Mighty Joe Young

Jill Young grew up on her father's ranch in Africa. As a child she took in a baby gorilla and raised him. Joe is now enormous; he lives on the ranch and listens to nobody but Jill. A showman comes to the region; Max O'Hara is looking for a new act for Hollywood and sees Joe. He persuades Jill. The two are taken to America. Joe is put on stage at a nightclub; the same routine is performed every night and the audience gives him drink. One night there is an incident and it is decided that Joe will be destroyed. Ernest B. Schoedsack directs. Terry Moore, Ben Johnson and Robert Armstrong are in the cast. Willis O'Brien supervised the effects; the young Ray Harryhausen worked on the team and did most of the animation. The film won the Oscar for special effects. The same team had made a similar production years before, and this is counted a gentler reworking of it. The matter it treats is the use of animals for entertainment; the film criticises it directly. There is a fire in the last section; the animal saving children is its most cited passage. Its ending refuses the monster shape and does not punish the character. Its limit is structure; the first half is slow and the plot thin. Who it is for: viewers who like classic effects cinema and stop motion. Who it is not for: the pace is uneven, the story simple, and the depiction of Africa belongs to its period.