Review – Mighty Joe Young (1949)

I can practically hear the conversation between Robert Armstrong and his agent: “Ah jeez, Sid. Not another giant monkey movie!” “C’mon, Bob. It’s not like anyone’s exactly beating down your door with romantic lead roles at this point in your career. Take what you can get.” And so here he is, once again the sensationalist showman (though this time a nightclub owner rather than a movie producer) who finds an oversized simian in the wilds (Africa rather than an island) and figures that hauling the critter back to civilization (Los Angeles rather than New York) is his ticket to fame and fortune. And the pretty ingénue. And the lunk-headed and largely ineffectual hero. The key difference this time around is that the monster is actually the ingénue’s gentle pet, done in by culture shock more than bestial lust and rage. It’s almost like Kong remade by Disney (and of course decades later the Holy Rodent Empire actually took on the task by remaking this picture). Mildly amusing