Mighty Joe Young (1949)

Argosy Picture/RKO Pictures

Director: Ernest B. Schoedsack

Starring: Terry Moore, Ben Johnson, Robert Armstrong

Honors:

Academy Award of Best Visual Effects

The filmmaking team that brought audiences the groundbreaking special effects feature King Kong reunited 16 years later to deliver another adventure fantasy this one also about a large gorilla brought to the states to entertain with negative results. Not only does this film bring the special effects up a decade and a half for what is essentially a very well made B-movie feature, but it also saw Willis O’Brien, its returning special effect supervisor bring into the project a young man who would later come to be known as the master the art of stop motion animation in Ray Harryhausen. Very much rehashing many aspects that made King Kong a fantastic piece of fantasy cinema, Mighty Joe Young would be a bit tardy in attempt to ride its coattails, but with time became a classic in the stop motion animation world, highlighted as the inaugural recipient of the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

Mighty Joe Young is a fantasy adventure about a large gorilla exploited by an American showman. Taking many key components from 1933’s King Kong, this film reimagines a similar tale of a rather large, roughly 10-12 foot tall gorilla discovered by showman Max O’Hara (Robert Armstrong) while on expedition capturing African lions for his new premier jungle themed Hollywood nightclub with the help from former rancher hand roping expert Gregg (Ben Johnson). The gorilla is Joe Young, the pet and dear friend Jill (Terry Moore) who raised him from infancy into a gentle giant. Max coaxes Jill to transport Joe back to Hollywood as the nightclub’s prime attraction where Joe Young becomes a massive spectacle until rowdy onlookers instigate trouble and destructive behavior from the large creature. While Jill implores returning home to Africa with Joe authorities demand the execution of the beast for his misunderstood destructive actions. Jill and Gregg, now romantically entangled, attempt to transport Joe to a nearby harbor where he and Jill can set sail for Africa while a sympathetic Max attempts to misdirect the police. Along the way Jill and Gregg spot an orphanage engulfed in flames stopping to help and Joe aides in saving all its inhabitants, earning himself the respect to return home. To close Max receives greetings in the form of home movies from a now married Jill and Gregg back on her African ranch with a very happy Joe Young at their side.

With improve execution of stop motion animation Mighty Joe Young is a much cleaner picture in reference to a special effects feature. For its day the realism of a bringing to life this large gorilla and having it interact with the human characters and the surrounding environment was top notch. However, the picture lacks the appeal and awe inspiring nature of 1933’s classic King Kong. With the many connections between the two features including the creative staff and similar story points one cannot disassociate the two, giving this film its predominate flaw. Alone Mighty Joe Young is very finely made picture when focused on the special effects of bring Joe Young to life. Like King Kong the script is lacking originality, contains very weak dialogue, and flat performances making it painfully obvious how the feature is squarely focused on hitting points that lead to its featured attraction of the animated gorilla.

Producer of King Kong, Marian C. Cooper, reunites the artistic visionaries of the fantastic picture in director Ernest B. Schoedsack and stop motion animator Willis O’Brien with the hope to recapturing lighting in a bottle. Concocting a story that once again fetches a large gorilla, albeit a much more believable 10-12 foot gorilla than that of a 30 foot monster, to the states by a showman for exploitation, this picture makes the creature much more relatable for the misunderstood creature. Like King Kong or even Frankenstein’s monster, Joe Young is the misunderstood beast provoked in an environment alien to him.

With the help of a much more intricate puppet complete with more armatures and the evolution of stop motion knowledge and filmmaking over the last 16 years the character of Joe Young benefits with the ability to be far more expressive as a puppet. Willis O’Brien being the top of his field in stop motion animation was a rather busy artist and would actual do little in carrying out the animation in the feature, relegating most of the work to an assistant animator. Inspired by the original work on King Kong, this assistant, Ray Harryhausen, would find his way into the very specialized artistic field, and Mighty Joe Young his first major feature work. What we see of Joe Young’s movements, expressions, and interactions with human characters and the surround environment is the result of the care and execution of Harryhausen as he, although not given credit, actually carried out nearly all the stop motion work on the film.

The work so well done that the Motion Picture Academy would award Mighty Joe Young with its first prize for Best Visual Effects, a category that had practically no competition in this inaugural year. Despite being Harryhausen’s execution on screen, he would not receive the statue. In fact in this first year the award was given to the producer, Marian C. Cooper, who out of respect for his work on King Kong as well as supervisor on Mighty Joe Young gave it to Willis O’Brien. Of course, Ray Harryhausen was just beginning his career in the world of major stop motion animation, eventually becoming the top name associated with the special effect even years after the process became outdated as an effect.

The cast of the picture is really secondary to the picture as in all honesty it is difficult to become attached to these flat, dull performances. Robert Armstrong reemerges as in a very similar role he portrayed in King Kong and its sequel Son of Kong. Here he plays Max O’Hara, an over confident showman/adventurer who can tame both nature and the greatest audience’s attentions.  Armstrong had never been one of the industry’s best actors, but but always seemed to find himself work, and by this time I have to assume he was more a novelty of the picture than to be taken seriously with his B-movie performance.

Terry Moore was a former child actor formerly billed as Helen Koford coming into adulthood under her new stage name. Her performance comes off as a product of the lackluster construction of her character by way of the script with maybe a bit of her co-stars flat portrayals rubbing off on her.

Making his first true acting debut is Ben Johnson as Gregg, a modern day cowboy and love interest to Jill. Johnson, a former ranch hand turned stuntman, was given his first opportunity in a major role at the suggestion of friend and filmmaker John Ford, whose company produced the feature, out of appreciation for all the hard work he put in as a low paid stuntman in his various westerns up to this point. His performance emanates that of a first time speaking actor, a man unsure how to stand, deliver lines, and emote on screen when not in a saddle.  His future would remain in westerns, becoming a staple of the genre and even one day winning a Academy Award.

For director Ernest B. Schoedsack Mighty Joe Young was his first feature since before World War II and sadly his last as well.  After many fantasy pictures during his career Merian C. Cooper saw bringing back his King Kong director as a way to bring back the magic that capture audience’s attention 16 years before. Sadly Schoedsack had developed eye trouble by this time stemming from testing photography equipment during the war and because it would never director another feature.

Mighty Joe Young was less than mighty at the box office and with film critics. It turns out that audiences enjoyed King Kong in its many releases in the theaters, the most recent 1948, but did not want to see a rehashing. The special effects were better, but not in a noticeable fashion, and Mighty Joe Young delivered nothing new, novel, and exciting to earn itself any attention. The result was a loss in revenue. In time the stop motion of Mighty Joe Young would become its staple, making it a niche classic. 1998 saw a remake of the feature starring Charlize Theron and Bill Paxton, but overall Mighty Joe Young would become more of a reference than a heralded feature. The 1949 feature would prove to be not much more than a footnote in animation history for general audiences, but a heralded step in the minds of those that cherish the art form of stop motion, keeping its legacy alive through to today.