The Beast of Hollow Mountain (1956)

Just what I expected

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

For any curious, this movie is a target of riffing in the new "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return". That is the format I watched it in and at least for me it was not the worst movie ever but in no way good. The biggest fault for the movie is that they did not hint at the dead livestock being killed by a monster at all. I had 0 expectations for a T-Rex in the last part of the movie. The acting and writing were actually decent for a western if you went in with 0 expectations for quality.

Jimmy Ryan (Guy Madison) is an American cowboy working in Mexico and is upset about missing cattle. To be exact, cattle and farmers are mysteriously disappearing in southern Mexico near the location of Hollow Mountain. It is said to never have been explored and the swamp at its base is said to claim the lives of anyone brave enough to snoop around its banks. Ryan and a couple of cowboys will search for missing cattle and discover strange tracks. A giant prehistoric dinosaur appears and is obviously the attacker of farms, ranches and villages.Directed by Edward Nassour and Ismael Rodriquez with special effects by innovator Willis O'Brien's stop motion techniques animating the dinosaur. It is said that this film is one of the first and few American/Mexican co-productions.Other players: Carlos Rivas, Mario Navarro, Patricia Medina, Julio Villarreal, Eduardo Noriega and Pascaul Garcia Pena.

With the movie sporting the title "The Beast of Hollow Mountain", you might think you know what you are going to get. I certainly thought so, though I was surprised - and not in a positive way. The biggest surprise is that while the title promises to be about a monster, it takes a LONG time for the monster to be introduced in the movie. In fact, more than HALF the movie goes by before the monster makes its presence known. Before then, the movie is a fairly serious drama about rivalries between cattlemen and trying to sell their cattle. As you can probably guess from this, the mix between this serious stuff and the monster stuff does not really mix that well. The monster portion of the movie does have some entertainment value, including some stop motion animation that's not bad for a low budget production. Though I'm not sure if it's worth the long wait to see this.

I like dinosaur movies. I like The Valley of Gwangi. This is barely either. Sure it has a dinosaur. Sure it has cowboys. Sure it takes place in that land of prehistoric adventure(Mexico)(?) But let us not get too carried away here. First of all - for much of the film - absolutely nothing happens except for a rather lame fight between Guy Madison as an American rancher versus the wealthy Mexican rancher who loves pretty(and perky) Patricia Medina. I mean nothing happens. We do not even get a real hint of the dinosaur until forty-five minutes into the film when Pancho gets a formal dinner invitation. Do we see the dinosaur then? Oh no. It does not appear for another ten minutes and its screen time is definitely limited. The dinosaur is done with that lost art - stop motion animation. It is done okay for its time. in fact the denouement of the film was pretty cool with the quicksand and guy Madison on a rope. I also liked the scene with the dinosaur skidding down a cliff and trying to get Panchito and Medina in a cabin. If more had been done with this, the film would have been markedly improved. Notwithstanding all of that, the film was fairly entertaining despite its legion of flaws. The acting is over-the-top from Madison giving his best good-guy cowboy impression(whilst secretly lusting after another man's woman" to Pascaul Garcia Pena doing one of the drunkest buffoonish characters on screen. Medina is over-the-top too - but boy what a top to see! Her bulletted blouse nearly explodes! The Beast of Hollow Mountain is interesting for nothing else than seeing some early stop motion animation techniques used. the film could have used the dreadful "let's dress up a lizard" technique but chose not to. I see many comparing this to Harryhausen's Gwangi - truly. I see little similarities. That is a very good film. This one, is at best, okay.