I remember first watching this on Christmas Day 1976 - and loving it then. So I thought I'd watch it again, if only to see the brilliant effects by Ray Harryhausen.
This dates from 1969 but seems older - 1950s-style. Hard to imagine it was only just over 20 years later that Jurassic Park set the standard for dino movies. This clearly influenced Spielberg - the T-Rex scenes in the church is basically where he got the end of Jurassic Park from (that ending is not in the book and nor is the T-rex car chase). But hey, you can't copyright an idea...
But any dinosaur movie is fine with me, and it's all great fun. I think smaller kids would love it and the old-style stop-motion animation - though their attention may drift now and then (because they're so used to CGI and constant stimulation).
This film is worth watching for the special effects of the time. There’s a reason why Ray Harryhausen is the king of stop motion. All his creatures move so smoothly and naturally some of them were very convincing: from the adorable Eohippus to the monstrous Gwangi itself. The plot is quite entertaining: a mixture of circus performers in Mexico discover a hidden valley full of dangerous prehistoric creatures. Having not seen King Kong, they try to bring some of the past back with them for their show and reap the deadly consequences. I think the film could have done better with its rather stereotypical characters. There’s a rather hammed-up love triangle the audience is forced to follow, but the spectacular action scenes more than make up for any dull romantic cliches. As a realisation of my dreams of combining westerns and dinosaurs, this is still a fun watch!