>"OYYSH!"<

[klondike]

Isn't that (approximately) how Mifune's samurai characters used to express their reaction to a disappointing or upsetting developement?
Anyway, if you've ever immersed yourself in the matinee magic of Jason & the Argonauts, or Mighty Joe Young, or Golden Voyage of Sinbad and remarked to yourself that Ray Harryhausen could do no wrong, well, chances are good you've never seen:
The Beast of Hollow Mountain
This evening, as Mrs. Klondike is away on the town karaokeing her passionate heart out, I'd thought I'd grab an early supper with an old friend I hadn't seen (literally) since I was 6 years old, namely that above mentioned epic of jujube schlock.
Oyysh!
Now mind you, I am NOT saying he shouldn't have, or that this was necessarliy a mistake, or that it's not worth looking at, but if FX budget-acquisition was indeed the greatest on-going challenge of Ray's career, this was very likely the place where he really should have drawn the line, stuck to his guns and made some demands, 'cause that Allosaur . .
Oyysh!
But, ya know, back when I was 6, wide-eyed in that vast, soft darkness, munching my caramel pom-poms, all that didn't seem to bother me at all.
(sigh)

[MikeBSG]

Did Harryhausen work on that film, or was that Willis O'Brien's last film?

Harryhausen's cowboy vs. dinosaur film was "Valley of Gwangi," which had some good stuff but didn't hold together too well.

"Beast from Hollow Mountain" was the first time I watched "Mad Theater with Super Host" way back when.

[klondike]

Wow, Mike, thanks for the help in getting this all clarified.
Long answer short: weren't neither of 'em!
See, my putting the "blame" on RH, was based on what I felt was a pretty safe chain of assumptions, namely that the screenplay was adapted from an Willis O'Brien story, and that O'Brien had pushed most of the Joe Young stop-motion work off onto his best-ever protege, the young Mr. Harryhausen, back in '49, and as Ray was rapidly becoming known as the king of Dynamation by the mid-50's, and as his mentor O'Brien had nearly another quarter-century under his belt since he blew the world's mind with King Kong, with his hands-on input dwindling rapidly with age . . . blah-blah-blah, yada-yadda . . .
So I did me some detective work, and discovered that Harryhausen evidently had NO involvement on BoHM . . so who did?
Well, after wending my way through a topiary maze of "O'Brien really should have . ." and "O'Brien was originally slated to . ." and "O'Brien never actually did . .", I managed to dig up these technical credits, as quoted on IMDb:

Special Effects by
Louis DeWitt .... special effects
Jack Rabin .... special effects
Henry Sharp .... special effects
Edward Nassour .... stop-motion animation (uncredited)

Small wonder r.e. "(uncredited)"; Ed and his brother were all over the various production/producer credits anyway, and man, if he hung around to eyeball the post-edit, pre-release footage . . well, I sure wouldn't have wanted my signature on that "work"!
So, Mike, old chum, what say we ring Mrs. Hudson for a spot o' tea & brandy, as I do believe this case is solved!