The Valley of Gwangi
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| The Valley of Gwangi | |
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 Theatrical poster to The Valley of Gwangi (1969) |
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| Directed by | Jim O'Connolly |
| Produced by | Charles H. Schneer Ray Harryhausen |
| Music by | Jerome Moross |
| Cinematography | Erwin Hillier |
| Editing by | Henry Richardson, Selwyn Petterson |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | September 3, 1969 |
| Running time | 96 min. |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Valley of Gwangi is a 1969 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.
Creatures effect by Ray Harryhausen.
In 1900, a a beautiful cowgirl named T.J Brekenridge, hosts a rodeo that is struggling. Her former fiance Tuck Kirby, a heroic former stuntman working for Buffalo Bill's wild west show, wants to buy out T.J., but T.J. has an ace she hopes will boost attendance at her show - a tiny horse. However, the tiny horse came from the forbidden valley, and a gypsy claims that it has a curse, and demands it to be returned. Tuck, and T.J lead a group of cowboys, along with a British paleantologist named Sir Horace Bromley who was working in a nearby desert, and claimed the tiny horse is a Eohippus, a prehistoric ancestor to the modern day horse. Once the team returns the tiny horse, it is revealed that it really did have a curse. Tuck, T.J, and the rest of the group are forced to battle with dinosaurs in the Forbidden Valley. Eventually they encounter Gwangi, a vicious Allosaurus which kills many of the cowboys. The surviving ones watch Gwangi fight a winning battle with a Styracosaurus. The cowboys eventually succeed in knocking Gwangi unconsious in a landslide, then they capture him, and send him to a rodeo. At the rodeo, Gwangi breaks free then battles, and kills an elephant and then goes on a rampage in the town. Tuck lures Gwangi into the town church and then setting the building on fire, trapping Gwangi within, burning him alive. For killing Gwangi, Tuck is honored as the town hero. However, the townspeople are also saddened by the thought of a magnificent creature like Gwangi dying a horrible death.
[edit] Trivia
- Although Harryhausen intended Gwangi to be an Allosaurus, he based the model of the creature on Tyrannosaurus, making many fans believe Gwangi was a T-Rex. Harryhausen occasionally confuses 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 then the other."
- The roping of Gwangi 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.
- Gwangi was originally concived by Willis O'Brien, the man who did the animation for King Kong. In O'Brien's script, then called "Valley of the Mists". In the original version, cowboys going around America find a T-Rex in the Grand Canyon. After finally roping the dinosaur, they put it in a Wild West show, but when the creature, now called Gwangi, breaks free, it fights escaped lions in the show. After killing the lions, Gwangi goes on a rampage around the town and was run over a cliff by a man in a truck. The film would have been done in 1942 had O'Brien got the finance to do it.[citation needed]
- Gwangi is actually a Native American name that means "lizard"[citation needed]
