MIGHTY JOE YOUNG

Striking! Startling! Staggering!

poster
MIGHTY JOE YOUNG

An Akko Production
Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures Inc
1949, 94 minutes, Not Rated.
Black and White with color tinted sequence.
Also Known As: Mr. Joseph Young of Africa (1949)

CAST AND CREDITS

Cast: Terry Moore (Jill Young); Ben Johnson (Gregg); Robert Armstrong (Max O'Hara); Frank McHugh (Windy); Douglas Fowley (Jones); Denis Green (Crawford); Paul Guilfoyle (Smith); Nestor Paiva (Brown); Regis Toomey (John Young); Lora Lee Michel (Jill Young, as a Girl); James Flavin (Schultz); Iris Adrian (Woman); Ian Batchelor (Strongman); Primo Carnera (Strongman); Joyce Compton (Woman); Ellen Corby (Woman); Karl 'Killer' Davis (Strongman); William 'Wee Willie' Davis (Strongman); Mary Gordon (Old Woman); Selmer Jackson (Man); Henry Kulky (Strongman); Frank Leavitt (Strongman); Sammy Menacker (Strongman); Phil Olafsson (Strongman); Ivan Rasputin (Strongman); Addison Richards (Man); Sammy Stein (Strongman); and MR. JOSEPH YOUNG as HIMSELF

Producers: John Ford and Merian C. Cooper; Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack; Screenplay: Ruth Rose (from an original story by Merian C. Cooper); Technical Creator: Willis O'Brien; First Technician: Ray Harryhausen; Second Technician: Peter Peterson; Technical Staff: George Lofgren, Marcel Delgado, Fitch Fulton; Art Direction: James Basevi; Assistant Art Director: Howard Richmond; Director Of Photography: J. Roy Hunt; Photographic Effects: Harold Stine, Bert Willis; Optical Photography: Linwood Dunne; Film Editor: Ted Cheesman; Sound Editor: Walter Elliot; Musical Score: Roy Webb; Musical Director: C. Bakaleinikoff; Unit Production Manager: Lloyd Richards; Assistant Director: Samuel Ruman; Production Effects: Jack Lannon; Costumes: Adele Balkan; Set Dressing: George Altwils; Sound: John L. Cass, Clem Portman.

THE FILM

Ray Harryhausen's first on screen credit in a feature film is for this stunning adventure film. It tells the story of a young girl, Jill, and her pet gorilla Joe. Jill is lured by a New York City entrepreneur named Max O'Hara to go with him to Hollywood where about to open a nightclub and Joe will be the highlight of the show. With stars in her eyes she takes Joe from the jungles of Africa to the hectic life of the big city. She soon begins to fear that Joe is being affected by this since he no longer can roam free but now lives in a cage in the basement of the club and a cowboy/trainer, Gregg Johnson, who has fallen for Jill, agrees. As they both decide that Africa is the best place for Joe, three drunks sneak backstage at the club and get Joe intoxicated. Joe goes into a rage and destroys the nightclub sending it's patrons into a panic. The club is destroyed and Joe is declared dangerous. The city officials decide that Joe must be destroyed but Max, having a change of heart, decides to help Jill and Gregg free Joe and make their escape back to Africa. With the law hot on their trail. Gregg and Jill are forced to stop when they discover that an orphanage is ablaze and that children are trapped on the top floor. Together, the three of them risk their own lifes to save the children with Joe making the greatest sacrifice. Now deemed a hero they are free to return to their home as Max remarks "and they all lived happily ever after."

In spite of the similarities between this film and KING KONG, Mighty Joe Young is a fantasy film of it's own right. Ernest Schoedsack and Merian Cooper worked together on this picture as they had on KONG and Willis O'Brien was brought in to supervise the special effects for the film. There was a very long, two-year period of production for MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, during which time a young Ray Harryhausen got to see O'Bie at work through the pre-production period and design stages all the way through the animation photography. Ray and O'Bie worked together designing the first armature of JOE basing it on the actual skeleton of a real gorilla. Marcel Delgado was then brought in to build up the armature with foam rubber, dental dam and cotton. Finally George Lofgren, a taxidermist, fashioned the fur for JOE devising a new process to rubberize the fur thereby avoiding the problems they had experienced with KING KONG which cause Kong fur to continually move everytime an animator touched it.

During the animation process, O'Bie had become so involved in the production problems that Ray finished about 85 per cent of the animation. Though he had experience with his own 16mm work, this was all different as elements had to be combined and processed. Realizing that this was really Ray's first professional job at stop-motion animation in a feature film and then seeing the final product is absolutely amazing.

The special effects in this film are nothing short of spectacular. The film opens with a matte shot that includes animated birds but it isn't until Joe makes his first appearance in the Safari encampment that we get to really see some fantastic work. During this sequence Joe battles with a caged lion. When the cage is broken, the lion makes his escape, switching almost seamlessly from live-action to stop motion and then back to live-action. The same is true when the cowboys encounter Joe and try to capture him. Here the films picks up comedic elements but the animation of Joe never falters from showing the absolute power of the gorilla.

The nightclub sequences are also brilliantly executed as Joe is first revealed to the club's audience while balancing Jill on a platform while she is playing a piano. This scene sets up the next scene where Joe engages in a tug-o-war with 10 strongman. This scene is also played more for laughs but again, thanks to the skillful and realistic work of the model animation you never loose sight of the shear power that Joe is capable of. During the climax of the tug-o-war scene, Joe toys with Primo Carnera bobbing him up and down from a rope like a yoyo. Finally Joe pick Carnera up and Carnera begins taking swings at him. As Carnera begins to step behind Joe he turns into a stop-motion figure while his left leg is still exposed, showing the precision that the animation process had come to.

Ray really looked forward to working on the scene in which Joe becomes intoxicated stating that it "offered such wonderful possibilities for interesting patterns of movement." Ray has often commented that of the four Mighty Joe Young models, one gained a particular interest to him. For some reason this one model seemed to totally contain the essence of Joe. It was Ray's favorite model, and the one in which he created some of the most amazing animation with.

In the end there is nothing dissapointing about the exciting adventure drama, and while it lacks the grand scale of KING KONG it has it's own charm and grace about it with it's own fairy tale quality. From the film's framework which seems to open with "Once upon a time there was this little girl..." to the final frame as Max declares "And they all lived happily ever after." This truly is a fairy tale of fantastic proportions. Ray's next stop-motion work for a feature film would be THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS.

Merchandising


*Half Sheet*	*Poster*	*Spanish Lobby #1*	*Spanish Lobby #2*

**Picture Gallery**

**Original Willis O'Brien Sketches**