MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949) ** The giant gorilla is an early study in Ray Harryhausen (and Willis O'Brien); very smooth, incredibly expressive but often not entirely convincing. Oh, yeah, like I could do better, but that's not the point. A lot of the time it just looks like a fake gorilla, but sometimes you can actually see what's going on in its head, know what it's thinking. Is that scary? I hope so, because it's most of what the film gives you to think about. The acting isn't great, the plot isn't much until it gives up entirely about 2/3 way through...but some of the scenes are worthy legends of spectacle. So you don't have to have the sound on. It doesn't detract, but it just isn't necessary. Harryhausen's (and O'Brien's, who gave us the real King Kong ) monster is more than enough to get your attention, but whether it can maintain it for the length of the film depends on your cinematic orientation.
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