The Lost World (1960)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

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

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:

Factual errors: Challenger constantly misidentifies the dinosaurs they encounter on the plateau.

Quotes:

Lord John Roxton: [Talking about the native girl] She's a hundred pounds of walking dynamite.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Boom! Hollywood's Greatest Disaster Movies (2000) (V)

okay: which one of you nitwits forgot the map?

Irwin Allen puts a saddle on the Conan Doyle novel and digs in the spurs in this silly adaptation of the eponymous book. Loaded with action but not much else, and well stocked with useless characters such as Frosty the poodle. SEE! Jill St.John, who starts off feisty but ends up as simpering baggage, explore the Amazon in pink tights. HEAR!! Michael Rennie murder the Spanish language. FEEL!!! The sense of loss as Fernando Lamas deadpans the line: "My helicopter". In an interview years later, David Hedison admitted that he HATED this movie, and it's easy to see why. With typical pre-release hype, Irwin Allen teased the public with promises of unbelievably authentic-looking monsters("like nothing you've ever seen before!"). Wrong: they were exactly like everything we've seen before. The actors, from Claude Rains to Fernando Lamas, are all good to very good, but not in this clunker. Their combined talents were wasted, as will be your money if you buy or rent this film. Get it ONLY if you feel compelled to complete a collection of '50s and '60s B-movies, otherwise: don't walk, run!