Watched the 1933 HD original version of King Kong, it is extremely grainy by today's standards

[Zachadoodle]

Watching the original 1933 version of King Kong on Amazon, I've noticed just how absolutely grainy the footage looks. By today's standard that much grain is unusable if it was noise. This is especially noticeable with the fog scene on the boat in the movie. People say noise is distracting, but that grain in that film was distracting, and yet it still was a good film to watch for some reason.

 

[NorBro]

If you go back and watch lots of movies in film history, you'll see more and all kinds of imperfections...but I think the brain is more accepting, almost doesn't notice it as much as it would in a today, right now film.

 

[CharlesPapert]

I would imagine you saw a modern restoration of the film,so many of the other artifacts typical of films of that era would have been minimized or eradicated--gate weave, dirt, scratches, density jumps in the image during opticals, plus pop and crackle from the optical soundtrack. They could remove grain as well (see: Peter Jackson's 16mm restorations in Get Back) but I think the general feeling is that grain is a feature that shouldn't be eradicated in legacy films.