The Beast of Hollow Mountain

When looking through a book of film reviews you would (as I've found) not always find this film. It's minor, old and unacclaimed, and as a result largely unknown. It's worth a look, though. While most reviews would not rank it at all highly, and while it's hardly 'Godzilla' or 'King Kong', it's not that bad. The build up and Mexican scenery promise much, and the story (about a strange beast eating ranchers' sheep in a small Mexican town) does have its fair share of suspense. However, the climax, marred by awful special effects (due to the low budget) lets the whole thing down. This film has its good points, so watch it, but don't expect to be overwhelmed.

When it came to dinosaur special effects in the 1950s, absolutely no one came close to Ray Harryhausen, and The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms still reigns as the classic of that time. Others who dared try and compete were lucky to come in a distant second, but that didn't mean there wasn't a fun quality to their films. The Beast From Hollow Mountain is one of those minor league yet highly enjoyable attempts to combine the two favorite elements of 12 to 15 year old boys when we went to the movies back in the mid-fifties: cowboys and dinosaurs. We knew Guy Madison well from his long run Wild Bill Hickock TV series, which had precious little to do with the real life of that historic character but was plenty of fun all the same. Here, he's a range rider who discovers that his cattle are disappearing. Could it be outlaws? No, the title creature, who attacks Madison, a cute little Mexican kid, the gorgeous Patricia Medina, and a whole host of vaqueros. There is (as was the case back then) precious little dinosaur footage, for the way they kept costs down back then was to 'tease' you with distant growls, but avoid showing you the real thing for as long as possible. After about an hour of this, you got maybe fifteen minutes of actual footage with the creature (who has the weirdest, wildest tongue of any dinosaur in movie history) chasing after Guy and friends with the swiftness of a professional track star. And it's a good thing they keep him offscreen, because he's at best semi-convincing when you do see him. That doesn't make this brightly colored film and less fun to watch. And the way in which Madison gets the thing at the end is a real lulu.

This movie is scripted by Willis O'Brien ,who obviously thought so much of it ,that he used it again in 1969 for the superior The Valley of Gwangi It is a curiosity among movies, being a science fiction and Western hybrid .Mexican based rancher Jimmy -woodenly played by Guy Madison -believes that his dead cattle are the result of predators .He is thinking "Mountain lion " or "coyote " maybe .Wrong!Its a T-Rex and the pattern then follows the standard monster movie template -capture and escape ,rampage and eventually happy ever after resolution . The monster effects are okay for the era but completely overshadowed by the genius of Ray Harryhausen ,employed in the remake .Add somewhat muddy colour and you have a movie whose technical side is deficient by today's standards It still remains worth watching however if only for its being such a rare commodity in combining monster movie and Western

It is said that a mountain surrounded by a swamp is hollow and that a prehistoric monster from 'the dawn of time' comes out during times of drought to stalk the land.

Alright, so the plot lacks any sense of reality (there would have to be a whole race of dinosaurs for them to survive until the present day). The special effects also leave something to be desired. But look over these faults and you'll find that this film is actually very enjoyable and entertaining. The dinosaur isn't revealed until the last twenty minutes, but when it shows its face there's non-stop action, and for once the dinosaur can move fast and so poses a genuine threat. The dinosaur itself is fairly well-animated and there is a wonderful 'golden age of monster movies' feel about the whole thing.

Back in the 1950s, the big family weekend outing would be the drive-in movies. "It came from beneath the Sea", "The Alligator People", "Earth vs the Flyimg Saucers", "1984", "The Dam Busters", "The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake", "Love Slaves of the Amazons", etc. and (when I was 8 or 9) "The Beast from Hollow Mountain". I finally caught it again on DVR on TCM Thur 27 Jun 2013. For what is billed as the first Cinemascope and Color dinosaur movie, "Beast" has rough goodness.

And it is better than I remember. Surprised me. The dinosaur effects are some what better than "Dinosaurus!" 1960 (apparently the reviewers panning the FX have not seen "Dinosaurus!"), but it is not as good as what Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen did together in Irwin Allen's "Animal World" 1956. I think the "Beast..." FX were billed as RegiScope animation in depth.

I have read that Willis O'Brien's "cowboys and dinosaurs" idea had been kicking around since before his "Mighty Joe Young" another movie where O'Brien and Harryhausen worked together. And after O'Brien's death, Harryhausen decided to make his mentor's unmade pet project as "The Valley of Gwangi".

The dinosaur in "Beast..." appears late and the conflict between the gringo rancher Ryan from Texas and the Mexican rancher Enrique, and the growing romance between Ryan and Sarita, Enrique's betrothed, occupies the first two thirds or three fourths of the movie. Mysterious deaths of cattle are attributed to rustlers and the ranchers' rivalry. But after the steer-chomping Beast makes his appearance, he has lotsa screen time in the last part of the film. (OK, I concede the tongue gets to be a bit much in some scenes. Looks to me like the tongue was rotoscoped onto the sequences shot with replacement animation.)

What has stayed with me from seeing this film over fifty years ago, is the scene where Sarita and the kid Panchito are besieged in a cabin by the Beast. That was scary then, and is still is a moment (or that may be my nostalgia acting up again).