Having previously only done clay-animated shorts depicting dinosaurs, Willis H. O'Brien would by this period in his life attempt something more ambitious of which this film is the result. It begins in live-action as a man-played by this film's producer Herbert M. Dawley-starts telling his two pre-teen male nephews a story as it segues to him and a fellow traveler on a canoe with a dog setting up camp. His friend tells of an old hermit named Mad Dick (O'Brien) who has a telescope that allows him to see prehistoric creatures. So those creatures come to life on screen as we see some dino fights. I'll stop there and just say Willis improves himself here as he attempted more realistic renderings of the dinosaurs instead of the cartoony ones previously. While this film was a mix of live-action and clay animation, they're not done together in the same scene as the split-screen method hadn't been developed yet. Still, it does the job as well as one could expect at the time. Too bad that only an 18-minute version exists, instead of the 40-minute one that was originally released. What makes this a really important work for O'Brien was the fact that it led him to be hired to work on something even more ambitious: the original filmed version of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World...
10 Reviews
Worth seeing for early work stop-motion by Willis O'Brien and Herbert M. Dawley
jamesrupert201410 May 2019
Only portions of this film exist, but the version I watched opens with "Unk" (producer Herbert M. Dawley) telling a story about how he found an optical device that allowed him to see prehistoric animals. After witnessing a battle between a tyrannosaur and a triceratops, he is pursued by the victorious predator only to wake up. Even in this crude, early production, the animators manage to breathe life into their models. To some extent, the dinosaur work in this short film was a 'practice run' for O'Brien's first special-effects masterpiece 1925's "The Lost World" Unfortunately, Dawley and director O'Brien had a falling out and never worked together again although both would continue to animate dinosaurs (Dawley made "Along the Moonbeam Trail' (1920)).
Fun
Michael_Elliott11 March 2008
Ghost of Slumber Mountain, The (1918)
*** (out of 4)
A man travels to Slumber Mountain where he encounters a ghost who takes him to a part of the island where dinosaurs rule. This short film by Willis H. O'Brien starts off very slow but when the stop motion starts up things pick up some. The highlight includes a T-Rex eating another dinosaur and then another scene where the T-Rex is shot in the head. O'Brien also plays the ghost in the film. If you're a fan of The Lost World or King Kong then you should enjoy this film.
The movie is now available on a few public domain releases but the quality is pretty poor. Turner Classic Movies shows a restored print from time to time.
*** (out of 4)
A man travels to Slumber Mountain where he encounters a ghost who takes him to a part of the island where dinosaurs rule. This short film by Willis H. O'Brien starts off very slow but when the stop motion starts up things pick up some. The highlight includes a T-Rex eating another dinosaur and then another scene where the T-Rex is shot in the head. O'Brien also plays the ghost in the film. If you're a fan of The Lost World or King Kong then you should enjoy this film.
The movie is now available on a few public domain releases but the quality is pretty poor. Turner Classic Movies shows a restored print from time to time.
Consider this a dry run for parts of King Kong and it becomes worthwhile
llltdesq30 June 2003
This short hasn't aged well-and I don't simply mean film stock aging either. The plot, the script and the idea are now creaky. Given that Willis O'Brien was part of the technical crew on King Kong some 15 years later, the stop-motion work in the last fourth or so of the film is really training for what he did on that film. It has a certain historic significance, but little else. Not even as a charming, if dusty curio. For ardent film buffs only, with the above caveats.
Outstanding early special effects
dustygee12329 November 2010
This early film, in my humble opinion, is one of the greatest surviving gems of early film. The stop-action dinosaurs are as good, considering the technology available, as the great Harryhausen figures in the 60's and 70's.
I was a bit concerned when the film started that it would be really corny, and when the boys uncle tries to get his best friend to pose for a risqué portrait, I began wondering exactly what kind of film this would be. But my fears were unfounded, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The canoing scenes are reminiscent of a lot of early travel films, and the telling of scary stories around the campfire brings back fond memories of my own grandfather.
As a grandfather now myself, who loves to relate scary stories to my young grandchildren, I absolutely love the ending scenes, and the reaction that the boys have to hearing this story from their 'Unca' ... well worth the watch - still as enjoyable as it was almost a hundred years ago.
I was a bit concerned when the film started that it would be really corny, and when the boys uncle tries to get his best friend to pose for a risqué portrait, I began wondering exactly what kind of film this would be. But my fears were unfounded, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The canoing scenes are reminiscent of a lot of early travel films, and the telling of scary stories around the campfire brings back fond memories of my own grandfather.
As a grandfather now myself, who loves to relate scary stories to my young grandchildren, I absolutely love the ending scenes, and the reaction that the boys have to hearing this story from their 'Unca' ... well worth the watch - still as enjoyable as it was almost a hundred years ago.
Charming stop-motion animation fantasy outing
Woodyanders1 October 2014
Warning: Spoilers
A man (co-writer Herbert M. Dawley) ventures into the woods with his friend and a dog. The guy has a dream in which he encounters the ghost of an old hermit (director and legendary special effects artist Willis H. O'Brien) with a magic telescope that enables the guy to see dinosaurs back in prehistoric times. Told as a simple and straightforward little story by an uncle to his nephews sans any pretense, this picture manages to vividly capture a true sense of awe and wonder in an innocent and appealing way. Moreover, O'Brien not only makes good use of the sweeping valley location, but also maintains both a steady pace and a pleasant tone throughout. The stop-motion animation creatures all look pretty cool: A brontosaurus, a giant bird, a triceratops, and the ever-popular Tyrannosaurus Rex, which fights, kills, and eats the triceratops before chasing after our hero. In addition, O'Brien's special effects still hold up really well and are quite impressive for the period (O'Brien also deserves extra praise for his accurate rendering of the dinosaurs as large lumbering beasts). A fun vintage silent movie.
It's good.
afonsobritofalves5 June 2019
An underrated gem in stop-motion animation.
ultramatt2000-13 June 2018
Warning: Spoilers
The year was 1918, a century ago. This was the first movie to have scenes that combine live-action with stop-motion animation. The scenes were intercut because there was no split screen effects and no special projectors. We get to see a T-Rex for the first time, a Brontosaurus, a Triceratops, and for the first time, a Diatryma which is a prehistoric flightless bird. It is one of the those stories where a guy dreams he meets the ghost of Mad Dick (played by Willis O'Brien, who did the dinosaur effects for this film), who shows him a device that can see through time. When the Tyrannosaur sees him he chases him and it turns out to be a dream. Whoop-dee-freakin'-doo. End it by all means of Lewis Carroll. While the ending is meh, you got to admit that the only good parts here are the stop-motion dinosaurs by Willis O'Brien. To know more about the classic, I suggest you read the book, "Silent Roar."
Not rated but it contains some blood.
Meta Monsters
Cineanalyst20 April 2021
This film by stop-motion animation pioneer Willis O'Brien, the same guy behind the effects of "King Kong" (1933), "The Ghost of Slumber Mountain," reportedly, was originally a three-reel feature, but was subsequently cut to a reel by the producer and with only about half the original picture surviving today. What remains isn't only interesting technically for the stop-motion animation of dinosaurs, but also for the separate live-action bits, which anticipate the structure of "King Kong" in another way with a reflexive narrative that incorporates within the film a surrogate for the filmmaker outside it. The dinosaur stuff is framed as seen through some kind of telescope or visual medium--like a camera. This is further framed by a painting within a dream, which in turn is a story told by the protagonist to children, who've interrupted him from his work of writing--perhaps doubly authoring the very story that is the film. Quite elaborate for under twenty minutes from 1918 and for a film that was already meticulously piece of construction in its modeling and stop-motion animation. It makes me wonder, along with similarities in "The Lost World" (1925), if O'Brien didn't have more to do with the shaping of "King Kong" beyond action scenes such as a giant gorilla fighting a T-Rex--not that that's not incredibly impressive on its own.
Also, I joked about the double entendres of his prior "The Dinosaur and the Missing Link" (1915), but now I'm even more suspicious that O'Brien is pulling our legs here with such title cards full of homoerotic suggestions as, "I tried to persuade Joe to remove his clothes and pose as a faun," and all the talk about the hermit "Mad Dick" and his having "gazed through a queer looking instrument." Come to think of it, it seems on odd choice to pick as your story to tell being that male camping trip where you dreamed about giant lizards.
Also, I joked about the double entendres of his prior "The Dinosaur and the Missing Link" (1915), but now I'm even more suspicious that O'Brien is pulling our legs here with such title cards full of homoerotic suggestions as, "I tried to persuade Joe to remove his clothes and pose as a faun," and all the talk about the hermit "Mad Dick" and his having "gazed through a queer looking instrument." Come to think of it, it seems on odd choice to pick as your story to tell being that male camping trip where you dreamed about giant lizards.
First Movie To Contain Live Action With Stop Motion Effects
springfieldrental12 September 2021
We take for granted the technology today that allows us to watch movies of humans interacting with dinosaurs, a la "Jurassic Park." But these works of cinema wouldn't be possible without the team of Willis O'Brien and Herbert Dawley introducing the very first movie that merged live action with stop-motion effects to create, back in its day, breathtaking, chilling sequences of dinosaurs and homo sapiens on the same screen. November 1918's "The Ghost of Slumber Mountain" gave viewers a sense of how earth's giant creatures millions of years ago looked liked, acted and the manner they fought one another.
The film's two creators appear in the movie that has Dawley and another companion stumbling upon Mad Dick, the hermit, played by O'Brien. Mad Dick tells Dawley to take his strange-looking telescope, climb the mountain, and use it to see some amazing sites in the valley. He does, and he spots some dinosaurs as well as other creatures from the way distant past. This makes "The Ghost of Slumber Mountain" the first movie to show time travel.
The film became a box office hit, collecting over $100,000 on a $3,000 investment. But the two creators didn't get along soon after its completion. Dawley, a former car designer for Pierce-Arrow automobiles, was the producer of "The Ghost of Slumber Mountain." He had approached O'Brien, the genius behind 1915's "The Dinosaur and the Missing Link" and who had just got laid off from Edison Company after making several Conquest Pictures geared towards little kids. O'Brien wrote the script and directed the stop-motion effects for the 40-minute movie, while Dawley designed and sculptured the creatures.
After some complaints from a theater owner, the producer cut the movie in half. Conflicting accounts of who burnt whom first, but when wealthy movie executive, Watterson Rothacker, owner to the rights to Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 dinosaur novel, "The Lost World," hired O'Brien to oversee the project, the lawsuits from Dawley started flying. "The Lost World" was tied up in the courts for years until the case was settled out of courts, allowing an even greater technological marvel than "The Ghost at Slumber Mountain" to be shown by O'Brien and Rothacker.
The film's two creators appear in the movie that has Dawley and another companion stumbling upon Mad Dick, the hermit, played by O'Brien. Mad Dick tells Dawley to take his strange-looking telescope, climb the mountain, and use it to see some amazing sites in the valley. He does, and he spots some dinosaurs as well as other creatures from the way distant past. This makes "The Ghost of Slumber Mountain" the first movie to show time travel.
The film became a box office hit, collecting over $100,000 on a $3,000 investment. But the two creators didn't get along soon after its completion. Dawley, a former car designer for Pierce-Arrow automobiles, was the producer of "The Ghost of Slumber Mountain." He had approached O'Brien, the genius behind 1915's "The Dinosaur and the Missing Link" and who had just got laid off from Edison Company after making several Conquest Pictures geared towards little kids. O'Brien wrote the script and directed the stop-motion effects for the 40-minute movie, while Dawley designed and sculptured the creatures.
After some complaints from a theater owner, the producer cut the movie in half. Conflicting accounts of who burnt whom first, but when wealthy movie executive, Watterson Rothacker, owner to the rights to Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 dinosaur novel, "The Lost World," hired O'Brien to oversee the project, the lawsuits from Dawley started flying. "The Lost World" was tied up in the courts for years until the case was settled out of courts, allowing an even greater technological marvel than "The Ghost at Slumber Mountain" to be shown by O'Brien and Rothacker.
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