Mighty Joe Young

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"Mighty Joe Young" was the original name for the band Stone Temple Pilots.

The original Mighty Joe Young movie poster.

Mighty Joe Young is a RKO Radio Pictures film made in 1949 by the same design team responsible for King Kong. Written by Merian C. Cooper (who provided the story) and Ruth Rose (screenplay), and directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack, it tells the story of a young woman, 'Jill Young', played by Terry Moore, living on a wildlife preserve in Africa, who ends up bringing the title character — a giant ape (not as large as King Kong - perhaps 10-12 feet tall) — to New York, New York. The movie co-stars Ben Johnson, as 'Gregg', in his first major role. Willis O'Brien, who created the animation for King Kong, was also the supervising animator on this film, although by some accounts the majority of the effects were created by Ray Harryhausen. The animation is more sophisticated than Kong's and contains more subtle gestures and even some comedic elements, such as one chase scene where Joe is riding in the back of a speeding truck and he spits at his pursuers. Despite this increased technical sophistication, this film, like Kong, features some serious scale issues, with Joe noticeably changing size between many shots.

Joe is an instant hit in the Hollywood nightclub, The Golden Safari (on opening night he wins a tug-of-war with ten real-life strong men, including ex-boxer Primo Carnera, whom he throws into the audience), but the novelty wears off and he is tired and homesick after seventeen weeks of performing. An ill-conceived skit with Jill as an organ-grinder leaves Joe (and Jill) storming off-stage, and, to make matters worse, three drunks sneak backstage and ply Joe with liquor. He wrecks the place and a court orders him shot. Jill, Gregg, and O'Hara cook up a plan to get Joe out of the country--but on the way to a ship, they stop to rescue kids from a burning orphanage, and Joe redeems himself.

While Mighty Joe Young has its own following, it is generally not as highly regarded as Kong.

[edit] Trivia

Australian singer Pete Murray refers to the character in his single "So Beautiful": "Now you tell me why it's so, You're bigger than Mighty Joe, At least you think so."

A sequel called Joe Meets Tarzan was planned in 1950, where Mighty Joe Young would cross paths with Lex Barker's Tarzan. The sequel was never made due to the film's disappointing box office.

In the scene where a hobo tries to bum a ride in the moving van and sees Joe when he opens the back door, and is then taken to the local police station, he speaks frantically to the desk sergeant in Polish, which the sergeant happens to know because his father spoke it.