Mighty Joe Young (1949)

As I had stated yesterday, we were not done with our look at gigantic apes in movies. That's why today, I will be looking at the 1949 classic, “Mighty Joe Young.”

Merian Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack, who came together as producer and director to give everyone the masterpiece of “King Kong” in 1933, collaborated again with another fantastic movie in “Mighty Joe Young.” In this new movie, the producers are attempting to make the whole world love, or at the very least feel a deep sympathy for, their gigantic, robot-like gorilla.

The emphasis is on comedy and the huge Joe Young of Africa, to give the star of the film full credit, can be frighteningly funny and appealing at times, it's got to be admitted. However, Mighty Joe Young also as a streak of viciousness that is all around as awesomely horrifying as was the rage of King Kong. Let that statement stand as fair caution just in case young children may have close to nightmares.

We first see Joe as a baby when he is adopted as a pet by the young daughter (Lora Lee Michel) of a trader (Regis Toomey) in Africa, who feeds the gorilla through a baby bottle and rocks him to sleep in a cradle to the sounds of “Beautiful dreamer.” Twelve years later, the full-grown gorilla and his friend, Jill Young (Terry Moore), are brought to Hollywood by a night club promoter (Robert Armstrong and Ben Johnson) as the stars of an incredible jungle floor show.

The gorilla is a shocking attraction, holding Jill and a piano on a platform above his head, playing tug-of-war with a dozen strong athletes, including Primo Carnera and Man Mountain Dean, and basically putting on a good show until a trio of drunks (Paul Guilfoyle, Bess Flowers and Nestor Paiva) supply him with liquor and torment him into a scaring rage.

Poor Joe goes crazy, trashes the night club, lets a herd of lions out of a glass-enclosed exhibit behind the bar and is sentenced to be shot for his mistreatment for the laws. Jill, Max O'Hara (Armstrong), the night club owner, and a cowboy who is in love with Jill (Johnson), cook up an elaborate plan to get Joe safely on a boat to Africa. Their wild escape in a movie van stops as they reach an orphanage on fire where Joe, in a brilliant, favorite effort, helps rescue a trapped child.

T.M.P. posted in their review, “It is this spectator's opinion that "Mighty Joe Young" is not nearly as consistently funny as the producers hoped it would be, but it certainly is a most unusual show. For sheer, incredible make-believe there is nothing to quite equal the comic scramble of a group of O'Hara's cowboys attempting to capture the jungle giant by lassoing him. On the other hand, the rampage in the night club is violent action, unrelieved by any genuine comic inventiveness, which is what this part of the picture desperately needs.”

The magic of “Mighty Joe Young” is the quality of the mechanical ape, but even that originality wears thin after a while. The human actors are, considering the circumstances, quite good. Terry Moore is the girl, Robert Armstrong the nightclub owner and Ben Johnson, the cowboy. Johnson is an attractive newcomer with a heavy Oklahoma accent.

This is a completely amazing movie that I highly recommend everyone to check out, if you loved “King Kong.” It may not be as good, but it is definitely a movie that everyone should watch.

If you could believe, but I'm pretty sure everyone knows this, but Walt Disney actually remade this movie in the late 90s. I first heard about it when I saw the ad in the beginning of my “Lion King 2” VHS. How is it? Stay tuned tomorrow to find out in “Halloween Month.”