Blast from the Past: James Franciscus
Produced by Charles H. Schneer and Ray Harryhausen, and directed by Jim O’Connolly, The Valley of Gwangi is a strange hybrid of a picture, part fantasy, part Western, part adventure.
Written by William Bast, it stars second banana stars, James Franciscus, Richard Carlson, and Israeli Gila Golan.
Grade: C+ (** out f *****)
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Theatrical release poster
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The Creature stop-motion effects were by Harryhausen, the last dinosaur-themed film that he animated. He had inherited the project from his mentor Willis O’Brien, wh worked on the original King Kong (1933).
O’Brien had planned to make The Valley of Gwangi decades earlier but died in 1962. Producer Charles H. Schneer called it “probably the least of the movies Ray and I made together.”
In early 20th century Mexico, T.J. Breckenridge hosts a rodeo. Her former lover, Tuck Kirby, stuntman working for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, wants to buy her out. He is followed by Lope, a Mexican boy who intends to join the rodeo on a quest for fame and fortune. T.J. is not interested in Tuck, who is still attracted to her. T.J. accepts Tuck when he saves Lope from a bull.
T.J. has an advantage she hopes will boost attendance at her show – a horse called El Diablo. Tuck meets British paleontologist Horace Bromley, who is working in a nearby Mexican desert. Bromley shows Tuck fossilized horse tracks, and Tuck notes their similarity to El Diablo’s feet. Tuck sneaks Bromley into the circus for a look at El Diablo, which Bromley declares to be an Eohippus.
The horse came from a place known as the Forbidden Valley. Romani Tia Zorina claims that the horse is cursed, and demands that it be returned. Later, she and the other Romani collaborate with Bromley to steal El Diablo and release it in the valley. Bromley hopes to follow the horse to its home in search of other prehistoric specimens. Carlos, a former member of the Romani tribe now working for T.J.’s circus, walks in on the theft and tries to stop it, but is knocked out.
Tuck arrives just as the Romani leave. Carlos sees him as he is regaining consciousness. Tuck notices that the horse is missing, and follows Bromley. T.J. and her crew discover Carlos, who claims that Tuck stole El Diablo for himself. Carlos, T.J., and the others decide to follow Tuck and Bromley into the valley.
Gwangi pursues the group to their base camp. They try to rope him, but he breaks free when the Styracosaurus reappears. Gwangi kills the Styracosaurus and later kills Carlos, but is knocked out by a rockslide while trying to exit the valley.
Tuck and the others escape, leaving Gwangi trapped in the collapsing building. Shrieking as he is burned alive, Gwangi is finally crushed to death by the debris. Lope sheds tears for the dinosaur as he, Tuck, T.J. and a crowd watch the cathedral burn.
The film was shot in Almería and Cuenca, Spain. The bullring scenes were shot in Almería’s Plaza de Toros and the finale at Cuenca’s cathedral. Some scenes with dinosaurs like the Pteranodon scene or the fight between the Allosaurus and Styracosaurus were filmed in Almería, in Tabernas Desert. The unusual rock formations of Ciudad Encantada near Cuenca were used for the forbidden valley.
Schneer says the director “lost interest in the middle of shooting. I don’t think he enjoyed it. He just didn’t have his heart in it, when he was halfway through.” “The new administration didn’t give it the kind of release I expected,” said Schneer. “They didn’t know how to market our type of picture as well as Columbia did. ”
Croitics pointed out that the central image of the cowboys roping the dinosaur was imaginative, but it didn’t hold up for feature length.
Dismissed as “a run-of-the-mill monster rally” by most critics, the pictire failed commercially.
Cast
James Franciscus as Tuck
Gila Golan as T.J.
Richard Carlson as Champ
Laurence Naismith as Professor Bromley
Freda Jackson as Tia Zorina
Gustavo Rojo as Carlos
Mario De Barros as Bean (as Mario de Barros)
Dennis Kilbane as Rowdy
Jose Burgos as the Dwarf
Credits:
Directed by Jim O’Connolly
Written by William Bast, Julian More, Willis H. O’Brien
Produced by Charles H. Schneer
Cinematography Erwin Hillier
Edited by Henry Richardson, Selwyn Petterson
Music by Jerome Moross
Production: Charles H. Schneer Productions
Distributed by Warner
Release dates: June 11, 1969 (Detroit) Sept 3, 1969 (NYC)
Running time: 96 minutes
