Mighty Joe Young
Tit. It.: “Il Re Dell’Africa”; Scen.: Ruth Rose, Da Una Storia Di Merian C. Cooper; F.: J. Roy Hunt; Op.: Emmett Bergholz (Non Accr.); M.: Ted Cheesman; Scgf.: James Basevi; Cost.: Adele Balkan; Trucco: Gordon Bau (Non Accr.), Harry Ray (Non Accr.); Mu.: Roy Webb, Diretta Da C. Bakaleinikoff; Su.: John L. Cass, Clem Portman; Effetti Speciali: Willis H. O’brien, Ray Har- Ryhausen; Ass.R.: Samuel Ruman; Int.: Terry Moore (Jill Young), Ben Johnson (Gregg Ford), Robert Armstrong (Max O’hara), Frank Mchugh (Windy), Douglas Fowley (Jones), Denis Green (Crawford), Paul Guilfoyle (Smith), Nestor Paiva (Brown), Regis Toomey (Mr. Young), Lora Lee Michel (Jill Bambina), James Flavin (Schultz) E (Non Accr.) Madame Sul-Te-Wan (Kifa), Cliff Clark (Mcmanus), Primo Carnera (Forzuto), Man Mountain Dean (Forzuto), Super Swedish Angel (Forzuto), Ivan Batchelor (Forzuto), Ivan Rasputin (Forzuto), Sammy Stein (Forzuto), Sammy Menacker (Forzuto), Wee Willie Davis (Forzuto), Henry Kulky (Forzuto), Karl Davis (Forzuto); Prod.: John Ford, Merian C. Cooper, Per Argosy/Rko; 16mm. D.: 89’. Bn.
Film Notes
Plot of the Merian C. Cooper original, scripted by Ruth Rose, deals with a gorilla, raised in the African jungle by a young girl. Both the girl and the giant ape are happy with their rusticating until a safari headed by Broadway producer Robert Armstrong arrives in the jungle. Armstrong is looking for decorations for a flashy night club he is building in Hollywood and immediately sees the possibilities of the ape and the girl. The presentation by John Ford and Cooper pulls all stops in slugging away at audience risibilities while pointing up the melodramatic phases. It’s this general air of tongue in cheek treatment that makes the corn palatable and will keep an audience grinning even at the most thrilling moments. Armstrong’s use of cowboys to lasso lions; the attempted lariating of Joe himself by the cowpokes: Joe’s drunken rampage in which the night club is wrecked and the patrons stampeded are good fun as directed by Ernest Schoedsack. He, as well as Cooper, were responsible for King Kong so this followup is a natural.
In “Variety”, 25.5.1949