With a taste for running cattle, the slow moving T-Rex (a victim of poor slow motion animation) is more capable of causing a stampede which kills more people than the medium sized dinosaur does in this slow-moving Western sci-fi. In general, science fiction fans probably don't go to see as many westerns as Western fans would go to see science fiction films, and this mid-1950's combination of both genres is a silly entry in the monster movie craze of this period of time. The Mexican town is surrounded by Hollow Mountain, which as it sounds, has caves that the locals can't get to because it is surrounded by a deep swamp that when the water runs down releases this creature.
The main plot actually concerns American Guy Madison who is involved in a fight over land and has a romance with a wealthy Mexican lady who lives nearby. Best plot cakes about three-quarters of the film, and the monster doesn't make its appearance until the last 20 minutes. The special effects are poor and the creature's movements are shaky at best. This has the advantage of being in color, but that makes the weak affects all the more obvious. To make matters worse, the creatures noises actually sounds more like snoring than growling, and that adds to the silliness of the film. The ridiculously long tongue on the T-Rex istruly silly. It is very apparent that Steven Spielberg was not influenced by this when he began to create "Jurassic Park". "The Valley of Gwangi", released over a decade later, is a much better dino western.
The main plot actually concerns American Guy Madison who is involved in a fight over land and has a romance with a wealthy Mexican lady who lives nearby. Best plot cakes about three-quarters of the film, and the monster doesn't make its appearance until the last 20 minutes. The special effects are poor and the creature's movements are shaky at best. This has the advantage of being in color, but that makes the weak affects all the more obvious. To make matters worse, the creatures noises actually sounds more like snoring than growling, and that adds to the silliness of the film. The ridiculously long tongue on the T-Rex istruly silly. It is very apparent that Steven Spielberg was not influenced by this when he began to create "Jurassic Park". "The Valley of Gwangi", released over a decade later, is a much better dino western.