Captain Englehorn
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Captain Englehorn is a fictional captain in the films King Kong and Son of Kong (both released in 1933), the 2005 remake of King Kong, and in the television series The King Kong Show, and a 2004 illustrated-novel Kong: King of Skull Island. The role was played by Frank Reicher in the 1933 films and by Thomas Kretschmann in the 2005 remake.
In the 1933 King Kong, Englehorn appears to be much older than he is in the 2005 version. In the remake he appears to be more rough and heroic, rescuing the main characters twice. In the new version Englehorn treats the character Carl Denham with more anger and is less polite to him than the first version. In the original Englehorn appears to be loyal to Denham, sticking with him during several adventures; in the remake Englehorn is fed up with Denham, finding him barely tolerable and desiring to remove his presence.
[edit] Biography
Englehorn is the captain of the tramp steamer, S.S. Venture, and is also a trapper and dealer of large, wild animals from overseas. It is stated by Denham during the movie that Englehorn is the best at capturing large animals. His first mate is Ben Hayes.
The Venture has Surabaya in the Netherlands East Indies labeled as the home port, suggesting Englehorn to be of Dutch nationality, while both his name and accent are distinctly German, although in The Son of Kong, he becomes agitated when Lars Helstrom insults the Dutch, further suggesting him being of Dutch nationality. Englehorn has a Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy) model Luger pistol, which hints he might be a former Imperial German Navy officer.
Englehorn was hired by Denham to bring him to Singapore where Denham planned to film his next movie. But unknown to Englehorn, Denham really planned to film his movie at a strange island called Skull Island and did not tell the Captain or the crew where he was going. Despite disagreements, Denham managed to convince Englehorn to continue sailing the ship further and further into unknown waters. When Englehorn heard of Denham's arrest warrant in the 2005 version, he ordered the ship to reverse its path and return. Unfortunately, the ship got stuck in a thick fog and after escaping the fog, it crashed into some very large rocks very close to Skull Island .
In the remake, while Englehorn and the rest of the crew tried to repair the ship, Carl Denham, Jack Driscoll, Ann Darrow, and several other members of the movie crew took off to the island, where they were nearly killed by savage natives. Englehorn intervened with a firearm and saved Denham from getting his head smashed in. In the 1933 version, Englehorn actually accompanied the other characters into the native village, and since the natives were less violent and spoke a language related to known tribes, Englehorn was able to translate for them.
After Ann was taken captive by the natives in the remake, Englehorn sent some of the crew to rescue her and stayed behind to guard the wall. After the crew encountered the giant beast Kong, the survivors were dropped into a pit of giant insects and spiders. Just before certain death Englehorn once again returned to save Denham, Jack, and Jimmy, having been encouraged to lead a rescue party by Bruce Baxter, one of Denham's actors.
Denham convinces Englehorn to capture Kong, a plan which fails and kills more of his crew. Englehorn orders the men to retreat and shoots Kong with a harpoon gun. Denham manages to use chloroform to capture Kong. Englehorn survives the encounter with Kong, but it is unknown after this point what happens to him after he returns to New York.
Aside from Englehorn's luger, he has an arsenal of gewehr 98 bolt-action rifles, which was currently the standard weapon of the German Army at the time, and may further show that he served in the German military. He also keeps a hidden statche of Thompson submachine guns in a bed compartment.
