A helicopter carrying passengers lands in a lost world full of prehistoric animals and dangerous plant life. No, it's not The Lost World, it's The Land Unknown, which came out from Universal three years earlier and was similarly in CinemaScope [if black and white]. The Technicolor 20th Century-Fox production of Lost World, with bigger names in the cast and a ton of publicity, sort of eclipsed this earlier film, which is not bad at all. Commander Roberts (Jock Mahoney), reporter Maggie Hathaway (Shawn Smith), Lt. Carmen (William Reynolds) and machinist's mate Steve Miller (Phil Harvey) set out in their copter to explore the South Pole and wind up descending through mist into a lost world of monsters, discovering the sole human inhabitant is a crashed scientist, Dr. Hunter (Henry Brandon). There are lots of gigantic slithering lizards (which Hunter can control with a horn), some mechanical T-Rex's with slobbering jaws, and a creditable lake monster with big flippers and a long memory, not to mention a big rubbery plant that badly wants to wrap its tentacles around Maggie Hathaway. The optical work can be uneven, but there are many effective shots, as well as an exciting bit with Comdr. Roberts running from a voracious T-Rex. There are some impressive and elaborate sets and excellent art direction, and the film manages to work up some suspense [if the group doesn't get out of this valley in a certain number of days, their ship will leave without them]. Despite their phony appearance, the T-Rex's are better than the ones in Unknown Island and actually work well enough in context. Despite the absence of stop-motion effects, which would have greatly improved the picture, The Land Unknown is still quite entertaining, with the cast more than adequate for the proceedings. Vogel also directed The Mole People. Henry Brandon had a very long list of credits, probably his most famous role being nasty old Barnaby in the 1934 Laurel and Hardy masterpiece Babes in Toyland, in which he was made up to look older than he does in Land Unknown 23 years later! He also had the title role in the 1940 cliffhanger serial Drums of Fu Manchu. Phil Harvey appeared in a number of Universal horror/sci fi films of the period, including The Monolith Monsters. NOTE: This movie is now available in a remastered DVD which keeps the widescreen ratio intact and is complete, a far better way to see it than on TV with commercials, missing sequences, and no Cinemascope, which is how most people have seen it, unfortunately.
Verdict: For big lizard and lost world lovers. ***.
"Verdict: For big lizard and lost world lovers." Man, does that ever describe ME! When I was 8 years old my family lived in Abilene, Texas where there was a wonderful old movie theater called The Metro. It was basically a cast-off military-style quonset hut and played second and third-run films as Saturday and Sunday kiddie matinees--and mostly showed older science fiction and fantasy films, I assume because they were huge crowd-pleasers. It's where I saw nearly all the old Universal 1950s' sci-fi films, as well as countless other movies that I'd never have gotten a chance to see at that age, since TV hadn't yet discovered their pulling power. Anyway, my parents abruptly decided I was spending way too much time sitting in the dark watching monster movies and in order to slow me down, cut off my allowance and decreed that if I wanted to continue my habit, I'd have to earn the money myself. So I'll always remember THE LAND UNKNOWN as one I was so desperate to see (I'd watched the preview for it the week before) that I mowed lawns and did yard work so I could afford to go. Suffice to say, it didn't disappoint. I wasn't naive, I realized the Tyrannosaurus wasn't convincing and the Plesiosaurus (or Elasmosaurus, or whatever it was) was just a big prop, but what I loved about it was its convincing lost world setting. Wow, those weird, upside-down trees, the vast matte work and the hazy, foggy atmosphere was exactly what I was looking for (not to mention the photographically-enlarged lizards). In fact, I realize now that the special effects, aside from the two centerpiece dinos, were more or less a cut-above for movies of this kind. I was delighted when Universal released it on DVD--and in Cinemascope, no less! It's still one I like to slap on fairly often and just revel in the nostalgia and prehistoric ambience it evokes. This is another one that gets little respect from film critics--I was particularly disappointed in Bill Warren's review of it in KEEP WATCHING THE SKIES, as I thought he was unusually harsh. He wasn't inaccurate--but it was obvious he had no childhood attachment to it like he did for many others he was much less critical of (and IMO, didn't deserve it). Well, sorry for the lengthiness, but this one evokes many fond memories. It's another movie I completely enjoyed your positive (and frankly, unique) look at. Yet one more reason I'm so loving your perceptive reviews!
ReplyDelete--Mark
Mark, like other films I've reviewed, I didn't actually see this in the theater -- when I was a kid I was unaware of it for some reason -- but first watched it on the Late Show all chopped up, with sections missing, and no widescreen format. When I finally saw it the way it should be seen, it was like watching a whole new movie. Suddenly one could see the scope and detail of the huge prehistoric soundstage set and the large lake with its monster. I had never before seen the sequence with the huge (real) lizard coming after the group and responding to the horn, as it was usually cut to fit into the time period. I realized that it was a much better picture than I thought and that a lot of work had gone into it.
ReplyDeleteThree years later there was all sorts of hoopla for THE LOST WORLD, which they wisely released in technicolor (which they should have done with LAND UNKNOWN). But it isn't necessarily a better picture although the actors might have been better-known.
As for "big lizards and lost worlds," I still love 'em and always will!