Valley Of Gwangi (1969)

A cowboy named Tuck Kirby seeks fame and fortune by capturing an Allosaurus living in the Forbidden Valley and putting it in a Mexican circus. His victim, called the Gwangi, turns out to have an aversion to being shown in public.

The Valley of Gwangi is a 1969 American western fantasy film directed by Jim O'Connolly, written by William Bast,and starring James Franciscus and Richard Carlsonand Gila Golan. It was filmed with creature effects provided by Ray Harryhausen, the last dinosaur-themed film he animated.

Originally written by King Kong's Willis O'Brien, Gwangi's script was never filmed, but a copy owned by Ray Harryhausen stored in his garage was resurrected in 1966. With additional work by writer William Bast, The Valley Of Gwangi was approved by Kenneth Hyman of Seven Arts Inc, which had financed Harryhausen's film with Raquel Welsh, One Million Years B.C. and who had purchased into the Warner Brothers studio.

Filming took place in Spain and lasted two years, mostly due to the time needed by Harryhausen to animate the dinosaurs. Given that the film employed over 300 animation shots (the most of any Harryhausen film), it was expected that release would not come until two years after principal photography had been completed.

[knock knock] Do you guys have a moment to discuss Jesus Christ?

The extra time paid off in Harryhausen's best animation. Adding enormously were the superior sound FX employed by Warner Brothers, giving dinosaur voices far more menacing and believeable than those used by Columbia or Hammer; attention to peripheral sound FX is also striking, notably in the finale within the enormous cathedral, where the echo of Gwangi's breathing and footsteps adds greatly to the drama.

Okay, so it's the only dinosaur and cowboy movie (that I know of).  It has some cool shit in it.  Like a horse diving into an oversized swimming pool.  Yes.  And it dove off of a high fucking diving board too.  Then later on the cowboys run into the Allosaurus and try to capture it by lassoing it.  And the dinosaur eventually ends up kicking an elephant's ass.  And I don't mean your fat mother in-law.  I mean a real fucking elephant. Take this foot in your ass Dumbo.

James Franciscus is an obnoxious, smarmy leading man. Vivacious (and dubbed) Gila Golan makes for an unbelievable American cowgirl but she's nice to look at. The romance between these two is the movie's least redeeming feature; it's insufferable really. Richard Carlson is largely wasted in his role. The actress who portrays the fearsome gypsy Tia Zorina is probably the best of the cast, actually.

He who takes from Gwangi the evil one is cursed.

And the plot of the film..... James Franciscus plays Tuck, an amiable hustler who comes back into the life of T.J. (lovely Gila Golan). T.J. is one of the participants in a Wild West show that is not doing so well at the moment. However, one of their people, Carlos (Gustavo Rojo) has ventured into a Mexican location known as the "Forbidden Valley" and come back with a prize: an adorable "Eohippus", or miniature prehistoric horse. Circumstances lead Tuck and others to head into the valley, where they encounter other ancient animals, such as a Styracosaurus and a very aggressive Allosaurus.  In the well loved tradition of "King Kong", T.J. and her friends, including Champ (Richard Carlson), get the bright idea to introduce the Allosaurus - who gets christened Gwangi - to their show. Havoc predictably ensues.

Come on in the church guys.  Time for Sunday School

The Valley Of Gwangi is a likable fantasy-western, full of nostalgic value for big kids who remember it from their childhood and quite enjoyable for new audiences that are discovering it for the first time. It has its shortcomings for sure, but is pleasant fare all the same – a guilty pleasure from a bygone era!

Trivia:

When this film was first conceived it was supposed to have been a follow-up to King Kong(1933), but was never made. However, an early B&W version of the "cowboys in Africa" footage was shot, and wound up being used in Mighty Joe Young (1949).

The roping of Gwangi was achieved by having the actors hold on to ropes tied to a "monster stick" that was in the back of a jeep. The jeep and stick when filmed with Gwangi are on a back rear projection plate and hidden by his body and the portions of rope attached to his body are painted wires that are matched with the real ropes.

Special effects master Ray Harryhausen has said that sequence of the elephant performing its act and its subsequent fight with Gwangi were done with no shots of a real elephant because no such animal was available. However, there is an elephant in the very early scene of the Wild West show's parade through the town and Harryhausen's animation puppet is a perfect double for it.

Oh shit.

This was the last film where Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion effects technique was billed as "Dynamation". Starting with his next film, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973), Dynamation would be rebranded as "Dynarama".

Leading lady Gila Golan was re-dubbed, but the voice actress remains unidentified.

In 1971, Warner Brothers cleverly reissued this film in the USA on a double bill with When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970).

The sound that Gwangi makes is that of a camel and a raspberry run backwards.

Just captured a dinosaur. Move along.  Nothing to see here folks.

Whereas all of Ray Harryhausen's past films had an "Approved" rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, the modern ratings system was introduced around this time, and this was the first film of his to get a "G" rating.

"Gwangi" is a Native American word that means lizard.

Due to a mishearing of the word "fuck" by the BBFC, the 1995 video release was wrongly given a "12" certificate. This was corrected for the 2003 DVD and the rating changed to a "U" certificate.

Special-effects pioneer Willis H. O'Brien began pre-production at the RKO-Pathe Studios on a story by Harold Lamb about a huge T-Rex called "Gwangi", with John Speaks as producer, in 1941. The project was canceled when studio management was changed.

The film was known as "The Valley Where Time Stood Still" during production.

The film was in production for over a year and a half - the dinosaur rope sequence alone took more than two and a half months to complete - but shortly before production ended, the studio management changed, and the new bosses had little confidence in the film, which was released with very little publicity and failed at the box office.

Gustavo Rojo is dubbed by Robert Rietty.

Opening credits: The story, all names, characters and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons, living or dead, is intended or should be inferred.

Curtis Arden receives an "introducing" credit.

In the artwork, the Gwangi is green, like a giant lizard aka dinosaur would be. In the movie, however, Gwangi and the other prehistoric creatures are a dark purple color.