THE LAST DINOSAUR

Steven Keats and Richard Boone

THE LAST DINOSAUR (1977). Directors: Alexander Grasshoff and Tsugunobu Kotani.

"A creature forty feet tall and weighing eight tons with the mind of a pea has just destroyed one of the greatest minds of the century."

 Masten Thrust Jr. (Richard Boone of I Bury the Living) is not only a famous hunter but one of the world's wealthiest men. He has developed a vehicle called the Polar Borer, that uses lasers to drill through the Polar Ice Cap, discovering a hidden world in a prehistoric valley below that is warmed by a volcano. Four men have already died at the teeth of a T-Rex, that appears to be the only one of its kind, although there are other dinosaurs in the valley. Returning to this land with the only survivor of the first expedition, Chuck (Steven Keats), Thrust also brings along Professor Kawamoto (Tetsu Nakamura of The Manster); an expert and silent seven foot tall tracker named Bunta (Luther Rackley); and a perky photographer named Francesca (Joan Van Ark). Although the original plan is only to study the tyrannosaurus, when it proves aggressive and even squashes the poor professor underfoot, Thrust determines to destroy the creature. But then the big beast snatches up the Polar Borer in its teeth and the whole group is stranded in the valley with time running out ...

The rubber T-Rex

The Last Dinosaur has a workable plot line, but it borrows very heavily from the film The Land Unknown, and the Polar Borer (which hardly looks large enough to hold so many people) reminds one of a similar machine in At the Earth's Core. Of course it's just another imitation of The Lost World minus diamonds and "fire gods." A bigger problem is the FX work, which features some crude but effective process shots and a rubber monster brought to life with "suitmation" -- a man in an dinosaur suit. The creature also lets out metallic wails that are borrowed from Godzilla. The shame is that the film does manage to work up some suspense -- as in Land Unknown there's a small window of opportunity to get out of the valley if they can survive the beast's attacks -- and this could have made a very exciting picture had Ray Harryhausen brought the creatures to life. A battle between the T-Rex and a triceratops does not compare favorably to a similar battle in Harryhausen's The Valley of Gwangi.

Bantu takes after T-Rex with a spear -- good luck with that!

The acting in the movie is professional, if uneven, with Richard Boone creating a colorful if contradictory character, and William Overgard's screenplay does do its best to bring some of the people in it to life. There's some decent art direction in the movie, but the score is pretty terrible. This was meant to be a theatrical film, but it was released to television in a somewhat edited version. The film makes much of the fact that the title refers to Boone as much as it does to the tyrannosaurus.

Verdict: Hardly the "last" dinosaur we've ever seen in film. **1/4. 

BRING ON THE DINOSAURS!

The Valley of Gwangi

BRING ON THE DINOSAURS!

This week we've got a round-up of movies featuring those delightfully dangerous dinosaurs, beginning with One Million B.C.; going on to Valley of the Dragons, which consisted primarily of stock footage from One Million B.C.; then examining that film's remake with Raquel Welch as a cave woman (!) and its sequel When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth; then an entire Planet of Dinosaurs; Ray Harryhausen's excellent Valley of Gwangi; and finally the much more recent Jurassic World.

And for those who like their dinosaurs in books as well as in the movies, check out the novelMonster World, as well as the non-fiction study Creature Features: Nature Turned Nasty in the Movies, which covers many of these flicks in more detail.

ONE MILLION B.C.

ONE MILLION B.C. (1940). Director: Hal Roach; Hal Roach, Jr.

A young couple take refuge in a cave, where they are told the ancient story of two lovers, Tumak (Victor Mature) and Loana (Carole Landis). The two come from different tribes -- the Rock people and the Shell people --  with Tumak's people being the more bestial of the two. Tumak is literally thrown out of their cavern by his own father, then makes his way alone until he encounters Loana. In addition to dealing with assorted human passions and jealousies, there are also a variety of carnivorous monsters to deal with. When an especially large and voracious dinosaur corners a group of Loana's people in their cavern, members of both tribes team up to banish the beast. One Million B.C. ignores the fact that human beings and dinosaurs did not ever co-exist, but tells a lively story anyhow, and there are plenty of monsters. The T-Rex -- actually someone wearing a T Rex outfit -- is laughable, but there are also the giant armadillo, a big gator in a fight with a huge lizard, and the humongous creature that shows up at the finale. The optical work is good for the most part, with an exciting earthquake (featuring a great shot showing a lava stream engulfing a woman as she tries to cross in front of it), and there's a very good score by Werner R. Heymann. The aforementioned lava stream shot, the battling giants, and the creature at the cave all turned up in numerous subsequent movies as stock footage. Mature [Kiss of Death] and Landis [Out of the Blue] give good performances, and Lon Chaney Jr. is effective as Akhoba. Remade by Ray Harryhausen in the seventies. Hal Roach also directed The Devil's Brother with Laurel and Hardy.

Verdict: Stone age lovers versus monsters! ***.

VALLEY OF THE DRAGONS

VALLEY OF THE DRAGONS (1961). Director: Edward Bernds.

In 1881 Algeria two men, Hector Servadac (Cesare Danova) and Michael Denning (Sean McClory) are about to fight a duel over a woman when the earth shakes in a great cataclysm that they manage to survive. After a time they realize that a comet grazed the earth, as it has time and again in the past, and taken a bit of the planet into space with it, along with a chunk from the prehistoric past. When Servadac and Denning realize what has happened to them, they don't seem all that upset, a problem with both the screenplay and the acting. Most of the movie consists of stock footage of One Million B.C. with Danova [Honeymoon with a Stranger] and Clory [Them] cleverly inserted  into the action. Again we have two warring tribes, two women (Joan Staley, Danielle De Metz), and the big lizard cornering some natives in a big cavern in a hill and gulping down and chewing one of the luckless warriors. Three clips from Rodan are also used to fill in for pterodactyls, as well as what appears to be a prop spider from Bernds' World Without End. Joan Staley is a Ruta Lee lookalike. The premise of the film is good, taken from Jules Verne's novel "Hector Servadac" aka "Career of a Comet," although that did not include prehistoric monsters.

Verdict: The producers wrote the book on "How to Make One Movie Out of Another." **.

ONE MILLION YEARS B.C.

Tumak (John Richardson) kills an allosaurus

ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. (1966). Director: Don Chaffey.

In this color remake of One Million B.C., which uses the same story more or less, Tumak (John Richardson) is thrown out of his prehistoric rock tribe and wanders around until he encounters Loana (Raquel Welch) and her tribe, the shell people. The shell people are a kinder, gentler tribe who could teach the rock people a thing or two, which they try to do with Tumak when they all go fishing with spears. The first "dinosaur" we encounter is a positively gargantuan real-life lizard who tries to make a snack out of Tumak, and then there's a giant stop-motion turtle that fails to impress. But FX wizard Ray Harryhausen really gets into his stuff with an attack on the shell people's camp by a hungry allosaurus, a marvelous sequence, as well as a battle between a T-rex (or ceratosaurus, which it resembles) and a triceratops, not to mention the pterodactyl that snatches Welch off of the beach and tries to feed her to the flying monster's young'uns. Despite the big improvement in special effects work since the 1940 version, this is not as compelling as the original, with Harryhausen's stop-motion effects work being virtually the only point of interest. Martine Beswick [From Russia with Love] has a lively "cat fight" with Welch. Mario Nascimbene's "epic" if sleepy score doesn't really do that much for the movie. Photographed by Wilkie Cooper. As the lovers, Richardson [She] and Welch [Fantastic Voyage] do what they can. A Hammer-7 Arts production.

NOTE: On the imdb.com page for this movie it is listed as a "goof" that a ceratosaurus fights a triceratops when these creatures lived in different eras of the prehistoric world. Considering this movie illogically puts human beings and dinosaurs in the same time period -- not to mention Raquel Welch as a cavewoman -- that hardly seems like a legitimate complaint!

Verdict: Some lively monsters in a disappointing remake. **1/2.

THE VALLEY OF GWANGI

Gwangi goes to church

THE VALLEY OF GWANGI (1969). Director: James O'Connolly.

T.J. (Gila Golan) runs a circus in turn of the century Mexico with her older friend, Champ (Richard Carlson). Back into their lives comes T.J.'s old boyfriend, Tuck (James Franciscus), who ran out on T.J. some time before. T.J. has a new act, a cute little horse (or prehistoric eohippus) who was found in the desert. But this attraction is nothing compared to the animals inside a hidden valley where the tiny horse came from. There are pterodactyls, a belligerent triceratops, and most of all, Gwangi, a fearsome combo of allosaurus and T Rex that chomps on one luckless fellow (Gustavo Rojo) and is ready for more before a rock slide helps Tuck and the others capture him. This is another in a long line of movies (stretching from before King Kong to Jurassic World and beyond) in which a dangerous creature is put on display and breaks out of confinement, causing havoc. The chief selling point of this is some absolutely amazing stop-motion effects work by Ray Harryhausen, clearly working on all cylinders. Gwangi is a wonderful creation, angry, confused, hungry, snapping and tearing at anything in its way. The sequence when the cowboys attempt to lasso the monster is superb, seamless -- I mean, who needs CSI? Another stunning sequence has the monster entering a huge Cathedral and stalking Tuck and the others while its heavy footsteps reverberate all through the building. There is the infrequent use of unconvincing props of assorted creatures, but generally the FX work is fluid and exacting. The story is based on a script put together by stop-motion specialist Willis O'Brien (King Kong), and it is serviceable. Carlson [Riders to the Stars] and Franciscus [Great White] are fine, as is Laurence Naismith as a paleontologist. Gila Golan appears to be dubbed, along with little Curtis Arden as the orphan boy, Lope. As for the film's romance between Tuck and T.J., one can only imagine the real melodrama will come afterward considering what happens to the circus.

The DVD for the movie has a featurette in which several CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) specialists are highly complimentary of Harryhausen's influential work on this film, of which they certainly should be.

Verdict: Lively Gwangi, and some superb stop-motion effects, make this a winner. ***1/2.

WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH

WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH (1970). Writer/director: Val Guest.

In another impossible world where humans and dinosaurs interact in the same time period, a pretty blond woman, Sanna (Victoria Vetri), finds she is to be sacrificed to the sun. Due to a fluke, she manages to escape, where she encounters handsome Tara (Robin Hawden), who belongs to another tribe. Trouble begins because Tara prefers Sanna to his chosen mate, and in due course he earns the enmity of most of his tribe. In the meantime Sanna runs off, takes shelter during a storm inside an eggshell, and finds herself befriended by a newly-hatched dinosaur even as it gets larger and larger. Reunited, Tara and Sanna wind up on the run from his tribe, until a cataclysm signals the creation of the moon.

Essentially a sequel or remake of Hammer's One Million Years, B.C., this is not really a better movie but it got more attention and better reviews,with some critics charmed by the business with Sanna and her pet dinosaur. When I first saw this in theaters on a double-bill with The Valley of Gwangi, I was confused, because it looked like a Ray Harryhausen movie but as soon as a triceratops thundered out of a cave, I could immediately see that the animation wasn't as good. That's because the animation wasn't done by Harryhausen but by Jim Danforth, who was certainly not untalented but never quite as good as the Master. While the animation of the aforementioned triceratops lacks that certain fluidity that marks the best of Harryhausen's work, there are still some very good sequences in this, including Sanna's "pet," who reminds one a bit of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, and some deadly scuttling crabs the size of large dogs who even seem to have a bit of nasty personality. There aren't enough monsters in the movie, so a couple of clips from the 1960 Lost World are thrown in for good measure. Vetri, Hawden and the others manage some very effective pantomiming, and there's some limited language among the cave people. Oddly these savages seem to care for one another at times. Mario Nascimbene's score is better than the one he did for One Million Years, B.C., although his overuse of a sound like sticks hitting one another is annoying.

Victoria Vetri had quite a few credits before this picture under the name "Angela Dorian," including Rosemary's Baby. She appeared in Playboy and sort of reinvented herself as Vetri, winning a lead role in Dinosaurs that did nothing for her career. She later shot her husband and is in jail for involuntary manslaughter until 2020. Robin Hawden was essentially a British TV actor who later turned playwright and novelist. In this picture he had a lean, attractive swimmer's built but might have had an entirely different career if he'd had a few muscles! Val Guest directed The Abominable Snowman and many other movies.

Verdict: You get a little bored waiting for the dinosaurs to show up, but there are some good FX. **1/2.

PLANET OF DINOSAURS

PLANET OF DINOSAURS (1977). Director: James K. Shea.

A spaceship has to make an emergency landing on a planet that is still in the prehistoric era, complete with lots of dinosaurs. (As usual in movies like this, the characters spend virtually no time talking about their loved ones back home that they might never see again.) A conflict breaks out because Captain Norsythe (Louie Lawless) is cautious and concerned with protecting his crews' lives when it comes to dinosaurs, while his chief opponent, Jim (James Whitworth) feels any risk is acceptable to become master of the monsters. (His attitude is actually more negative than the captain's, because he's assuming they will never be rescued.) As they bicker, they run into a brontosaurus, a big spider, and a battle between a stegosaurus and T Rex, then finally work together to kill an allosaurus (pictured) who keeps attacking their camp. The visual effects artists include Jim Danforth and Doug Beswick, and some of the stop-motion work isn't badly done. There is some attempt at characterization in the film, and some more-than-adequate actors, such as Lawless and Pamela Bottaro as Nyla. Harvey Baylor (Harvey Shain) is the obnoxious businessman who hired the space shuttle and is finally killed off in one of the movie's better moments. One crewman, Chuck, (Chuck Pennington) walks around shirtless throughout the entire movie as if he needed to show off his muscles. None of the people who are killed off ever seem to be mourned by anyone. Of the actors, Whitworth and handsome Max (Michael) Thayer as another crewman amassed the most credits.

Verdict: Not terrible space saga with some decent effects work. **1/2.

JURASSIC WORLD

The "Indominus Rex" faces down the cast

JURASSIC WORLD (2015). Director: Colin Trevorrow.

Jurassic Park has been rebuilt and sightseers flock to it in droves. Everything seems safe and secure. But an animal worker named Owen (Chris Pratt) is alarmed to learn that the new star attraction, a creature called "Indominus Rex," may be much more dangerous and intelligent than expected. Naturally, this creature breaks out of confinement, along with all manner of dinosaurs, and the body count begins. As usual, there are young kids involved in the action, the nephews of an administrator named Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard). When a nice assistant who tries to help the boys is tossed around for what seems like hours by hungry pterodactyls and a sea beast, which eventually devours her, it seems incredibly sadistic (and perhaps her boss would have made a better victim) -- worse, neither the kids nor anyone else ever express the slightest remorse about her death; but then the characterization in this is minimal, a problem the actors do little to resolve. The effects are excellent, the Indominus makes quite a villain, the movie is fast-paced and entertaining, but while the dinosaurs may be warm-blooded some of the humans behind it aren't. The third highest grossing movie ever! Chris Pratt is the once-chubby sitcom actor who reinvented himself as a lean, if thick-necked, "hunk." This is not as good as Jurassic Park III.

Verdict: Exciting if dumb creature feature. **1/2.

MONSTER WORLD

MONSTER WORLD. William Schoell.

Another shameless plug: After several years I have published another horror novel entitled MONSTER WORLD. Yes, it is about dinosaurs. Yes, it has been done before -- but not by me. In this the lovable beasties are brought from the prehistoric era to the present day via time machine. Unfortunately, there are problems, and the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs winds up in our era as well and is rapidly heading toward Earth. The scientists in their complex in the Yucatan desperately try to avert world-wide disaster even as they're dodging attacks from carnivorous animals with eggheads on the menu. Adding to their woes is the fact that some poor people wind up taking a one-way trip into the prehistoric past via miniature wormholes that appear suddenly and out of nowhere. Meanwhile, the hungry dinosaurs keep coming -- flying, swimming, tramping, and slithering their way across the Yucatan peninsula. [Maybe you should take your vacation there next year?] Not hard science fiction, this, but a fun horror/monster book. Available exclusively as an ebook for the ridiculously low price of $4.99. You can find it on Amazon.

Obviously I've always been fascinated by dinosaurs. These animals populated the earth for literally hundreds of millions of years, whereas the human race and their humanoid ancestors have been around for a mere blink of an eye in comparison. In a couple of weeks I'll be posting a round-up of interesting dinosaur flicks. There were many, many movies -- and books -- about prehistoric monsters on the loose long before "Jurassic Park."

JURASSIC PARK III

JURASSIC PARK III (2001). Director: Joe Johnston.

In this third installment of the Jurassic Park series -- the fourth, Jurassic World, is just about to open -- paleontologist Alan Grant (Sam Neill) is importuned to travel with his associate Billy (Alessandro Nivola) to an alternate dinosaur-riddled island due to the manipulations of an estranged couple, the Kirbys (William H. Macy and Tea Leoni). The Kirbys don't tell Grant that they are searching for their young son, who was lost on the island when he and his mother's boyfriend unaccountably went paragliding near the island. After their plane is destroyed by a dinosaur, Grant has to wonder if anyone can survive let alone if they can find the boy, assuming he's alive after all this time. Jurassic Park III is an entertaining film with outstanding special effects, and if you ignore its stupid moments and uneven characterization you can concentrate instead on that wonderful and scary spinosaurus who keeps popping up for a snack when you least expect it. As usual in movies of this nature, the pilot and another man are quickly eaten and then forgotten about, but even stranger, even the boy and his mother seem to have zero feelings about her boyfriend, whose half-eaten corpse she comes across. As for the acting, Macy and Leoni are so busy being "cute" that they never quite get across that a.) their son may be dead or b.) they may never get off the island even if they find him. Neill and Nivola strike a more realistic note. Along with that marvelous spinosaurus, there are also the usual complement of nasty, intelligent raptors, big apatosauri, and of course flying pterodactyals, who carry off more than one member of the cast. The climax on the river is a bit disappointing, but basically this has more than enough thrills to keep fans of the genre satisfied and it has less ugly scenes than the first two pictures.

Verdict: Give that spinosaurus his own movie! ***.

A SOUND OF THUNDER

T-Rex and time travelers

A SOUND OF THUNDER (2005). Director: Peter Hyams. Loosely based on a short story by Ray Bradbury.

In  the future Travis Ryer (Edward Burns) works for an outfit that sends wealthy clients back in time to hunt dinosaurs, the animals' slayings timed to occur just before they would have died anyway. This is done to prevent anything screwing with the time stream and affecting the future. Travis meets a lady scientist, Sonia Rand (Catherine McCormack), who claims she not only helped create the time machine and was shut out of enjoying its success, but that Ryer and his associates are endangering the world with their time jumps, on one of which something comes back from the past. This happens because boss Charles Hatton (Sir Ben Kingsley) wants to save money by turning off the energy-using screen that would prevent this. Because of this anomaly, the world is affected by time waves that create new "prehistoric" animals and even begin affecting the human race itself. Can Travis and Sonia manage to set things right in a world beset with dangerous monsters, hysterical humans, and weird sweeping changes to the landscape and everyone else at all the wrong moments ...? A Sound of Thunder has a great idea and is entertaining for the most part, and some scenes are rather well-done (a struggle with a hungry underwater creature, for instance) but there's just something off about the movie. By no means as bad as, say, a Syfy Channel Original, there's still something second-rate about the entire enterprise. Edward Burns, who often makes and stars in smaller personal films, seems uncomfortable in the role of action hero, although Kingsley is more on the mark as slimy Hatton [although you still have to wonder what he's doing in this movie]. McCormack and the other cast members are all professional and then some. The effects are uneven, although there are a host of good-looking futuristic baboon-dinosaurs, and most of the other monsters are at least well-designed. Ultimately the movie isn't terrible, just unconvincing. Hyams has directed better movies, such as Outland and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, and Kingsley has appeared in worse movies, such as Thunderbirds.

Verdict: Interesting disappointment. **1/2.

GOJIRA

GOJIRA (1954). Director: Ishiro Honda.

In this original version of Godzilla, the Japanese face nuclear terror all over again when a 50 meter tall animal, an intermediate between dinosaur and mammal, who absorbed the energy from nuclear explosions that removed it from its normal environment, emerges from the ocean.to savage their nation. Of course there's the stupid scientist, Yamane (Takashi Shimura)  who wants to "study" a gigantic monster ravaging Tokyo, but another scientist, Serizawa (Akihito Harata), comes up with a weapon to destroy the creature. Yamane has a daughter, Emiko (Momoko Kochi), who is sort of bethrothed to Serizawa but in love with Hideto (Akira Takarada), who is more of a matinee idol. Some of the more sobering scenes in this fairly "serious" monster movie were cut out of the American version: a child being tested for radiation; a widow huddling with her three children as Gojira approaches and telling them "we'll be seeing your father." Brought to life by "suitmation" -- yes, a man in a monster outfit -- Gojira still manages at times to come off like the embodiment of a nightmare. The miniatures in the film are good and there are some effective process shots of Godzilla smashing through train yards and the like. The film is well-directed and well-acted, although it could be argued that a celebrated actor like Takashi Shimura is pretty much wasted in stuff like this. Inspired by the American sleeper hit The Beast from 20,000 Fathom, Gojira itself influenced such later films as The Giant Behemoth and especially Gorgo.

Verdict: Probably the only time the big guy starred in a movie that's played straight. ***.

GOJIRA NO GYAKUSHU

Godzilla and Anguirus battle it out over top billing

GOJIRA NO GYAKUSHU (aka Godzilla Raids Again/1955). Director: Motoyoshi Oda.

While claims can be made that the original Gojira was a better and more serious film than the dubbed American version, retitled Godzilla, no one can make that claim of its sequel. A dubbed version with some added stock footage and narration entitled Gigantis, the Fire Monster was released in the U.S. years ago; it's now known as Godzilla Raids Again. In any language and with any name, it's still a terrible picture. As a new member of the Godzilla species is discovered on an island in battle with another monster called an Anklylosaurus or Anguirus -- a battle which is continued in Osaka -- Hidemi (Setsuko Yakawama) and handsome pilot Tsukioka (Hiroshi Koizumi) draw closer. Their friend Kabayahsi (Minoru Chiaki) is also a pilot, under the command of Tajima (Yoshio Tsuchiya). Takashi Shimura appears as Dr. Yamane. The FX work is mediocre and the whole undertaking is completely childish, which was not true of Gojira. The actors are fine, however, probably giving the whole thing more intensity than it's worth.

Verdict: Even Reptilicus was better than this. *

GODZILLA 2000

GODZILLA 2000 (1999). Director: Takao Okiwara.

"Godzilla is inside each one of us." [-- well....maybe.]

In this film the world already seems to know of the big lizard's existence, and there is absolutely no suspenseful build-up to his first appearance. Shinado (Takehiro Murada) is a scientist who wants to study the creature, and has formed a group called the Godzilla Prediction Network, which can figure out whenever the big guy is going to appear. Shinado's slightly obnoxious little daughter, Io (Maya Suzuki), is the group's bookkeeper and follows her father into danger. Yuki (Naomi Yushida) is a photographer who's desperate to get a close up photograph of Godzilla. A gigantic spaceship, which first appears as a big flying rock, comes to Japan and eventually transforms into another monster called Oga that Godzilla battles ... Is anyone still awake? With its surplus of silly humor and characters, this Japanese movie seems to take its cue in large part from Hollywood's Godzilla film made the previous year, which despite its many flaws, was a lot more entertaining. Godzilla has been somewhat redesigned and looks a little better, but is still kind of silly and he's still played by a man in a suit: "suitmation." While the special effects in Godzilla 2000 are better than in the older movies in this series, they are still second-rate for the most part. All in all, this was hardly a new approach to the great Japanese monster.

Verdict: For pathetic Godzilla geeks only. *1/2.

BEASTS AND BEHEMOTHS PREHISTORIC CREATURES IN THE MOVIES

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms goes on the rampage!

BEASTS AND BEHEMOTHS: Prehistoric Creatures in the Movies. Roy Kinnard. Scarecrow Press; 1988.

This is one of the earlier books that looked at movies featuring dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. Kinnard shows knowledge of and enthusiasm for his subject. If there's any problem with the book is that it was written before or just at the start of the VCR era, and you get the impression on occasion that Kinnard is writing from memory instead of a fresh perspective. Each film gets a chapter but some of the chapters are only a couple of paragraphs long. Still, the book does have some longer, entertaining and informative essays, and boasts some behind-the-scenes interviews as well as many black and white photographs. All in all, it's a fun book for the devotee. Films covered include The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and The Giant Behemoth, of course. NOTE: For a more recent book on monster movies of this type and others see Creature Features: Nature Turned Nasty in the Movies. 

Verdict: Love those behemoths! ***. 

LOST CONTINENT (1951)

LOST CONTINENT (1951). Director:Sam Newfield.

When a firebird rocket designed by ex-Russian scientist Michael Rostov (John Hoyt) goes awry, Major Joe Nolan (Cesar Romero) is assigned to finding it so that they can figure out what went wrong. He takes Rostov and others along with him to the South Pacific and discovers the rocket, which terrified the natives, landed at the very top of a high mountain covered by fog. Although no one else seems interested in the rocket, Nolan decides everyone has to ascend to the mountain top immediately, even though they haven't got decent climbing shoes let alone any other standard equipment. In another bit of illogic, the oldest man on the team, Rostov, looks after the least athletic, Briggs (Whit Bissell), even though there are several younger, able-bodied men in the group. The interesting thing about Lost Continent is that the climbing scenes are quite well-done, and have some suspense, which dissipates for the most part the minute the men reach the top [where everything is bathed in a greenish tint] and some crudely animated stop-motion dinosaurs appear. These include a charging brontosaurus and two triceratops who get into a bloody battle. Hugh Beaumont (Michael Shayne, Leave it to Beaver), Sid Melton, and Chick Chandler are in the cast, as are Hillary Brooke and even Acquanetta, however briefly. The acting isn't bad and neither is the movie, all told. The movie with its plateau of monsters was obviously influenced by Doyle's The Lost World, filmed in the silent era and again in 1960.

Verdict: This could have used Ray Harryhausen FX, but it's still minor-league fun. ***.

THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS

Harryhausen's "rhedosaurus" attacks Manhattan

THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953). Director: Eugene Lourie. 

Professor Tom Nesbitt (Paul Christian, aka Swiss film star Paul Hubschmind) thinks he's spotted a monster during a blizzard after atomic testing in the Arctic. Of course, he has or there would be no movie. Improbably, Nesbitt is able to convince foremost paleontologist Thurgood Elson (Cecil Kellaway) -- as well as Elson's pretty assistant, Lee (Paula Raymond) -- of the "paleolithic survival's" existence and the hunt for the beast is on. This monster movie, with  stop-motion special effects by Ray Harryhausen, made a ton of money for Warner Brothers, spawned the Japanese imitation Godzilla, and ushered in the dinosaur/bug/creature cycle of the 1950's for better or worse. Despite it's low-budget, it is still a well-made and very entertaining picture. The beast's stomping trek through the streets of downtown Manhattan is impressive, and enough cannot be said regarding the extra impact given the film by David Buttolph's dramatic scoring. Christian, Raymond and especially Kellaway turn in adept performances and Kenneth Tobey and Lee Van Cleef in smaller roles are also solid. Lourie followed this up with The Giant Behemoth and Gorgo. NOTE: For more info on this film and many others like it, read Creature Features: Nature Turned Nasty in the Movies.

Verdict: Maybe not a sexy beast but certainly a lively one! ***.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF TIME

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF TIME (1967). Director: David L. Hewitt.

A warp in the space-time continuum sends an entire laboratory working on time travel first 5000 years into the future -- where Earth has been decimated by aliens -- and then into the prehistoric past where they try to dodge a supposedly big lizard-dinosaur. Scott Brady plays Stanton, who is skeptical of the whole project until he, too, is hurtled into the future along with former child actress Gigi Perreau as Karen and Anthony Eisley as Dr. Mark Manning. The amusingly named actress Poupee Gamin plays a future-alien -- she had only two more TV/film credits -- and Abraham Sofaer is Dr. Gordon. Lyle Waggoner of the Carol Burnett Show plays another alien, his name misspelled "Waggner." This is the kind of movie that doesn't do much for anyone's career but turn it backwards. The actors give their all, the premise is entirely workable, but this is a tacky production that holds the attention but little else. This was probably influenced by the series Time Tunnel, which debuted the previous year. So similar to The Time Travelers (1964) that some consider this to be a remake!

Verdict: Interesting storyline defeated by low budget and insufficient imagination. **. 

UNTAMED WOMEN

UNTAMED WOMEN (1952). Director: W. Merle Connell.

Not to be confused with the even worse Prehistoric Women, this also deals with a primitive all-female society living on an island. The crew of a WW2 bomber plane fly off course, crash-land, take to the life boats, and eventually wind up on an isolated island seemingly inhabited only by a bevy of beauteous women. The leader of the women is named Sandra (Doris Merrick), while the head bomber pilot is named Steve (Mikel Conrad). Ed (Mark Lowell) hates his smothering mother; Andy (Morgan Jones) is the farm boy dreaming of hey rides and home; and Benny (Richard Monahan) is the comic relief and skirt chaser (true to form he's the least attractive of the bunch). Remembering the "hairy men" who once came to the island to kill their men and carry off the rest of the women, Sandra wants to slaughter the pilots, but the other women -- complete with Max Factor make up jobs and heavy lipstick -- want the men for mates. The fellows eventually encounter giant armadillos, big lizards, a rubbery flesh-eating plant, and lots of stock footage from One Million B.C. and other movies. [The composite shots are generally effective.] Lyle Talbot shows up briefly as a medical officer tending to Steve, whose memories form the core of the story. Star Conrad had one more credit after this, the American version of the 1956 Godzilla.

Verdict: Don't say you weren't warned. **.