The Valley of Gwangi

The Valley of Gwangi is a  1969  American  western- fantasy film directed by  Jim O'Connolly and written by  William Bast. It stars  James Franciscusand, in their final film appearances,  Richard Carlson and  Gila Golan. It was filmed in  Technicolor with creature effects provided by  Ray Harryhausen, the last dinosaur-themed film to be animated by him. Harryhausen had inherited the project from his mentor  Willis O'Brien, the special effects master behind the original  King Kong, who had planned to make The Valley of Gwangi decades earlier and died six years before this completed film was realized.

==Plot[edit] == In Mexico at the turn of the 20th century, a beautiful cowgirl named T.J. Breckenridge (Gila Golan) hosts a struggling rodeo. Her former lover Tuck Kirby (James Franciscus), a heroic former stuntman working for Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, wants to buy her out. Along the way, he is followed by a Mexican boy named Lope (Curtis Arden), who intends to join the rodeo on a quest for fame and fortune. T.J. is not interested in Tuck because of this, but Tuck is still attracted to T.J., especially when T.J. jumps off a diving board on her horse. T.J. finally accepts Tuck when he saves a matador from a bull and the two kiss on the lips.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">T.J. has an ace she hopes will boost attendance at her show - a tiny horse, El Diablo. Tuck meets a British paleontologist named Horace Bromley (Laurence Naismith), 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, and Bromley declares the horse to be an Eohippus.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">The tiny horse came from a place known as the Forbidden Valley. A Gypsy known as Tia Zorina (Freda Jackson) claims that the horse is cursed, and demands that it must be returned. Later, she and other gypsies collaborate with Bromley to steal El Diablo and release him in the valley. Bromley hopes to follow the horse to its home in search of other prehistoric specimens. Carlos (Gustavo Rojo), an ex-member of the Gypsy tribe now working for T.J.'s circus, walks in on the theft and tries to stop it, but is knocked out.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Tuck arrives just as the Gypsy posse leaves. Carlos sees him as he is regaining consciousness. Tuck notices that the horse is missing, and sets off after Bromley. When T.J. and her crew discover Carlos, Carlos claims that Tuck has stolen El Diablo for himself. Carlos, T.J., and the others decide to follow Tuck and Bromley into the valley.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">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 when a Pteranodon swoops down and snatches Lope but due to the weight it falls back to the ground. After Carlos kills the Pteranodon by twisting its neck, 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 chases Bromley and the rest of the group. However, a Styracosaurus appears and drives Gwangi away. As Gwangi leaves, he takes the dead Pteranodon with him.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Later, Gwangi pursues the people to their base camp and the cowboys try to rope him down, but he breaks free when the Styracosaurusreappears. Gwangi battles and kills the Styracosaurus and later manages to catch and kill Carlos, but is knocked out while trying to exit the valley in pursuit of the rest of the group.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Securing the creature, Tuck and other men in the group take Gwangi back to town to be put on display in T.J.'s show. On the opening day of the show, a Gypsy dwarf sneaks in and begins to unlock Gwangi's cage in an effort to free him, only to be killed and eaten when Gwangi breaks free. The crowd begins to flee as Gwangi attacks, and Tia Zorina is trampled to death in the chaos. Bromley is crushed by a broken piece of the cage, and Gwangi attacks and kills a circus elephantbefore rampaging through the town. Tuck, accompanied by T.J. and Lope, tries to hide the crowd in a cathedral, but Gwangi finds them and breaks in. Tuck urges the crowd out through a back exit, leaving Tuck inside with Gwangi, T.J., and Lope.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Gwangi tries to eat Lope, but Tuck manages to distract him by stabbing him with a flag. Tuck is eventually able to throw a torch onto the floor near Gwangi, setting the building on fire. Tuck and the others manage to escape and lock the door behind them, trapping Gwangi in the burning building. Roaring in agony, Gwangi dies in the fire as Tuck, T.J., the crowd, Lope (with tears in his eyes) and the townspeople look on.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;"> ==Cast<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] == <p style="margin-bottom:0.1em;"> ==Legacy<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] == <p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">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.
 * 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
 * Dennis Kilbane as Rowdy
 * Mario De Barros as Bean (as Mario de Barros also)
 * Curtis Arden as Lope

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">The scene where Gwangi suddenly appears from behind a hill and snatches a fleeing ornithomimus in his jaws was later copied in the big-budget dinosaur movie, Jurassic Park.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">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.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Justin Parpan's 2006 children's read-aloud book, Gwango's Lonesome Trail (Red Cygnet Press, Inc., ISBN 1-60108-004-2) features a pre-historic dinosaur named "Gwango" roaming the contemporary American Southwest.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">In an episode of the situation comedy Friends, Ross watches the movie while in a hospital.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">In the 2011 animated movie, ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scooby-Doo!_Legend_of_the_Phantosaur 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'' (another Harryhausen film from Warner Bros).