Mighty Joe Young (1949)

Just perfect...

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Mighty Joe Young is a safer, more family friendly version of King Kong (which is a masterpiece and one of the best action/adventure movies of all time).Mr. Joe Young is a more likeable and heroic character than the original King Kong. Yes, we feel sorry when Kong is shot to death at the end, but we never doubt that it was the right thing to do. He's a dangerous animal. It's just like the real-life killing of the gorilla Harambe. From beginning to end, King Kong is killing people left and right. Joe Young on the other hand is a more gentle gorilla. The special effects are so good you almost forget it's a stop motion puppet, it's like you're watching a real gorilla get abused. It could make a grown man cry.King Kong is a violent movie. Full of people getting killed scary dinosaurs. Kong stomps people to death. The only violence in Mighty Joe Young is against stop motion lions, and it's all pretty mild.While there's no nudity or sex scenes in King Kong, the scene where King Kong tears off pieces of Fay Wray's dress is a bit uncomfortable. You can oftentimes smell the unmistakeable pervy pre-code stench. Mighty Joe Young has none of that.It's like Mighty Joe Young was Merian C. Cooper "anti-King Kong" movie:1. We have to wait a long time before Kong appears. Joe Young is there right at the beginning.2. King Kong is a stereotypical, wild and horny gorilla who kidnaps women. Joe Young is the female characters pet.3. The male lead in King Kong is a chauvinistic "girls drool" character. The one in Mighty Joe Young is polite and chivalrous.4. King Kong is put in chains. Joe Young performs without chains.5. King Kong kidnaps a human and climbs up a building with her. Joe Young climbs up a building to save a human.6. King Kong dies. Joe Young lives.And while it's a lighter movie than King Kong, the big action scene at the Children's Home at the end of the movie is breath-taking, and feels more real than anything I've seen in a modern CGI movie. The only negative thing about this movie is that the girl says "Joe" a lot. It's a bit like the movie "Shane", where the main character's name is mentioned almost every minute.Mighty Joe Young isn't as good as King Kong from 1933, but it's a better choice if your kids want to watch a movie about giant primates.

No need to recap the plot. The movie's action galore. When I was a kid we all wanted to see it once the lavish promos started. But I guess I didn't have the money. Anyway, t finally caught up with the flick the other day. Okay, my viewing now wasn't with a 9-year old's eyes, but for this geezer it was still a lot of fun. Note (unless I missed something) that no one dies despite all the havoc in the nightclub. That's important because it allows Joe to go home without some kind of moral retribution, unlike Kong, for instance. (I suspect the Production Code applied to human-like simians as well as the standard human being.)Anyhow, apart from the matte backgrounds the special effects are great, even if Joe's size does vary as IMDb points out. Narrative and acting don't count for much here since they're not the draw. Plus the comedic efforts are feeble, to say the least. Nonetheless, the action sequences are riveting, while Joe-- or should I say Harryhausen-- manages a degree of human-like pathos. All in all, I'm glad I finally caught up with the flick even if many years later. And speaking of catching things, it was about 1949 when cutie Miss Moore caught bigger game than a thousand pound gorilla. That is, she managed to throw a matrimonial net over that elusive 10,000-pound bachelor, Howard Hughes. So move over Joe!

In Africa, the girl Jill Young trades a baby gorilla with two natives and raises the animal. Twelve years later, the talkative and persuasive promoter Max O'Hara (Robert Armstrong) organizes a safari to Africa with the Oklahoma cowboy Gregg (Ben Johnson) to bring attractions to his new night-club in Hollywood. They capture several lions and out of blue, they see a huge gorilla nearby their camping and they try to capture the animal. However, the teenager Jill Young (Terry Moore) stops the men that intended to kill her gorilla. Max seduces Jill with a fancy life in Hollywood and she signs a contract with him where the gorilla Joseph "Joe" Young would be the lead attraction. Soon she realizes that her dream is a nightmare to Joe and she asks Max to return to Africa. However he persuades her to stay a little longer in the show business. But when three alcoholic costumers give booze to Joe, the gorilla destroys the spot and is sentenced by the justice to be sacrificed. Will Jill, Gregg and Max succeed in saving Joe?"Mighty Joe Young" is a surprisingly excellent movie, with a story that entwines drama, romance and adventure and with awesome special effects for a 1949 movie. I bought this DVD a couple of years ago, but I was expecting a lame rip-off of King Kong based on the awful Brazilian title. However, the plot is engaging, with lots of emotions and many plot points and Joe's runaway is spectacular. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Monstro de um Mundo Perdido" ("Monster of a Lost World")

Anybody remember Million Dollar Movie, which ran in the 50's in NYC on WOR ch.9? That was the first time I saw "Mighty Joe Young", about as many times as they ran it, which was every night all week long. I was about 14 and I thought it was terrific.TCM ran it the other night and it was as good ever. It's just that I noticed the plot holes and contrivances now, as well as the artificial ending. I also noticed Ben Johnson's acting was more catatonic than I remember and a good character actor, Regis Toomey, deserved a bigger part. And I had forgotten about the red-tinted sequence toward the end of the film.But I let all that go. I was delighted to see it again, warts and all. Sometimes I wish I was 14 again - and I was, for about 90 minutes.