Mighty Joe Young (1949)

1949 • 93 minutes

About this movie

Striking! Startling! Staggering! On an expedition to Africa, show business promoter Max O'Hara meets Jill Young, who has raised her pet gorilla, Joe, since she was a child. The Hollywood showman convinces Jill to bring Joe to America--a decision both Jill and Joe soon regret. In Hollywood, Joe stars in a breathtaking stage production--lifting Jill and her grand piano over his head as she play. But when not on stage, Joe is confined to a cage. One night, enraged over mistreatment, Joe escapes, for which the police condemn him to death. Jill helps Joe to elude the authorities and to make a run for the harbor and a boat back to Africa. On the way, though, Joe rescues an orphan from a burning building, proving that the Mighty Joe has a heart of gold. Academy Award for Best Special Effects.

Ratings and reviews

It's good entertainment. It's nowhere near as layered, rich, or allegorical as King Kong though. King Kong creator Merian C. Cooper conceived the idea for Mighty Joe Young in response to the way audiences came to sympathize & identify with King Kong over the course of watching it. Cooper was surprised when the audiences watching Kong cried at the end and hated the Air Force pilots for killing Kong. He wanted to do a similar story one day where the gorilla lives happily ever after at the end. And teaming once again with the founding father of Hollywood visual effects, Willis O'Brien, is never a bad idea. So this is a pretty good film altogether.

Mighty Joe Young is a beautiful classic to really take in. To explain it in one word- wow.

Classic old school for the time period,raised on it