Let the word go forth from this time and place that the the new King Kong DVD (Warner Home Video, 11.22) has a wonderfuly detailed multi-chapter “making of” documentary, but (and I’m very sorry to report this) the film itself doesn’t look that fantastic. Maybe a little bit better than versions shown on VHS and laser disc, but there’s no great visual-leap factor. The film is marked by the same dirt and grain and speckles its had since playing on “Million Dolar Movie” in the 1950s. WHV should have John Lowry-ed this thing — i.e., removed a portion of the grain (i.e., not a Lowry Sunset Boulevard treatment but the kind of treatment that was given to Casablanca ) and cleaned it up on a frame-by- frame basis. But some Warner Home Video fuddy-duddy said “nope…leave it as it is, dirt and grain intact…it’s more pure that way.” One very cool thing: Max Steiner’s Kong overture that precedes the start of the film.