The Valley of Gwangi

One day he will learn to obey the law of Gwangi...
The Valley of Gwangi, aka Gwangi, aka The Lost Valley, aka The Valley Time Forgot, aka The Valley Where Time Stood Still, (whew!) stars James Franciscus (Beneath the Planet of the Apes) and Richard Carlson (It Came From Outer Space) and while they were decent, the real star of this movie is special effects creator and legend Ray Harryhausen. Franciscus plays Tuck Kirby, a cowboy looking to make a quick buck by brokering a deal for the sale of a horse that's being used in his ex-girlfriend's Wild West circus show that is located 'just south of the Rio Grande'. Gila Golan plays T.J. Breckenridge, owner of the circus, with Carlson as Champ Connors, the protective fatherly figure/manager of the circus.

Anyway, a discovery is made of some sort of prehistoric animal, a wee little horse, and we soon find out the animal came from an area called the 'forbidden valley'...or at least that's what it is called by the gypsy-like tribe that seems to live near it, which, by the way, are...

Underrated Harryhausen Classic Mister Kirby?
This was always one of my favorite Ray Harryhausen films. The Jerome Moross score elevates this film from being just another standard fantasy motion picture and transforms it into a Western dinosaur roundup. The setting enhanced by the score and Harryhausen's convincing stop motion creatures really dupes the viewer very subtly into thinking that this Western could have happened. Or almost! The actual valley when first seen by the cowboys has a very unsettling look about it, somewhere between prehistoric and surrealistic. The Jerome Moross score is very reminiscent of his "THE BIG COUNTRY," "THE PROUD REBEL" and "THE JAYHAWKERS." The dinosaur work here by Harryhausen ranks among his best. "I see what you mean Mister Kirby."

HARRYHAUSEN'S DINOSAURIAN TOUR DE FORCE
Resurrecting an aborted project that Willis ( KING KONG ) O'Brien wanted to make himself, Ray Harryhausen followed-up his successful Hammer film ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. with this movie, working once again with longtime partner Charles H. Schneer. Filmed in Spain, this 1969 offering has stunning stop-motion animated dinosaurs.

Set around the turn of the century in Mexico, it is a very Kong-like tale of a mighty creature ( the titular Allosaurus with T-Rex attributes ) that is captured in "Forbidden Valley" and brought back to a local Wild West show / circus to make money. The monster flees its bonds and proceeds into a magnificent cathedral, which becomes consumed in a raging inferno and brings about its demise.

Harryhausen, who worked a full year on the special effects, effectively populates a valley that is lost in time with a number of prehistoric animals, which include an equine Eohippus, a "plucked ostrich" called an Ornithomimus and a horned...

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