I remember catching up with Beast of Hollow Mountain on the BBC after years of hearing about it from an uncle. When I saw it I couldn't believe how awful the animation was, and the means of putting the live action and animation together. Utter rubbish. And from Willis O'Brien too.
By sheer contrast, his protege Ray Harryhausen gave us The Valley of Gwangi, which is a great movie, and the first Harryhausen I saw on release as a kid. I know the two films are related by virtue of being based on the same idea of O'Brien's, but oh my, the student certainly beat the teacher on this occasion.
Willis O'Brien was an alcoholic and just couldn't get the backing he needed for his projects. He was his own worst enemy.
According to Wikipedia, O'Brien didn't work on the SFX for "The Beast of Hollow Mountain."
I have a similar experience. I member watching a monster movie late one night waiting for the monster to appear. It appeared in the last 60 seconds of the film, and then I saw "THE END"! I think it was a minotaur or devil like creature. I recall reading years later the director never intended to show the monster at all, but the studio forced him to show something in the end.
Could that be NIGHT OF THE DEMON (AKA CURSE OF THE DEMON)?
After Googling that title I'm certain of it. Haven't seen the film since the 70's.
TBOHM is an old sentimental favorite of mine. For one thing this monster wasn’t going to cause nightmares, even when watched on the Friday late-night horror specials shown at 11:20pm in the early 60s. Monsters such as Caltiki (a radioactive black blob which wraps around you and dissolves all but your bones), could be nightmare material however, as while there was no fear that a dinosaur might be hiding in your bedroom closet, that pile of clothes (or is it just clothes?), in there, in the dark, did it just move? Might my parents find only my skeleton in my bed tomorrow morning if I dare close my eyes? I think it may be difficult for anyone under the age of 50(?) to appreciate these old clunkers unless one had no previous precedent and first saw it as a young child as it was for me. To have seen this after watching JP, etc., is to preclude the enjoyment it brought to a seven-year-old in 1962 with only the T-Rex in O’Brien’s King Kong or the Beast From 20,000 Fathoms as precedent. Even at age 7, it was obviously stop-motion (replacement animation to be technically correct, done by Edward Nassour, also the director), but the suspension of disbelief was quite easy. Anyway, I still think that some of the animation in TBOHM is quite good for its day and given its budget. Some scenes in particular stick out in my mind. I think the dino (Allosaurus?) actually looked better running than walking. Watch the scene where Ryan (Guy Madison) and Enrique (Eduardo Noriega) on Ryan’s horse slide down the slope. The horse falls over and rolls down, throwing both men and looked real enough to have been unplanned even though it likely was staged with stunt doubles. The dinosaur slides down after them and was a good scene, even if unintentionally funny. Guy Madison and Mario Navarro (Panchito) really shine in this one. I liked how the dino reacted to gunshots. While I don’t know that it would have rubbed the wounds with its paw, at least the wounds bled. On the difficult to suspend disbelief end is the roaring sounds of the dino. The growls in particular often sound human, where other roars were obviously those of known animals. Would a real dinosaur roar in desperation as it sank in quicksand? Did this inspire the Velociraptors calling for help in JP?
Hey jackfu that's a great response. I'm patting myself on the back for the quicksand memory. And laughing at all the other flicks you've mentioned that hit home as a kid. How about The Curse Of The Faceless Man, too?
Hey jackfu that's a great response. I'm patting myself on the back for the quicksand memory. And laughing at all the other flicks you've mentioned that hit home as a kid. How about The Curse Of The Faceless Man, too?
Thanks Howard L! TCOTFM actually had slipped my memory, I'll have to watch it again, thanks! When I was 7 or 8, I tried watching Beast From Haunted Cave, thinking it would be along the lines of TBOHM. That is the only horror movie I wasn't able to watch! Something about that creature was just too much for me there in the dark in our living room at half-past midnight! Especially near the end in the mine (at least I made it to the last 15 minutes!). As embarrassing a confession as this is, my mom came into the room and made me go to bed! I don't know how she knew I was that scared. BOHC actually isn't that bad for a B-movie.
Well, there is this 1969 movie called "It's Alive" -- no, not the one scored by Herrmann!!!:
'It's Alive!' is a 1969 American film directed by Larry Buchanan about a mad farmer who tries to feed a stranded couple to a dinosaur he keeps in a cave. It was filmed in the Ozark Mountain area of northern Arkansas and Tennessee and its tagline is: "Trapped In a Cave of Terror!". The monster suit that was used to portray the dinosaur was used in another one of Buchanan's older films, Creature of Destruction.
'It's Alive!' is a 1969 American film directed by Larry Buchanan about a mad farmer who tries to feed a stranded couple to a dinosaur he keeps in a cave. It was filmed in the Ozark Mountain area of northern Arkansas and Tennessee and its tagline is: "Trapped In a Cave of Terror!". The monster suit that was used to portray the dinosaur was used in another one of Buchanan's older films, Creature of Destruction.
I vote that this solves the mystery, especially as jackfu cant disprove it. I wanna be able to sleep nights again.
Well, there is this 1969 movie called "It's Alive" -- no, not the one scored by Herrmann!!!: 'It's Alive!' is a 1969 American film directed by Larry Buchanan about a mad farmer who tries to feed a stranded couple to a dinosaur he keeps in a cave. It was filmed in the Ozark Mountain area of northern Arkansas and Tennessee and its tagline is: "Trapped In a Cave of Terror!". The monster suit that was used to portray the dinosaur was used in another one of Buchanan's older films, Creature of Destruction.
Oh my God, I've seen this movie! Wayyyy back when VHS rental was just starting I'd pick up almost anything to watch of the weekends, just because it was such a new and futuristic thing. My girlfriend and I barely got through the movie--out of the purest tenacity. It was just awful. Damn you Tommy Kirk!
'It's Alive!' is a 1969 American film directed by Larry Buchanan about a mad farmer who tries to feed a stranded couple to a dinosaur he keeps in a cave. It was filmed in the Ozark Mountain area of northern Arkansas and Tennessee and its tagline is: "Trapped In a Cave of Terror!". The monster suit that was used to portray the dinosaur was used in another one of Buchanan's older films, Creature of Destruction.
I vote that this solves the mystery, especially as jackfu cant disprove it. I wanna be able to sleep nights again.
This movie would have been from the 1950s as it was the early 60s when I would have seen it. And remember, the dino never showed, thus my frustration. I really appreciate everyone's efforts, thanks very much. Nevertheless, in the interest of decency, I'll first apologize for all the fuss I caused. At least some good has come from all this, as folks have brought up some old, forgotten favorite films! Therefore I declare the case unsolved, but closed. Thanks all!
