There’s something about a cowboy roping a dinosaur that’s just… cool.
T. J. Breckenridge (Gila Golan) runs a Wild West show and has a new act for her show. The new act is a tiny prehistoric horse she bought from one of her employees Carlos dos Orsos (Gustavo Rojo). Carlos is a gypsy. The queen of the gypsies, Tia Zorina (Freda Jackson) believes the horse is an evil omen and wants the horse to be returned to the valley it came from.
Tuck Kirby (James Franciscus) was an old flame who comes back into her life. T.J. shows Tuck the tiny horse. Tuck is amazed. He shows the horse to a paleontologist he met, Professor Bromley (Laurence Naismith). The professor believes the horse should be used for scientific research. The professor tells the gypsies where the horse is. The gypsies steal the horse to bring it back. The professor follows the gypsies to find out where it came from. He is hoping to find other specimens for the museum.
TJ and her companions chase after them and end up in the valley…the valley of Gwangi. Who is Gwangi? He is an allosaurus. (At least he is supposed to be an allosaurus but Harryhausen based his model on a T-Rex so…?) This hidden valley is where Gwangi lives and he shares it with other dinosaurs. The cowboys, being entrepreneurial, decide they want to bring Gwangi back to town and show him off. Of course the best laid plans… Needless to say Gwangi escapes and starts tearing apart the town.
"The Valley of Gwangi" was released in 1969 and was directed by Jim O'Connolly. There are several things that make this movie one of the best monster movies ever. Dinosaurs, Cowboys and Ray Harryhausen.
To me every Ray Harryhausen movie is the best movie. The closest I’ve ever come to picking a favorite is “The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms” and only because that was the first one I’d ever seen. Gwangi is fun. Plain and simple. I don’t care that the dinosaur is blue. It’s Gwangi. He can be whatever color he wants.
It has been said many times that Gwangi is King Kong with a dinosaur. Well so it Jurassic Park II. The only difference is they never got to display the T-Rex in Jurassic II because he ate everybody on the boat. One difference between Gwangi and Kong is that Kong fell in love. Gwangi don’t like nobody. But we love him and always will.