Willis H. O'Brien was THE man who made stop-motion animation popular and revolutionized the cinema with 1925's The Lost World and of course 1933's King Kong (and Son of Kong). He inspired more or less every animator that came afterwards, including his own student - Ray Harryhausen. But the man himself was a troubled genius, always fighting to get his own projects off the ground. It didn't help that his first wife shot their two children and tried to take suicide afterwards. It was an unhappy marriage from the beginning and it's said it made him deeply depressed, suffering from alcholism and gambling problems.
I have no idea what happen after that, but he stayed in business until his death 1962. The last movie he worked with was the classic slapstick/action comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, where he animated the fire truck sequence at the end. But during the years between he had a dream, and it was to make the ultimate western-themed dinosaur movie. He developed tons of projects set in Arizona, with cowboys or Indians, but the one that stayed the longest was Gwangi - who later, after his death, was made by Harryhausen. But during the fifties the b-movie brothers Nassour bought the idea and produced The Beast of Hollow Mountain as a co-production with Mexico. It's also the first stop-motion movie to be shot in colour and in cinemascope. Still a low-budget affair and very far from a good movie, which is a pity.
Much on the problems can be blamed on the script, co-written by O'Brien under the colourful alias of El Toro Estrella (which mean, I guess, The Star Bull or something similar). It spends way too much time on the drama around the farm of an american cowboy who moved to Mexico to raise bulls, and extremely little time on the beast itself. Cattle start to disappear around the neighbourbood and he and his friends is trying to figure out why, and during the last twenty minutes of the film we finally get the answer.
A dinosaur.
But that wasn't so much of a secret anyway. Those last minutes is packed with dinosaur action, which is good, the bad thing is that the dino himself looks quite primitive. The animation, not by O'Brien, was shot using something called Replacement Animation. It means that each movement was shot with a different puppet. This works works quite fine when the dino is running and walking - I can see how it looks slight less jerky, with finer movements, more organic, but in every other scene it looks terrible. Small movements just doesn't work this way and with something that should look realistic. I'm pretty sure Harryhausen used a similar way of animation for some of his short childrens movies, but those where far more stylized and unrealistic, which makes it easier to animate.
The Beast of Hollow Mountain is a must for collectors of dinosaur cinema and Willis O'Brien completists, but I can honestly say that everyone else can skip it. Watch Valley of Gwangi instead, it has a miniature pony, James Franciscus and some awesome dinosaur scenes! A classic family movie that still works excellent.
"But during the years between he had a dream, and it was to make the ultimate western-themed dinosaur movie."
I´m hoping that Spielberg will see this movie and head into the same area, meaning a cross hybrid of western/dino adventure.
Dreamworks did after all co-produce Cowboys & Aliens(2011), uneveen, flawed film,not as good as The Burrowers (2008)but it was very entertaining.
"But during the fifties the b-movie brothers Nassour bought the idea and produced The Beast of Hollow Mountain as a co-production with Mexico. It's also the first stop-motion movie to be shot in colour and in cinemascope."
Yeah.....I´m glad they tried even though the result was not so good.
"Still a low-budget affair and very far from a good movie, which is a pity."
You can say that again.
"Much on the problems can be blamed on the script, co-written by O'Brien under the colourful alias of El Toro Estrella (which mean, I guess, The Star Bull or something similar). It spends way too much time on the drama around the farm of an american cowboy who moved to Mexico to raise bulls, and extremely little time on the beast itself. Cattle start to disappear around the neighbourbood and he and his friends is trying to figure out why, and during the last twenty minutes of the film we finally get the answer.
A dinosaur."
I think it is because the various elemants in this story, scifi adventure, western, horror etc doesn´t mesh together well in this script......there are huge flaws in the screenwriting.
"Those last minutes is packed with dinosaur action, which is good, the bad thing is that the dino himself looks quite primitive. The animation, not by O'Brien, was shot using something called Replacement Animation. It means that each movement was shot with a different puppet. This works works quite fine when the dino is running and walking - I can see how it looks slight less jerky, with finer movements, more organic, but in every other scene it looks terrible. Small movements just doesn't work this way and with something that should look realistic."
Yeah....also there seem to be alot of man in suit scenes, close ups of the dinosaurs foot when walking etc.....you can clearly see that there is an actor involved here.
"The Beast of Hollow Mountain is a must for collectors of dinosaur cinema and Willis O'Brien completists, but I can honestly say that everyone else can skip it. Watch Valley of Gwangi instead, it has a miniature pony, James Franciscus and some awesome dinosaur scenes! A classic family movie that still works excellent."
Hell to the motherfucking yeah!
For those of us who can´t get enough creature features, and love genre hybrids this is great......others stay away.
I would love a review of The Valley of Gwangi(1969), and also Curse of the Undead(1959)etc.....hell, do a sci fi western week at your blog.
Great review, I´m glad you reviewed, I was somewhat disappointed when I saw it, but hey, dinos and cowboys....don´t have so high expectations.
Posted by: Megatron | March 15, 2013 at 15:06