Claudio Carvalho "The Valley of Gwangi" is one of those poorly developed silly films that become dated, boring and forgettable. The combination of cowboy and sci-fi in the turn of the Twentieth Century does not work and the terrible special effects seems to be from the 50's or an Ed Wood production. The conclusion is awful, with non-stop people running in repeated scenes and the fate of the nasty gypsy old woman that caused the whole trouble is not shown. My vote is four.Title (Brazil) "O Vale Proibido" ("The Forbidden Valley")

classicsoncall Say, have you noticed this? In practically every dinosaur movie I've ever seen, there's always a point where a Tyrannosaurus-like dino, in this case an allosaurus, matches up against a Triceratops-like animal. In this picture it was a Styracosaurus. It's probably because they were the largest of their kind and seemed like natural enemies, although I don't even know if they lived during the same paleontological age. Is that even a word? Well this flick is entertaining enough on a number of levels. For one, I don't think I've seen dinosaurs as colorful as this before. Usually they're a dark, grayish color but someone, maybe Harryhausen himself, felt they should be various shades of purple and blue. Or was that a function of the Technicolor format? If you noticed Professor Bromley (Laurence Naismith) running around out in the desert, his face and hands were red as a lobster; I've never seen a sunburn that bright.While watching, I was reminded of the 1949 movie "Mighty Joe Young" when the Mexican cowboys brought out their lassos and tried to hogtie the allosaurus. I'm sitting there thinking, what would possess someone to believe they could actually do that with a real live dinosaur? Sure it looks cool, but what self respecting dinosaur wouldn't just bite through the ropes and knock the pesky cowboys off of him, just like Gwangi did here.Say, here's another thought. I've probably seen and reviewed close to a thousand Westerns by now, and you might loosely call this a Western, but I've never seen a horse dive into an oversized pool before. So there's another reason to catch this flick. Seeing Gina Golan all wet is a bonus.So all in all, this is a fun movie if you're up for it. James Franciscus and Ms. Golan make for an attractive on screen couple, and the dynamation styled monsters looked and moved fairly realistically given the limitations of the technology back then. And who wouldn't love to see some dinosaurs at a Wild West Show?

poj-man I always wanted to see Valley of The Gwangi. I mean, it has dinosaurs in it so what is there not to like? The story, plot and acting are all just terrible. This is a MST 3000 flashing blue light special. The Harryhausen F\X are the last that he did and it is obvious that time had passed his style by.There is base B grade movie charm as well as a babe and comedic sidekick action. There are gypsies. There is also an absolutely hilarious ending fight sequence where James Franciscus acts out for the first time scenes he will replay a couple years later in Beneath The Planet of the Apes...complete with organ blast! If you like B grade cheesy dinosaur movies then you will enjoy Gwangi. otherwise...stay away!

Chase_Witherspoon Oddly engaging fantasy finds entrepreneur Franciscus returning to his old haunt, re-igniting his passion for former flame (Golan) and teaming up with a precocious (and loyal) youngster (Arden) and eccentric palaeontologist (Naismith) who has made a significant discovery of a fossilised footprint of an ancestor to the horse. When one of the tiny ponies is captured for Golan's circus-rodeo, Franciscus suspects there may be more dollars to be exploited if he can find other descendants. Their subsequent search leads to the discovery of a hidden valley where dinosaurs still exist, "Gwangi", the most feared of them all (a T-Rex) and potentially the most profitable, if he can be caught and circus trained. Predictably, "Gwangi" is not a performing monkey.Unusual western - sci-fi fusion for adults is a "King Kong" rendition of sorts, with capable performances and Ray Harryhausen's superb stop motion animation depicting some brutal encounters with a number of well known dinosaur species. I couldn't help but feel sympathy for Gwangi, the innocent T-Rex minding his own business, chewing up the odd pterodactyl, then abducted to be exploited by Richard Carlson's insatiable greed. An undignified treatment of an apex predator.Potentially too bloody for the kids (and given their exposure to CGI effects, probably too primitive as well), the film's climax in which Gwangi is revealed to the peanut gallery is vintage stuff - there's a savage fight to the death between Gwangi and a circus elephant, and even more spectacular, the tiny taco attempting to release the enraged Gwangi from his cage, consumed in a bone-crunching fury as horrified spectators dash for the exits. Harryhausen devotee, or just a casual monster movie goer, you won't want to miss "Valley of Gwangi".