R.I.P. Ray Harryhausen

Ray Harryhausen, a special effects master whose sword-fighting skeletons, six-tentacled octopus, and other fantastical creations were loved by generations of movie fans, died last week on May 7. He was 92.

The great-grandson of African explorer David Livingstone, Harryhausen was born in Los Angeles on June 19, 1920. As a boy, he saw the 1925 silent fantasy “The Lost World,” Willis O’Brien’s stop-motion movie about dinosaurs in a South American jungle. His future was assured in 1933 when he saw “King Kong” at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

My favorite movie with visual effects by Harryhausen is The Valley of Gwangi (1969), starring our hometown boy, James Franciscus. It also boasts a musical score by the wonderful Jerome Moross. You gotta love a movie where “cowboys battle monsters in the lost world of Forbidden Valley” and the hero gets to say, “There’s a big lizard back there and he’s headed this way!” There is even a fight between a circus elephant and the TRex.

This movie is definitely worth a look-see. Here’s the trailer: