The Lost World (1960)

Director:

Irwin Allen

Writers:

Irwin Allen (screenplay)
Charles Bennett (screenplay)

Release Date:

13 July 1960 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

In the middle of the twentieth century, you fall off the brink of time!

Plot:

Professor Challenger leads an expedition of scientists and adventurers to a remote plateau deep in the Amazonian jungle to verify his claim that dinosaurs still live there.

Plot Keywords:

Giant Spider | Helicopter | Lizards Used As Dinosaurs | Beautiful Woman | Remake

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Michael Rennie	...	Lord John Roxton
Jill St. John	...	Jennifer Holmes (as Jill St.John)
David Hedison	...	Ed Malone
Claude Rains	...	Professor George Edward Challenger
Fernando Lamas	...	Manuel Gomez
Richard Haydn	...	Professor Summerlee
Ray Stricklyn	...	David Holmes
Jay Novello	...	Costa
Vitina Marcus	...	Native Girl
Ian Wolfe	...	Burton White

Also Known As:

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System) | 4-Track Stereo (35 mm mag-optical prints)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | USA:Approved (certificate #19503) | Finland:K-12

Company:

Irwin Allen Productions

Trivia:

The helicopter that lands on the plateau is one of the Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaw series of machines (also known as a S-55).

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In the scene were the native girl waits for Jennifer to fall asleep, she tries to escape. In the scuffle to subdue her one of the large boulders is moved by an actor. Such a large rock, when bumped, could not have moved.

Quotes:

Professor George Edward Challenger: [to the people at the Zoological Institute] Live dinosaurs!

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: Turn Back the Clock (#1.7)" (1964)

Excellent first sound version of this story

This was the first sound version of the Lost World and I think it is one of the best. The silent, 1925 movie is the best. There have been several remakes since this one.

Professor Challenger takes a party to an uncharted plateau where dinosaurs still roam. They arrive there by helicopter, but not long after they get there, this is destroyed by a dinosaur. Despite this, they explore the land and capture a native cave girl, who knows how to use a gun. We learn that Lord Roxton has been here on a previous expedition and he killed Gomez's brother. After a fight between two dinosaurs, the party are captured by unfriendly natives, who are cannibals. Luckily, the cave girl who the party captured earlier helps them to escape and after meeting Burton White, the blind surviver of an earlier expedition, make their way along a narrow ridge where Challenger nearly meets his death. The party collects some diamonds and then Gomez holds everyone hostage as he wants Lord Roxton dead, but the gun shot wakes the "fire monster" and it eats Costa. Gomez then meets his death by falling in the lava helping to open a rock door. The plateau then blows its top and everyone is safe. But one last explosion causes the dinosaur egg they found to fall on the floor and break, revealing a baby T-Rex...

The "dinosaurs" in this movie are enlarged lizards with fins and horns attached to them and an enlarged crocodile. This what director Irwin Allen wanted unfortunately. Pity he did not want stop-motion, despite Willis O'Brien helping with the special effects. We also see a giant spider and man eating plants.

The movie has a great cast: Claude Rains (The Invisible Man), Michael Rennie (The Day the Earth Stood Still), David Hedison (The Fly, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea) and Bond Girl Jill St John (Diamonds Are Forever).

I enjoyed this movie, despite the non stop-motion dinosaurs.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5.