The Valley of Gwangi (1969)

Cowboys Battle Monsters in the Lost World of Forbidden Valley. 

T.J. Breckenridge is the owner and host of a wild west circus in early 20th century Mexico. Her former boyfriend, Tuck Kirby, has just come back into the picture and is trying to convince her that the time has come to sell her show to him on behalf of his employer, Buffalo Bill.

But all of that changes when one of her employees, Carlos, finds a miniature horse unlike anything seen before. T.J. is sure that the strange creature will change the fortunes of her failing circus show and bring her untold riches. Meanwhile, local paleontologist Sir Horace Bromley has come to believe that the tiny horse is a prehistoric animal thought to have been extinct for millions of years; and a local group of gypsies warn that if the animal is not returned to the Forbidden Valley from which is came, a curse will be leveled upon his who stole it away.

Finally, T.J., Tuck, Horace, Carlos, and a bunch of their fellow cowboys, make off to the Forbidden Valley in search of even more of these strange creatures. But they get more than they bargained for. Hidden away for millions of years in this secret valley were all sorts of prehistoric creatures, most horrible of all being an Allosaurus known as Gwangi.

The cowboys ultimately capture Gwangi, after battling him and other prehistoric creatures along the way. They bring him back to T.J.'s circus and dream of the riches they are about to acquire as they put their new show on the road. But unsurprisingly things do not go as planned, and soon Gwangi is on the loose, menacing the local population and even doing battle with an elephant.

The tag line pretty well says it all. This is basically a cowboy movie with dinosaurs added in. Kind of like King Kong meets John Wayne. It starts off awfully slow, but it picks up once they get to the valley. Once the action starts up its a pretty enjoyable movie. The wonderful stop motion work of Ray Harryhausen alone makes this movie worthwhile despite its over the top acting, occasionally ridiculous dialogue, and the unfortunate requirement for a bit of nose holding in terms of the somewhat racist depictions of the non-white characters. Kind of surprising nobody has made a run at re-doing this one. I guess cowboys just aren't in anymore.

3 balderdash's out of 5
Rated G. Contains mild violence.

Watch the Valley of Gwangi trailer.