Director: Edward Nassour, Ismael Rodriguez
Year: 1956
Country: Mexico/USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Dinosaurs
Plot:
When their cattle herds start disappearing, rival ranches declare the other responsible and begin feuding with each other, unaware that the true culprit is a reawakened dinosaur that lives in a cursed swamp nearby, going on a rampage and forcing them to work together to ward it off.
Review:
This was a troubling affair that did have some likable factors. Most of these are focused on the whirlwind final half, as it does have some rather fun moments once the dinosaur is actually out and about. The build-up to its appearance isn’t half bad with it sneaking around the outskirts of the story as the culprit for the cattle disappearances that the different ranches are feuding with themselves over, and with the local legend about the creatures’ home in a quicksand-infested swamp that no one returns from as a great cover story for the beast being undiscovered for so long, making it come together rather nicely. By the time it finally gets involved, striking the ranchers taking the cattle through the valley and sending them stampeding into the villa, there are some fun moments to be had here involving this all coming to set up the big ending as it chases them around the valley. As well, the shoddy nature of the stop-motion animation used to bring it to life is ridiculously cheap and cheesy and doesn't for a second convince otherwise of its realism when the genre really should've done better by that time, and the laughable inclusion of many factual and physiological errors about the creature is another fun point of ridicule, giving it some likable factors.
While these make for a fun time here, there are some big problems. Those are based on the tempo of everything, as it did have some enjoyable moments spread throughout, but it really gets caught up in its own issues in terms of how the story comes together. One of the major ones here is the Western/Romance influence on the storyline, taking such centerstage that it doesn't allow the horror to sift through, making it into a monster movie out of nowhere. While the two sides warring over the cattle herds as well as the woman make for some fine moments at times, especially once the jealousy kicks in and they start actively fighting each other, the fact that this constitutes the majority of the film's opening hour makes it quite obvious there's no real intent to wage on anything else in here and renders the dinosaur's first appearance in the hour's closing minutes with no real explanation for anything and really downplaying it overall. This all takes the energy out of the film during the first hour of this one, and while it does have some fun at the end, it's a little too late to save this one.
Overview: **.5/5
A troublesome dinosaur movie with a dinosaur shoehorned into a Western/Romance, this is a pretty straightforward effort that might have a simplistic route to take overall. Give this a shot if you’re a fan of this kind of B-movie from the era or are the most ardent fan of cheesy dinosaur cinema, while most others out there should heed extreme caution here.
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