Harryhausen Monsters Movies

Mighty Joe Young

Time for some monkey business. Promoters find a giant gorilla that follows the commands of young woman and put them both in show business. The gorilla goes on a rampage one night and it takes an act of selfless heroism to make people realize who the real victim is. It's kind of like King Kong shrunk down, with more humor and heart.

It Came From Beneath The Sea

Giant, radioactive octopus attacks an atomic submarine and then moves on to destroy San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Special effects, in particular the stop-motion animated octopus, were created by Ray Harryhausen. The one major flaw? In most scenes, the beast only has five arms. Maybe he was using the other three to tread water.

Review: 3-B Theater

20 Million Miles to Earth

Venusian space critter named Ymir is the only one to return from a manned flight to Venus. Although his capsule is at first discovered by locals in a Sicilian fishing village, the American and Italian governments come looking for little Ymir, who eventually grows into a humongous Ymir, and the girl-grabbin', landscape-stompin' fun begins. Ymir was brought to life by Ray Harryhausen, and he steals the show completely.

7th Voyage of Sinbad, The

In the first of the Sinbad movies to feature Ray Harryhausen special effects, Sinbad (Mathews) toils to free a princess from a sorcerer’s curse. The sorcerer’s island features the usual menagerie of mythological monsters, including a Cyclops, a dragon, and a giant two-headed vulture. The 7th Voyage of Sinbad isn’t as much fun as The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973), but the effects are great.

Mysterious Island

Ray Harryhausen provided a number of giant monster to this adaptation of the Jules Verne's sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. A balloon carrying Civl War soldiers is caught in a huge storm and stranded on a remote island. The soldiers, along with a shipwrecked cutie, must survive a giant octopus, a giant bird, giant bees and a volcanic eruption. It's all in good fun.

Jason and the Argonauts

Ancient Greek hero Jason and his fellow sailors aboard the Argo encounter the 600-foot statue of Talos on the Island of Bronze. When the argonauts inadvertently steal some of the treasure Talos was created to guard, the statue comes to life and pursues our heroes. Another amazing movie created by Ray Harryhausen.

Valley of Gwangi, The

It took nearly thirty years for The Valley of Gwangi to be made, and it's probably a better film for the wait. Although Willis O'Brien (the special effects pioneer best known for the classic King Kong) had the idea for a movie featuring cowboys and dinosaurs way back in 1942, the film wasn't actually produced until 1969. By then, the color film technology and stop-motion animation techniques so desperately needed to bring this wild fantasy to life were more easily accessible, thanks to special effects maestro Ray Harryhausen.

The plot is pretty simple: cowboys discover the Valley where dinosaurs still live and bring back an Allosaurus to use as a circus attraction. This, as you might guess, turns out to be a Very Bad Idea. James Franciscus spends the rest of the movie trying to pick up the pieces. A few pieces of anatomical inaccuracy may make dino-purists cringe (are those bat wings on that pteranadon?), but for most folks it's just good dinosaur fun.