Here's a strange hybrid of a fifties sci-fi movie with a story by old-timer Willis O'Brien who fashions a plot like something out of a Roy Rogers programmer. Only he throws a dinosaur into the mix! I actually wondered after the first half hour or so, as to the possibility that I had DVR'ed the wrong movie, since this didn't conform to any of the horror/sci-fi conventions. It totally plays as a straight-up Western for at least the first hour, except for maybe a few seconds of mysterious background music. Both an American director and a Mexican director worked on the movie, and share the directing credit, which I thought interesting and pretty unusual.
Set in Mexico and shot in glorious color, The Beast of Hollow Mountain looks fantastic, but fails to deliver much in the way of frights. The handsome hero Guy Madison only wants to run his ranch with his Mexican partner Carlos Rivas, but soon becomes entangled in a love triangle with a local woman and her powerful fiancée. And who knew that a tyrannosaurus rex lurked in the hills? And why did it wait till the last twenty minutes to make itself known? Stereotypical characters and some uninteresting dialog somewhat dampen the proceedings, but some nifty action sequences including a cattle stampede add enough excitement to make it enjoyable. And Patricia Medina as the local Mexican beauty seems a tad too mature to play such an innocent and virginal character. Today she'd be cast as the girl's mother, although she certainly is age-appropriate to be in a relationship with Madison.
The climax delivers some real fun, and the athletic Madison gets to show off some gymnastics in the final encounter with the title character. The FX are in line with O'Brien's work on King Kong and there's lots to recommend here, but the film doesn't quite rise to the level of a classic.
** out of *****
Set in Mexico and shot in glorious color, The Beast of Hollow Mountain looks fantastic, but fails to deliver much in the way of frights. The handsome hero Guy Madison only wants to run his ranch with his Mexican partner Carlos Rivas, but soon becomes entangled in a love triangle with a local woman and her powerful fiancée. And who knew that a tyrannosaurus rex lurked in the hills? And why did it wait till the last twenty minutes to make itself known? Stereotypical characters and some uninteresting dialog somewhat dampen the proceedings, but some nifty action sequences including a cattle stampede add enough excitement to make it enjoyable. And Patricia Medina as the local Mexican beauty seems a tad too mature to play such an innocent and virginal character. Today she'd be cast as the girl's mother, although she certainly is age-appropriate to be in a relationship with Madison.
The climax delivers some real fun, and the athletic Madison gets to show off some gymnastics in the final encounter with the title character. The FX are in line with O'Brien's work on King Kong and there's lots to recommend here, but the film doesn't quite rise to the level of a classic.
** out of *****