Watch The Beast of Hollow Mountain For Free

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Jimmy Ryan (Guy Madison) is an American cowboy working in Mexico and is upset about missing cattle. To be exact, cattle and farmers are mysteriously disappearing in southern Mexico near the location of Hollow Mountain. It is said to never have been explored and the swamp at its base is said to claim the lives of anyone brave enough to snoop around its banks. Ryan and a couple of cowboys will search for missing cattle and discover strange tracks. A giant prehistoric dinosaur appears and is obviously the attacker of farms, ranches and villages.Directed by Edward Nassour and Ismael Rodriquez with special effects by innovator Willis O'Brien's stop motion techniques animating the dinosaur. It is said that this film is one of the first and few American/Mexican co-productions.Other players: Carlos Rivas, Mario Navarro, Patricia Medina, Julio Villarreal, Eduardo Noriega and Pascaul Garcia Pena.

An American cowboy living in Mexico (Guy Madison) discovers his cattle is being eaten by a giant prehistoric dinosaur.What is most strange about this film is that the dinosaur aspect -- which is played up with the poster, title and such -- really is not all that important. The bulk of the film is not about missing cattle but Jimmy's relationship with a woman who is engaged to another man.The story could be good enough just like that -- a love triangle, with some multicultural stress thrown in. Jimmy is apparently the only American in the film, making him something of a stranger -- he is encroaching on Mexican soil and trying to "steal" a Mexican woman. Much could be said about American opinion of Mexican immigration and how it is reversed here, but I will not go there.The film ultimately comes up mediocre because it does not blend its fantasy and western aspects as smoothly as it could. Fantasy fans will be bored for much of the film. Western fans may enjoy it a bit more, seeing as it never strays from the genre until much later on.

When their cattle herds start disappearing, rival ranches declare the other responsible and begin feuding with each other, unaware the true culprit is a reawakened dinosaur that lives in a cursed swamp nearby and forces them to work together to ward it off.This was a troubling affair as it did have some enjoyable moments spread throughout but really gets caught up in it's own problems. One of the major ones here is the Western influence on the storyline taking such center-stage that it doesn't allow the horror to sift through, making it into a monster movie out of nowhere with no real explanation for anything and really downplaying it overall as well. 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 minuets. 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 it's 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. While it does have some rather fun moments once the dinosaur's actually out and about which makes for a whirlwind finale, it's a little too late to save this one.Today's Rating-PG: Violence and children-in-jeopardy.

This Mexican-American low-budget effort starring Guy Madison and Patricia Medina is a precursor to the much more rewarding THE VALLEY OF GWANGI (1969) in its prehistoric-monster-in-a-Western-setting scenario. That said, the 'stop-motion' mayhem (courtesy of KING KONG [1933]'s Willis O'Brien) is relegated to the last 20 minutes of this 80-minute movie and can hardly count among the animation technique's better examples; in fact, the rest of the film is dedicated to more traditional 'horse opera' elements – including business/romantic rivalry and, worse, child interest/comic relief. For the record, as part of this ongoing annual Halloween marathon, I will also be watching another anachronistic mix of horror and the Western genre of similar vintage that, in hindsight, would also prove to be much more enjoyable than this one here, namely Edward Dein's CURSE OF THE UNDEAD (1959) with Australian actor Michael Pate as a vampiric cowboy but, of course, bearing an age-old noble lineage!