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The Valley of Gwangi | 
 enlarge | Director: Jim O'connolly
Actors: James Franciscus, Gila Golan, Richard Carlson, Laurence Naismith, Freda Jackson
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $13.21
You Save: $6.77 (34%)
New (37) Used (9) from $13.21
Rating:  39 reviews
Sales Rank: 9535
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), French (Dubbed)
Rating: G (General Audience)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 95 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.6 x 0.5
MPN: D27519D
ISBN: 0790779293
UPC: 085392751921
EAN: 9780790779294
ASIN: B0000B1OGD
Theatrical Release Date: 1969
Release Date: October 21, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Ships first class from New York City. All items are official products. We have a positive feedback rating of 96% - buy with confidence!
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Amazon.com
The stop-motion magic of legendary special effects creator Ray Harryhausen is the highlight of this sporadically exciting fantasy-adventure, which pits cowboys against dinosaurs in the Mexican desert. James Franciscus and Richard Carlson star as members of a struggling Wild West show who discover their newest attraction in Mexico--a tiny prehistoric horse. Exploration into a nearby valley uncovers living dinosaurs, including the fearsome "Gwangi"-an allosaur that the circus folk capture for exhibition. But as every creature connoisseur knows, monsters in cages always break free, and soon enough, the beast is on a rampage. Originally developed by Harryhausen's mentor Willis O'Brien in 1942, The Valley of Gwangi feels like a retread of his previous titles, especially 20 Million Miles to Earth, but Harryhausen's effects are spectacular as always (especially the miniature horse), and will please monster fans. Warner Bros' widescreen anamorphic DVD includes a short featurette, "Return to the Valley," in which Industrial Light and Magic animators pay tribute to Harryhausen's influence. --Paul Gaita
Description
A cowboy captures a prehistoric beast and hits on the idea of putting it on show at a traveling circus. The beast, however, has other ideas.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 34 more reviews...
A straightforward, no-nonsense, monster movie. December 29, 2007
Tom Brody (Berkeley, CA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The sound and image quality of the film are excellent. Only at a couple of points does the image have a slightly dirty or deteriorated appearance. The light balance is excellent throughout. The character development is nice, and at least as good as those found in the Indiana Jones movies. The confident, strong willed woman (T.J.), the operator of a Wild West Show, works well in this movie. My complaints are only slight. The stop-action of the tiny horse looks a little phony (its a phony pony). The stop-action technique works better with imaginary creatures than with real animals. (Perhaps twice the density of stop figures should have been used with the horse.) Also, Gwangi is somewhat violet in color. I would have preferred the more traditional dinosaur color of green or brown. Another complaint is the sour ending. If I had my way, I would have written a happier ending, for example, by disclosing the discovery of Gwangi's eggs with babies hatching out, where the baby dinosaurs are recruited for use in the Wild West Show. But we are stuck with the sour ending.
To put things in perspective, a much better movie in the same genre is SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD. SINBAD is another Ray Harryhausen movie, which also features two battling monsters, a prophetic curse, and a small valuable object (a tiny horse in GWANGI; a lamp in SINBAD). But GWANGI lacks the epic qualities and more abundant variety that is found in the SINBAD movie.
If you don't want to learn the plot, you need to stop reading at this point.
The film opens with a bleak landscape resembling Death Valley. We see eight gypsies in a valley searching for a companion. The companion, a man with a bag, is shown stumbling down a gulch. He clutches a bag. Something alive is inside, something making neighing sounds. But an old blind woman (a witch), one of the gypsies, issues a warning, "No, no. Leave it I tell you. If he does not go back to the Forbidden Valley, we will all suffer a terrible fate. Fool! Ah. One day he will learn to obey the Law of the Gwangi."
A few minutes of credits are then shown.
The story begins with a Wild West Show marching into a Mexican town. A cowboy atop a moving stagecoach twirls a lasso, followed by a cluster of running Mexican boys. Then, a cute Mexican boy (Lope) materializes and offers to do odd jobs for Tuck Kirby, a former associate of the Wild West Show. We see the actual Wild West Show. Indians chase a stagecoach around and around the arena. Galloping horses tumble to the ground, throwing their riders. The stagecoach is set afire, and it leaves by way of a gate. There are faux gun fights and faux fist fights. The stunts in the arean scene are excellent.
The next act introduces us to Miss T.J. Breckenridge ("T.J."), a beautiful woman, who does tricks on a horse. We see her atop a horse, about to dive off a platform into a pool of water, where the rim of the pool is ringed with flames. The horse dives from the platform--a trick identical to that performed, at one time, at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey. But the crowd in the arena is sparse.
Tuck Kirby makes another appearance. T.J. does not welcome him at first. T.J. throws him out saying, "You stick to your con tricks and I'll stick to my horse tricks." Lope is friends with a professor, an American paleontologist. The old professor adds science to this science fiction film. At turning point then occurs. We see the arena being used for rehearsing a bull fight. A matadore practices in the ring, but Lope fools around in the ring with a blanket. A bull begins to attack. Tuck Kirby dashes into the ring and saves the boy. Then T.J. falls back in love with Tuck. Another man (Carlos) saves Tuck from the bull.
In the next scene, we finally see the tiny horse, the one contained in the cloth sack at the start of the movie. This occurs 25 minutes into the movie. "What are you doing here, over 50 million years after you should have been extinct," exclaims the professor. T.J.'s goal is to use the tiny horse as an act in the Wild West Show, to bring in more customers.
But at night, the dwarf, the blind witch, and their gypsy friends, steal the tiny horse, and deliver it back to the Forbidden Valley and set it free. While stealing the tiny horse, the dwarf conks Carlos on the head. But Lupe with the professor, and separately Tuck Kirby, follow the gypsies to the Forbidden Valley. Finally, 40 minutes into the film, the gypsies let the tiny horse free, saying, "Fly little one."
Within a few minutes, T.J., Tuck, Lope, and the professor have re-captured the tiny horse, but it escapes and leads them through a tunnel to a second valley. The second valley resembles Elephant Hill, a part of Canyonlands National Park. Now, fortyfive minutes into the film, there is a scene with a pterodactyl. The bird carries Lupe off, but he is saved a few minutes later. Then, a tiny dinosaur appears, and shortly thereafter, Gwangi materializes and eats the tiny dinosaur. Then, 50 minutes into the film, a triceratops appears.
Comedy makes its appearance. One of the group observes that the bullets that they had been shooting at the dinosaurs were only blanks, used in the Wild West Show. The men dig a deep hole and cover it with pine branches. Something gets caught in the trap, but it is only the professor.
From the 60 minute to 75 minute time point (15 min altogether), there is a generous lassoing scene. At one point, three cowboys on three horses have simultaneously thrown three lassos around Gwangi's neck. After this scene, Gwangi is wheeled into town on a large cart. But in lumbering along a desert road, they encounter the witch and the dwarf. The witch warns them, "Soon you will be doomed, all of you, unless the evil one is set free."
Within a few minutes, we are back at the arena. This time the arena is packed with thousands of Mexicans, many with sombreros. But we see the witch instructing the dwarf to set Gwangi free. The dwarf sneaks under Gwangi's red tent and unlocks the gate to the cage. At this point, an elephant act draws to a conclusion. Then Gwangi escapes, with the Mexican dwarf in his mouth. Gwangi fights the elephant, and in the mean time, there is a massive mob scene, as thousands of Mexicans dash from the arena, upsetting fruit carts. The scene is reminiscent of the theater mob scene from THE BLOB with Steve McQueen. Part of the mob runs into a cathedral. At one point, an escaping person falls and rolls down the cathedral steps. But at 90 minutes, Gwangi enters the cathedral. A torch is overturned, and the entire cathedral, along with Gwangi, goes up in flames. The film ends at 95 minutes
they grow em big south of the border! September 10, 2007
Mr. Timothy F. Sheehan (australia)
Ray Harryhausen adapted a Willis O'Brien story to create another magical fantasy. It goes without saying that the sfx are wonderful, the settings exotic and the final scenes frantic. The actors vary from the endearing Laurence Naismith & eohippus,the bland James Franciscus & Gila Golan, to the ridiculous Indian woman & the obligatory annoying kid. Sadly, Ray can control dinosaurs but not ham actors.
 Still a great movie May 15, 2007
Theodore M. Thomas
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Before technology found the way to improve monster moves, this was the way we saw them. Even with the old methods, the story is still one of the greats.
South of the border - down Mexico way June 10, 2006
B. Chandler (Arlington, Texas)
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
It was the turn of the 20 th century. Champ Connors (Richard Carlson) was putting on a rodeo show. Returning to make a horse deal and to see the girl (Gila Golan) that he did not realize he love was Tuck Kirby (James Franciscus.) Looks like more than one man loved her. However she had a "show must go on" attitude.
Can anyone win her heart? Meanwhile down in the valley, the valley so low, in an environment that was untouched for millennium Gwangi waits. Gypsies warn us not to go there.
We get a good history lesson as many people do not realize that the horse originated in the Americas and migrated to Asia.
There are some staking similarities between this cowboy love story and King Kong. The only major difference is Gwangi (Ray Harryhausen creation) would eat anything or anybody.
It Came from Beneath the Sea
Ray Ray Ray Ray Ray! March 19, 2006
Roger Morgan (baal, california)
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
James Fransicus can't act. He tries hard though and that's a good thing. It's fun watching him try and try. But he doesn't matter, just like a preacher matters not in church during the rapture... there is no preacher at that point, is there? And the rapture in the case of Valley of the Gwangi is the last half of the movie when all the cowboys, Fransiscus one of them, gets chased by Harryhausen's dinosaurs. The meanest of these prehistoric nasties is a big purple T-Rex. He's related to Barney, perhaps; I haven't seen that many other purple dinosaurs... But this is no Barney... He's a mean motorscooter and it's just amazing seeing this Rex battle cowboys and one scene in particular that's very, very nice is when the cowboys actually pull off lassoing this big purple brute, sticking him in a cage, and bringing him back "home". Then they take him to town and display him in front of many people (in a bull ring) and he gets mad and breaks free and reeks havoc ala King Kong. Mean Purple Dino even battles a Harryhausen elephant that looks fantastic. There's also a small horse in the film that's the size of a toy, and it's a little corny, but it doesn't matter because of Ray Harryhausen and his awesome stop-motion effects, making this flawed film into one heck of a masterpiece... as Ray does so well.
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