‘I went down hopefully on my own, seeking strangers who might act as escort, but that very week the Odeon had acquired a brisk and hawk-eyed new commissionaire, who shooed me off at every attempt.’

Many years were to pass before he caught up with it:

‘I was fated not to see Kong until I was in the army, when a 16mm print shown in the private cinema of a military mental hospital in Dorset gave me a nervous walk home along dark country lanes.’

Needless to say, he was transfixed:

‘The delightfully creaky opening gave little indication of the wonders to follow; we even laughed uneasily at the first sight of Kong himself, with his back fur rippling.  But Max Steiner’s music was slowly exerting its grip…’

…and the action clearly impressed him:

‘The chase scenes are breathtakingly paced and stunted… the scenes in the native village are rousingly staged, with crescendos of unnerving music and a war dance rivaling anything Busby Berkeley was doing over at Warner.’

The film might look dated now but back then people were convinced…

‘To 1933 audiences it was so slick and so modern that they couldn’t believe the ape wasn’t real… there has never been so persuasive a monster movie.’

When Halliwell was manager of the Rex cinema he booked the film and publicised it by…

‘…donning a tatty ape skin for the occasion and galumphing about behind bars at the rear of an advertising truck.  I believe my performance did several passing ladies no good at all, but it livened up the box office no end.’

Many years and many imitations were to follow:

‘…but the great original goes marching on with undiminished grandeur.’

LH’s first real opportunity to see Kong came in a revival as he was only four at the time of its initial release.  He was still a bit young the second time:

‘My father promised to introduce me to Kong on the Saturday, but came down with flu… my mother refused point blank to take me: she had no objection to my going with someone else, but she said ‘them things’ would give her nightmares.’

His attempts to find an adult to accompany him certainly evoke a more innocent age –