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I have refrained from posting on this thread well, because I lived the experience of the '76 Kong and as Artie pointed out I am not really fond of the movie or my work in it. After reading Artie's original post I want to apologize for my negative remarks about the film. I realize if you were a 10 year old boy and had never seen the original Kong that the spectacle and hype of the 76 Kong could leave a fond memory in your heart

Rick, your work on that film was the saving grace for many fans who felt you made the price of admission worthwhile.  (And, as someone stated above and I've stated elsewhere, the score was excellent.  Listen to the soundtrack on CD and see how powerful John Barry's music remains after all these years.)  I was about 16 when I saw this, had seen and loved the original 1933 classic (still do), but this film came out at a time when "giant monster movies" were few and far between, and probably had never been given the budget this had.  And the studio treated this as high profile production, not some "B" film that all other giant monster movies tended to be classified as before this was made.  It was as if Hollywood was finally saying this was now a legitimate genre.  To get the most out of the film, you did have to catch it first at just the right age.  (And if you were able to see it on the big screen in a nice theater back in the day, that just added to the experience.)  It is a film with warts; but if you compare it to some of the kaiju outings from Toho that so many of us also embrace, in terms of technical execution and drama it holds its own.  The fact there was sympathy for your character when he was killed, in spite of the quirky script, makes me feel that it works when taken on its own terms.

I do feel the 1976 film shares the same flaw that Peter Jackson's remake did, in that the leading ladies befriend Kong rather remaining fearful of him as in the 1933 original.  (More Jill Young than Ann Darrow.)  One of the tragic touches in the original Kong is that the one person he would never hurt probably fears him more than anyone else.  It's a tale of unrequited love.