King Kong Escapes

King Kong Escapes (キングコングの逆襲, Kingu Kongu no Gyakushū, lit.  'King Kong's Counterattack') is a 1967 kaiju film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film was a Japanese–American co-production between Toho and Rankin/Bass, and stars Rhodes Reason, Linda Miller, Akira Takarada, Mie Hama, Eisei Amamoto, with Haruo Nakajima as King Kong and Hiroshi Sekita as Mechani-Kong and Gorosaurus. The film is loosely based on Rankin/Bass' series, The King Kong Show, and was the second and final Toho-produced film featuring King Kong. King Kong Escapes was released in Japan on July 22, 1967, and released in the United States on June 19, 1968. It is the fourth entry in the King Kong franchise.

Dubbing History
The film would be dubbed into English in the United States at Glen Glenn Sound Co. for Rankin/Bass Enterprises. Veteran voice actor Paul Frees would serve as voice director and dub most of the male voices himself. Commander Nelson would be the only male character not dubbed by Frees as Rhodes Reason would return to dub his own voice. In an interview with Reason on the making of this film, Paul Frees apparently asked Reason why he was there and said as a joke: "Why are you here? I could probably do a better version of you than you could."

Julie Bennett would also dub all the female voices, including Linda Jo Miller's voice despite already being an English speaker. Miller hated her dubbed voice in the American version, but loved the Japanese voice. She was extremely mad at Arthur Rankin, the producer, for not inviting her to dub her own lines when Rhodes Reason was able to re-dub his. It turned out to work this way because Reason was a part of the Screen Actors Guild, and Linda Miller was only a model, and still residing in Japan at the time (transportation costs to New York would have been prohibitive).

The American version runs at least 8 minutes shorter than the original Japanese version.

Additional Voices

 * Paul Frees