THE HARRYHAUSEN DINO CLASSIC
The year was 1976 when my dad sat me down one Saturday evening and told me to watch a cowboy movie that was playing on one of the local television stations. I had no problem watching a Western and enjoyed the shootouts and horse chases these films usually featured. Secretly though, I would much rather have been watching a monster movie. So the movie started and I slowly realized that maybe this wasn’t your usual run-of-the-mill western when a tiny, prehistoric horse appeared on my television screen.
Twenty minutes later my interest level increased ten-fold when a Pteranodon swooped into the screen and plucked a boy off of his horse. And then a few short minutes later a blood thirsty Allosaurus jumped onto the screen, gobbling up another dinosaur. At that point I was completely hooked. I couldn’t take my eyes off of the screen and when the end credits appeared I knew I had experienced something special. For that was the day I discovered the work of special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen.
The film that blew me away, THE VALLEY OF GWANGI, is one of Harryhausen’s most impressive works and remains a favorite among many of today’s special effects artists. Based on a story by Willis O’Brien about a band of adventurers and their discovery of a lost valley of dinosaurs, the plot is basically KING KONG (1933) set in the old west, with Gwangi the Allosaurus replacing Kong and his Forbidden Valley standing in for Skull Island. Arguably the film is technically better than KONG, as Ray’s dinosaurs are some of the most impressive stop motion creations ever put on the screen.
It’s hard to imagine these creatures are only inches tall and created by just one artist, one frame of movement at a time. The creations in GWANGI are amongst some of the most lifelike and fluid of Ray’s amazing career. The famous dino round up set piece in which the cowboys try to lasso Gwangi is a Harryhausen tour de force and remains one of the most impressive special effects sequences ever created, ranking right up there with the skeleton battle in JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS .
Harryhausen aside, the rest of the production is solid or at least serviceable. On the acting front, James Franciscus, who has been referred to as a second rate Charlton Heston (talk about an insult on top of an insult), does a fair job in the leading man slot and Israeli actress Gila Golan is quite ravishing as his love interest. Creature feature fans will enjoy seeing monster fighter Richard Carlson back in a genre film. GWANGI was his second to last feature; not a bad way to end a resume after starring in such classic as IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE and THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. The rousing score by Jerome Moross is another highlight and probably the next best thing about the picture after Ray’s dinos, even if it is basically a copycat of the soundtrack he composed for THE BIG COUNTRY.
Sadly the film wasn’t a hit when first released as it was poorly marketed and featured on a double bill with a biker film. Times were a changin in Hollywood, and edgy films like BONNIE AND CLYDE and THE WILD BUNCH were creating tough competition for old fashion film fare. Luckily for Harryhausen and dinosaur fans, renewed interest in effects films in the late 1970s following the release of STAR WARS helped to bring this little gem into the light. I can safely state that the film is now recognized for the mini classic that it is and stands as one of the greatest special effects films of all time.
Zevk,
Poe
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return on the set locations in spain in my (french) blog…http://lieuxdetournages.over-blog.com/2014/04/la-vallee-de-gwangi-jim-o-connely-1969.html