Ray Harryhausen has a unique place in the history of film and it's not the quality of his work. A lot of players are box office names, a few director/producers like Cecil B. DeMille, Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Capra, and Walt Disney most of all bring people in with having their names on a film. But Ray Harryhausen is the only one in his profession as a special effects man who brings folks to the theater. That's the best tribute of all for him.
Late in the 19th century Gita Golan owner of a small wild west show is playing Mexico and she's got a unique attraction as she has found a small horse, an ancient eohippus which has come out of a valley said to be cursed and inhabited by fierce creatures called the Gwangi. An old flame who works for Buffalo Bill, James Franciscus and some of his wild west show cowboys show up to track down the little horse after some local gypsies under the direction of Freda Jackson set it free.
But what they run into is an ancient tyrannosaurus which is called a Gwangi by the locals. It's like when Carl Dedham spotted King Kong, got to get this guy back to civilization and make a bundle off him.
The plot is outrageous with some great overacting by Freda Jackson as the old gypsy crone and Laurence Naismith as a palaeontologist all in the spirit of fun. I love it when Franciscus and the cowboys discover that the reason their bullets are having no affect on the big guy is they're using blanks from the show. Does it deter them, it does not they set about to lariat T-Rex and play an interesting an deadly game of tag.
When they do capture him and later destroy him, it's with a lot of luck and some natural forces in nature.
Dopey plot, but that's part of the fun. And the work of Ray Harryhausen is the reason to see the film and in that you won't be disappointed.
Late in the 19th century Gita Golan owner of a small wild west show is playing Mexico and she's got a unique attraction as she has found a small horse, an ancient eohippus which has come out of a valley said to be cursed and inhabited by fierce creatures called the Gwangi. An old flame who works for Buffalo Bill, James Franciscus and some of his wild west show cowboys show up to track down the little horse after some local gypsies under the direction of Freda Jackson set it free.
But what they run into is an ancient tyrannosaurus which is called a Gwangi by the locals. It's like when Carl Dedham spotted King Kong, got to get this guy back to civilization and make a bundle off him.
The plot is outrageous with some great overacting by Freda Jackson as the old gypsy crone and Laurence Naismith as a palaeontologist all in the spirit of fun. I love it when Franciscus and the cowboys discover that the reason their bullets are having no affect on the big guy is they're using blanks from the show. Does it deter them, it does not they set about to lariat T-Rex and play an interesting an deadly game of tag.
When they do capture him and later destroy him, it's with a lot of luck and some natural forces in nature.
Dopey plot, but that's part of the fun. And the work of Ray Harryhausen is the reason to see the film and in that you won't be disappointed.