The Valley of Gwangi
Encyclopedia
The Valley of Gwangi is a 1969
American
western
-fantasy
film directed by Jim O'Connolly
and written by William Bast
. The film is also known as Gwangi, The Lost Valley, The Valley Time Forgot, and The Valley Where Time Stood Still. It was filmed in Technicolor
and is known for its creature effects provided by Ray Harryhausen
, being the last prehistoric-themed film animated by him.
) hosts a rodeo
that is struggling. Her former fiancé Tuck Kirby (James Franciscus
), a heroic former stuntman working for Buffalo Bill
's Wild West show, wants to buy out T.J.
T.J. has an ace she hopes will boost attendance at her show - a tiny horse. Tuck meets a British
paleontologist
named Horace Bromley (Laurence Naismith
), who was working in a nearby Mexican desert. Bromley shows Tuck fossilized horse tracks, which Tuck notices to be similar to T.J.'s horse's feet. So Tuck sneaks Bromley in for a peek. Bromley declares the horse to be an Eohippus
.
The tiny horse came from a place known as the Forbidden Valley. A Gypsy known as Tia Zorina claims that it has a curse, and demands that it must be returned. Later, a group of thieves (presumably under orders from the Gypsy) collaborate with Bromley to steal the horse and release it in the valley. Bromley collaborates in the hopes of following the horse to its home. But Carlos (Gustavo Rojo
), once a member of the Gypsy tribe now working for T.J.'s circus (and the one who actually delivered the tiny horse to T.J.), walks in on the theft and tries to stop it, but is knocked out.
Tuck arrives just as the Gypsy posse leaves. He sees Carlos as he begins reviving, notices the horse is missing, and sets off after it and Bromley. When T.J. and her crew discover Carlos and that the horse is missing, Carlos claims Tuck has stolen it. T.J. then leads a group of cowboys after Tuck and Bromley to retrieve the horse.
Making their way into the Forbidden Valley, Tuck, T.J, and the rest of the group meet up and soon discover why the valley is said to be cursed as a Pteranodon
swoops down and snatches a boy who had accompanied them. After Carlos kills the Pteranodon, they spot an Ornithomimus
, a small dinosaur which they chase after in the hopes of capturing it. Just as the ornithomimus is about to escape, it is killed by Gwangi, a vicious Allosaurus
which pursues the group, almost finding and eating Bromley. However, a Styracosaurus
appears and drives Gwangi away.
Later, Gwangi pursues the people to their base camp, where it is able to get the best of them, until they begin to rope it down. Then, the Styracosaurus reappears and battles Gwangi. Gwangi emerges victorious, but decides to attack the men again.
Gwangi manages to catch and kill Carlos, but knocks itself out while trying to exit the valley in pursuit of the rest of the group. Securing the creature, they take it back to town where it is to be put on display in T.J.'s show. However, on opening night, one of the Gypsies sneaks in and begins to unlock Gwangi's cage in an effort to free it. Instead the unfortunate man is killed and Gwangi breaks free, killing Bromley and feasting on a circus elephant
(actually modelled after a prehistoric mammoth
) in the process. The crowd stampedes away from the arena, trampling and killing Tia Zorina.
Eventually, Gwangi, Tuck, T.J and Lope (a Mexican boy) end up in a cathedral which catches on fire. After some close calls, Tuck and T.J. manage to escape and lock the door behind them, trapping Gwangi in the burning building, which crumbles around it. Screaming in agony, Gwangi dies in the fire and the town makes Tuck the town hero. However, the townspeople are also saddened by the thought of a magnificent creature like Gwangi dying such a horrible death and by the loss of life caused by its rampage.
(1886-1962), the man who created the special effects for the original King Kong
(1933). The plot was inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book The Lost World
(1912), with added elements from King Kong (capturing a monster and bringing it to civilisation where it runs amok). In O'Brien's scenario, then called Valley of the Mists, cowboys discover an Allosaurus in the Grand Canyon. After finally roping the dinosaur
, they put it in a Wild West show, but the creature, now called Gwangi, breaks free and fights lions in the show that have also escaped. After killing the lions, Gwangi goes on a rampage around the town and is run off a cliff by a man in a truck. O'Brien died before The Valley of Gwangi was filmed.
Although Harryhausen intended Gwangi, the main antagonist of the film, to be an Allosaurus
, he based the model of the dinosaur on a Tyrannosaurus
that he had made much earlier. Harryhausen occasionally confused the two, stating in a DVD interview: "We called it an Allosaurus, occasionally... They're both meat eaters, they're both Tyrants... one was just a bit larger than the other." The apparent size of the animal on screen resembles that of an allosaur and it has three fingers on each hand (as did Allosaurus
) whereas tyrannosaurs had only two. A full-size tyrannosaur may not have been feasible given some aspects of the plot.
Although the animation of Gwangi was well executed (although somewhat repetitive), that of the other prehistoric animals shown in the film was less well done. The appearance and movements of the Ornithomimus were unlikely, and the pterosaurs were mistakenly given bat's wings (with elongate fingers supporting the membrane; pterosaurs had one finger forming the wing's leading edge but none on the membrane). The wings appeared to mimic those of a pterosaur from an earlier Harryhausen film One Million Years BC (1966). Interestingly, a pterosaur animated decades earlier by Willis O'Brien for King Kong
shows the correct wing anatomy. Close-up sequences of the pterosaurs in Gwangi were provided by life-size models. The model of the Eohippus was supposed to have had toes but appears to have had regular hooves with 'toes' painted on (the sound effects of the animal moving also resemble hooves). The model of the Styracosaurus
featured an inflatable air 'bladder' to simulate the animal breathing heavily after its combat with Gwangi (a feature first used in models made for much earlier films by Marcel Delgado).
Although the habitat shown in the 'Forbidden Valley' was highly unlikely to have ever harboured large dinosaurs given its restricted canyons and sparse desert vegetation, the barren terrain may have made it easier to merge the stop-motion animation with live action sequences.
's Israeli accent was so strong that all of her lines were redubbed on the film by a voice over. Actor Laurence Naismith
who plays Professor Bromley had earlier featured in Jason and the Argonauts as the shipbuilder 'Argos'.
The scene where Gwangi suddenly appears from behind a hill and snatches a fleeing ornithomimosaur in his jaws was later copied in the big-budget dinosaur movie, Jurassic Park
.
During the 1980s hit TV series Scarecrow and Mrs. King
, anytime a television was shown on in the series, The Valley of Gwangi was on the screen.
Justin Parpan's 2006 children's read-aloud book, "Gwango's Lonesome Trail" (Red Cygnet Press, Inc., ISBN 1601080042) features a pre-historic dinosaur named "Gwango" roaming the contemporary American Southwest.
In an episode of the situation comedy Friends
, Ross watches the movie while in a hospital.
In the 2011 animated movie, Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur
, during a night time chase scene through the town a movie theater can be seen in the background playing two dinosaur-themed monster movies,The Valley of Gwangi and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
.
1969 in film
The year 1969 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Last year for prize giving at the Venice Film Festival until it is revived in 1980...
American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
-fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
film directed by Jim O'Connolly
Jim O'Connolly
Jim O'Connolly was an English actor and director.-External links:...
and written by William Bast
William Bast
William Bast is an American screenwriter and author currently living in Los Angeles. In addition to writing scripts for motion pictures and television, he is the author of two biographies of the screen actor James Dean.-Early life:...
. The film is also known as Gwangi, The Lost Valley, The Valley Time Forgot, and The Valley Where Time Stood Still. It was filmed in Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
and is known for its creature effects provided by Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen is an American film producer and special effects creator...
, being the last prehistoric-themed film animated by him.
Plot
Sometime near the turn of the 20th century, a beautiful cowgirl named T.J. Breckenridge (Gila GolanGila Golan
Gila Golan is an Israeli former fashion model and actress.Golan was born in Krakow, Poland, around 1940. Her exact birthday is not known, as she was hidden from the Nazis at a young age. She was adopted by a Roman Catholic family that found her left in a bundle at a train station during the...
) hosts a rodeo
Rodeo
Rodeo is a competitive sport which arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain, Mexico, and later the United States, Canada, South America and Australia. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States,...
that is struggling. Her former fiancé Tuck Kirby (James Franciscus
James Franciscus
James Grover Franciscus was an American actor, known for his roles in the series The Naked City and The Investigators, and in feature films.-Life and career:...
), a heroic former stuntman working for Buffalo Bill
Buffalo Bill
William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was a United States soldier, bison hunter and showman. He was born in the Iowa Territory , in LeClaire but lived several years in Canada before his family moved to the Kansas Territory. Buffalo Bill received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for service to the US...
's Wild West show, wants to buy out T.J.
T.J. has an ace she hopes will boost attendance at her show - a tiny horse. Tuck meets a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
paleontologist
Paleontology
Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...
named Horace Bromley (Laurence Naismith
Laurence Naismith
Laurence Naismith was an English actor.Naismith appeared in films such as Carrington VC , Richard III , Sink the Bismarck! , Jason and the Argonauts , and Diamonds Are Forever . He also starred in a children's ghost film The Amazing Mr Blunden...
), who was working in a nearby Mexican desert. Bromley shows Tuck fossilized horse tracks, which Tuck notices to be similar to T.J.'s horse's feet. So Tuck sneaks Bromley in for a peek. Bromley declares the horse to be an Eohippus
Hyracotherium
Hyracotherium , also known as Eohippus or the dawn horse, is an extinct genus of very small perissodactyl ungulates that lived in the woodlands of the northern hemisphere, with species ranging throughout Asia, Europe, and North America during the early Tertiary Period and the early to mid Eocene...
.
The tiny horse came from a place known as the Forbidden Valley. A Gypsy known as Tia Zorina claims that it has a curse, and demands that it must be returned. Later, a group of thieves (presumably under orders from the Gypsy) collaborate with Bromley to steal the horse and release it in the valley. Bromley collaborates in the hopes of following the horse to its home. But Carlos (Gustavo Rojo
Gustavo Rojo
Gustavo Rojo is a Uruguayan film actor and producer. He has appeared in over 100 films since 1944.-Selected filmography:* El Gran Calavera * The Evil Forest * The Island Princess...
), once a member of the Gypsy tribe now working for T.J.'s circus (and the one who actually delivered the tiny horse to T.J.), walks in on the theft and tries to stop it, but is knocked out.
Tuck arrives just as the Gypsy posse leaves. He sees Carlos as he begins reviving, notices the horse is missing, and sets off after it and Bromley. When T.J. and her crew discover Carlos and that the horse is missing, Carlos claims Tuck has stolen it. T.J. then leads a group of cowboys after Tuck and Bromley to retrieve the horse.
Making their way into the Forbidden Valley, Tuck, T.J, and the rest of the group meet up and soon discover why the valley is said to be cursed as a Pteranodon
Pteranodon
Pteranodon , from the Late Cretaceous geological period of North America in present day Kansas, Alabama, Nebraska, Wyoming, and South Dakota, was one of the largest pterosaur genera and had a maximum wingspan of over...
swoops down and snatches a boy who had accompanied them. After Carlos kills the Pteranodon, they spot an Ornithomimus
Ornithomimus
Ornithomimus is a genus of ornithomimid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now North America.In 1890 Ornithomimus velox was named by Othniel Charles Marsh on the basis of a foot and partial hand from the Maastrichtian Denver Formation. Another seventeen species have been named since...
, a small dinosaur which they chase after in the hopes of capturing it. Just as the ornithomimus is about to escape, it is killed by Gwangi, a vicious Allosaurus
Allosaurus
Allosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic period . The name Allosaurus means "different lizard". It is derived from the Greek /allos and /sauros...
which pursues the group, almost finding and eating Bromley. However, a Styracosaurus
Styracosaurus
Styracosaurus was a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period , about 76.5 to 75.0 million years ago...
appears and drives Gwangi away.
Later, Gwangi pursues the people to their base camp, where it is able to get the best of them, until they begin to rope it down. Then, the Styracosaurus reappears and battles Gwangi. Gwangi emerges victorious, but decides to attack the men again.
Gwangi manages to catch and kill Carlos, but knocks itself out while trying to exit the valley in pursuit of the rest of the group. Securing the creature, they take it back to town where it is to be put on display in T.J.'s show. However, on opening night, one of the Gypsies sneaks in and begins to unlock Gwangi's cage in an effort to free it. Instead the unfortunate man is killed and Gwangi breaks free, killing Bromley and feasting on a circus elephant
Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
(actually modelled after a prehistoric mammoth
Mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths, and close relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair...
) in the process. The crowd stampedes away from the arena, trampling and killing Tia Zorina.
Eventually, Gwangi, Tuck, T.J and Lope (a Mexican boy) end up in a cathedral which catches on fire. After some close calls, Tuck and T.J. manage to escape and lock the door behind them, trapping Gwangi in the burning building, which crumbles around it. Screaming in agony, Gwangi dies in the fire and the town makes Tuck the town hero. However, the townspeople are also saddened by the thought of a magnificent creature like Gwangi dying such a horrible death and by the loss of life caused by its rampage.
Background
Gwangi was originally conceived by Willis O'BrienWillis O'Brien
Willis Harold O'Brien was an Irish American pioneering motion picture special effects artist who perfected and specialized in stop-motion animation. He was affectionately known to his family and close friends as "Obie"....
(1886-1962), the man who created the special effects for the original King Kong
King Kong (1933 film)
King Kong is a Pre-Code 1933 fantasy monster adventure film co-directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, and written by Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman after a story by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. The film tells of a gigantic island-dwelling apeman creature called Kong who dies in...
(1933). The plot was inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book The Lost World
The Lost World
-Conan Doyle novel and adaptations:* The Lost World , a 1912 book* The Lost World , a silent film* The Lost World , set in Venezuela* The Lost World , set in Africa...
(1912), with added elements from King Kong (capturing a monster and bringing it to civilisation where it runs amok). In O'Brien's scenario, then called Valley of the Mists, cowboys discover an Allosaurus in the Grand Canyon. After finally roping the dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
, they put it in a Wild West show, but the creature, now called Gwangi, breaks free and fights lions in the show that have also escaped. After killing the lions, Gwangi goes on a rampage around the town and is run off a cliff by a man in a truck. O'Brien died before The Valley of Gwangi was filmed.
Although Harryhausen intended Gwangi, the main antagonist of the film, to be an Allosaurus
Allosaurus
Allosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic period . The name Allosaurus means "different lizard". It is derived from the Greek /allos and /sauros...
, he based the model of the dinosaur on a Tyrannosaurus
Tyrannosaurus
Tyrannosaurus meaning "tyrant," and sauros meaning "lizard") is a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur. The species Tyrannosaurus rex , commonly abbreviated to T. rex, is a fixture in popular culture. It lived throughout what is now western North America, with a much wider range than other...
that he had made much earlier. Harryhausen occasionally confused the two, stating in a DVD interview: "We called it an Allosaurus, occasionally... They're both meat eaters, they're both Tyrants... one was just a bit larger than the other." The apparent size of the animal on screen resembles that of an allosaur and it has three fingers on each hand (as did Allosaurus
Allosaurus
Allosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic period . The name Allosaurus means "different lizard". It is derived from the Greek /allos and /sauros...
) whereas tyrannosaurs had only two. A full-size tyrannosaur may not have been feasible given some aspects of the plot.
Special effects
The Valley of Gwangi was the last prehistoric-themed film that Harryhausen animated, and he made much use of his experience in depicting extinct animals from his earlier films. Close to a year was spent on the special effects (there were over 300 'Dynamation' cuts in the film, a record number for Harryhausen), with the roping of Gwangi being the most labour-intensive animated sequence. It 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. The coordination of Gwangi's animation with live actors on horseback (and the horses appearing to react to Gwangi) was particularly difficult to film, and the source of an editorial lapse in a following scene. Gwangi bites through the ropes around his neck when first lassoed and later has his jaws roped together when unconscious. However, he is then shown being transported in a cart again held only by ropes around his neck but with jaws now un-bound.Although the animation of Gwangi was well executed (although somewhat repetitive), that of the other prehistoric animals shown in the film was less well done. The appearance and movements of the Ornithomimus were unlikely, and the pterosaurs were mistakenly given bat's wings (with elongate fingers supporting the membrane; pterosaurs had one finger forming the wing's leading edge but none on the membrane). The wings appeared to mimic those of a pterosaur from an earlier Harryhausen film One Million Years BC (1966). Interestingly, a pterosaur animated decades earlier by Willis O'Brien for King Kong
King Kong
King Kong is a fictional character, a giant movie monster resembling a gorilla, that has appeared in several movies since 1933. These include the groundbreaking 1933 movie, the film remakes of 1976 and 2005, as well as various sequels of the first two films...
shows the correct wing anatomy. Close-up sequences of the pterosaurs in Gwangi were provided by life-size models. The model of the Eohippus was supposed to have had toes but appears to have had regular hooves with 'toes' painted on (the sound effects of the animal moving also resemble hooves). The model of the Styracosaurus
Styracosaurus
Styracosaurus was a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period , about 76.5 to 75.0 million years ago...
featured an inflatable air 'bladder' to simulate the animal breathing heavily after its combat with Gwangi (a feature first used in models made for much earlier films by Marcel Delgado).
Although the habitat shown in the 'Forbidden Valley' was highly unlikely to have ever harboured large dinosaurs given its restricted canyons and sparse desert vegetation, the barren terrain may have made it easier to merge the stop-motion animation with live action sequences.
Cast
Actress Gila GolanGila Golan
Gila Golan is an Israeli former fashion model and actress.Golan was born in Krakow, Poland, around 1940. Her exact birthday is not known, as she was hidden from the Nazis at a young age. She was adopted by a Roman Catholic family that found her left in a bundle at a train station during the...
's Israeli accent was so strong that all of her lines were redubbed on the film by a voice over. Actor Laurence Naismith
Laurence Naismith
Laurence Naismith was an English actor.Naismith appeared in films such as Carrington VC , Richard III , Sink the Bismarck! , Jason and the Argonauts , and Diamonds Are Forever . He also starred in a children's ghost film The Amazing Mr Blunden...
who plays Professor Bromley had earlier featured in Jason and the Argonauts as the shipbuilder 'Argos'.
Legacy
By the time of the film's release, interest in 'monster' films of this type was waning. Management at Warner Brothers and Seven Arts also changed and the film was released with little promotional effort on a double-bill with a biker film; it thus missed its target audience and was not as successful as earlier Harryhausen efforts.The scene where Gwangi suddenly appears from behind a hill and snatches a fleeing ornithomimosaur in his jaws was later copied in the big-budget dinosaur movie, Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park (film)
Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Michael Crichton. It stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Martin Ferrero, and Bob Peck...
.
During the 1980s hit TV series Scarecrow and Mrs. King
Scarecrow and Mrs. King
Scarecrow and Mrs. King is an American television series that aired from October 3, 1983, to May 28, 1987 on CBS. The show starred Kate Jackson and Bruce Boxleitner as divorced housewife Amanda King and top-level "Agency" operative Lee Stetson who begin a strange association, and eventual romance,...
, anytime a television was shown on in the series, The Valley of Gwangi was on the screen.
Justin Parpan's 2006 children's read-aloud book, "Gwango's Lonesome Trail" (Red Cygnet Press, Inc., ISBN 1601080042) features a pre-historic dinosaur named "Gwango" roaming the contemporary American Southwest.
In an episode of the situation comedy Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
, Ross watches the movie while in a hospital.
In the 2011 animated movie, Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur
Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur
Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur is the sixteenth Direct-to-DVD movie based upon the Scooby-Doo Saturday morning cartoons, to be released on September 6, 2011, postponed from July 6th...
, during a night time chase scene through the town a movie theater can be seen in the background playing two dinosaur-themed monster movies,The Valley of Gwangi and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is a 1953 science fiction film directed by Eugène Lourié and stars Paul Christian, Paula Raymond and Cecil Kellaway with visual effects by Ray Harryhausen. The film is about an atomic bomb test in the Arctic Circle that unfreezes a hibernating fictional dinosaur, a...
.
See also
- The Beast of Hollow MountainThe Beast of Hollow MountainThe Beast of Hollow Mountain is a 1956 scifi/horror western about an American cowboy living in Mexico who discovers his missing cattle are being preyed upon by an Allosaurus...
, an earlier, similar sci-fi western film - Weird WestWeird WestWeird West is used to describe a combination of the Western with another literary genre, usually horror, occult, or fantasy.DC's Weird Western Tales appeared in the early 1970s and the weird Western was further popularized by Joe R...
- List of stop-motion films