnation of the King Kong story. He is an American movie director and huckster with a flair for the dramatic.

King Kong and The Son of Kong

Denham's claim to fame was making nature documentaries. Unlike most other film directors, Denham never bothered with a cameraman because at some point in the past his cameraman chickened out on him while filming a charging rhinoceros, and he regularly went into dangerous territories to get up-close and personal footage of wild animals. However, Denham longed to direct a real movie with an actual human cast and a plot, and after Lars Helstrom sold him a map of Skull Island, he decided to merge his two ideas and make a picture on the Beauty and the Beast theme, especially after hearing the legends of King Kong.

He found his female lead in Ann Darrow. Along with his old associates Captain Englehorn and Jack Driscoll, Denham journeyed to Skull Island aboard the S.S. Venture hoping to film his picture there. The hostile natives of the island had other ideas, abducting Ann Darrow and giving her to Kong as a "gift." Denham, along with Jack and several of the Venture's crew, took off into the jungles of Skull Island to try and rescue her. Along they way they encountered a variety of man-eating dinosaurs and other prehistoric monsters, which Denham enthused he wished he could bring back alive.

These and Kong killed every member of the search party except for Jack and Denham himself, and thanks to Kong the two men found themselves on opposite sides of a deep ravine. Denham returned to the native village and Captain Englehorn while Jack scouted ahead after Kong, and the original plan was for Denham to get more men and guns, but for unexplained reasons he instead decided to simply wait in the village for Jack to return with Ann.

Return Jack did, with Ann in tow, and Kong followed. After Kong destroyed much of the native village Denham brought the giant gorilla down with a thrown has bomb. He then took the beast-god back to New York with him and put him on display, billing him as the Eighth Wonder of the World. Kong soon escaped, however, and after abducting Ann again ran amok through the city and eventually climbed the Empire State Building before being brought down by a squadron of military biplanes. The city officials (rightly) blamed Denham for all the trouble, and soon all of New York was jumping on the bandwagon to sue him. Rather than go to court, Denham left town along with the equally-incriminated Captain Englehorn.

He eventually encountered Lars Helstrom again, and Helstrom told him and Englehorn of a fabled long-lost treasure back on Skull Island. With nothing better to do, Denham decided to return to the island and try to find the treasure. En route he met and fell in love with a woman named Hilda Peterson, whose circus owner father had died in an accident caused by Helstrom. Thanks to Helstrom's further treachery, the crew of the Venture turned mutineer, casting Denham ashore on Skull Island with Hilda, Captain Englehorn and the ship's cook Charlie as well as Helstrom himself in an ironic twist. While Englehorn, Charlie and Helstrom went in one direction to search for the treasure, Denham and Hilda explored the rest of the island and eventually encountered King Kong's son, Kiko (or, as Denham called him, Little Kong).

With Kiko's help, Denham and Hilda were able to survive against the island's dinosaurs and eventually locate the treasure. Unfortunately an earthquake destroyed the island causing it to sink into the sea, and although Hilda, Englehorn and Charlie made it safely to the boat they had come ashore in (Helstrom himself fell victim to a dinosaur), Denham almost drowned but was saved by Kiko who gave his life to hold Denham out of the water long enough for the others to reach him and save him. Afterwards, Denham and Hilda agreed to split the treasure equally among themselves, Englehorn and Charlie.

King Kong (Novelization and Comics)

Mostly identical to the movie version, except that in the comics he is given a cameraman named Wally, which rather goes against the previous version's "no-camerman" rule.