Kevin Brownlow’s cinema history documentary, I’m King Kong!, is a profile of Merian C. Cooper. Known best as the larger-than-life director of King Kong, Cooper co-directed This Is Cinerama, which helped launch widescreen movies to the public. He also produced The Searchers with John Ford.

WWI bomber pilot, war prisoner who walked 400 miles across hostile terrain to escape, and tireless promoter of his own films, Cooper was a real-life Carl Denham (the flamboyant promoter in King Kong).

I’m King Kong!
(2005; directed by Kevin Brownlow, Christopher Bird)
Turner Home Entertainment (DVD)

Friday, July 12 at 5:00 a.m. eastern (late Thu. night) on Turner Classic Movies