This film stands out among monster movies of its era. The dinosaurs have the characteristic Harryhausen jerkiness and the light falls on them in a different way from the rest of the scene but it is still very good. Reading up on this film on the net introduced me to the term "Weird West" which is the combining of a western with another movie genre. This is a very original idea combining cowboys and dinosaurs,although the latter part of the story is a bit formulaic, namely monster gets captured, taken to a town, put on show for entertainment and then breaks loose. This is an almost compulsory part of the story for any monster movie from King Kong to Jurassic Park:The Lost World. Although many people think it stems from King Kong it actually originated in the 1920s version of The Lost World. Gwangi though doesn't break out because of being angered by flashbulbs, he is set free by the blind gypsy's dwarf sidekick and Gwangi shows his gratitude by eating his liberator. Well, the blind gypsy had her credibility to maintain. She had foretold of a curse relating to Gwangi and things would not have looked good for her if her prophecy hadn't come true. Mind you she gets trampled in the stampede generated by Gwangi's escape. This film is impressive enough with the old style special effects. Think how great it would look with modern CGI effects. It merits a remake. I personally think Ray Harryhausen's effects are a bit overrated. His monsters are jerky and not very lifelike. I haven't seen many dinosaurs in my time but I have seen a few elephants and I don't think the circus elephant that Gwangi has a fight with is very realistic. But using an animated puppet elephant to perform handstands would mean no complaints from animal rights activists. The scene where the cowboys pursue the small dinosaur into the valley and then Gwangi pounces on it looks like a cruder version of the scene in Jurassic Park where the T-Rex pounces on the gallimimus, in fact it may have inspired that scene. The eohippus is quite cute. Some of the dialogue in this film is a bit corny but not overbearingly so. Laurence Naismith plays the obligatory professor and he is not too stereotypical. A good and original dino-epic.
Review of The Valley of Gwangi
