MightyGorga

One of the very worst of the "troubled teenager" genre so popular in the late '50s/early '60s. Tony Travis as Eddie Crane is a dull hero who seems to be wandering aimlessly through life (and this movie), his girlfriend is about as interesting as dishwater, and his beatnik friends, especially Peter Breck as the horribly over-the-top Moon, give new meaning to the word "stereotype". However, I urge everyone to see the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of The Beatniks - it's hilarious.

In terms of story and acting, this movie is staunchly mediocre. The plot's essentially a King Kong remake. Gila Golan puts some fire into her role, but James Franciscus is bland throughout. The actress who portrays the fearsome gypsy Tia Zorina is probably the best of the cast, actually. By far the best aspect of this movie, unsurprisingly, is the stunning special effects work of Ray Harryhausen, particularly the Eohippus, the pterosaur, and the Gwangi-Elephant battle (which is, however, not quite as good as the similar Ymir-Elephant fight in Twenty Million Miles to Earth). Harryhausen's best stop-motion creations have a fierce realism which the slick computer-driven effects of today can't quite match, and this movie contains some of his finest work, in my opinion.