THE LOST WORLD

Yehudi, the fire monster, pops in for supper

THE LOST WORLD (1960). Produced and directed by Irwin Allen. 

"This is the greatest moment of your lives." -- Professor Challenger. 

The peppery Professor Challenger (Claude Rains) insists that he saw dinosaurs on a South American plateau from the air and wants to mount an expedition right away. Against his better wishes and despite skepticism, he assembles a team consisting of explorer Lord Roxton (Michael Rennie), reporter Ed Ames (David Hedison), the doubting and persnickety Professor Summerlee (Richard Haydn), and late arrivals Jennifer Holmes (Jill St. John ) and her brother David (Ray Stricklyn). Rounding out the motley crew are pilot Manual (Fernando Lamas) and his pal and helpmate, Costa (Jay Novello). The group do find the expected dinosaurs, as well as a race of decidedly unfriendly cannibals. It's not only a question of how they will get off the plateau but which will kill them first -- the monsters or the natives?

The explorers get their first look at a dinosaur

Very loosely based on the novel of the same name by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the movie is fun and colorful as long as you don't take it too seriously. The monsters are genuine lizards who are placed into process shots of varying effectiveness with the actors -- there's a marvelous scene with a monster's huge tail nearly sweeping Hedison and St. John off of a cliff as two dinosaurs have a battle nearby. The climax, greatly embellished and extended from Doyle's novel, features a cavern with a giant skeleton, angry pursuing natives, and a fire monster that makes a tasty snack out of poor Costa. It's ironic that he is so terrified of being sacrificed to cannibals but winds up eaten by a monster instead. 

Hedison, Stricklyn, St. John

Novello is probably the best actor in the bunch aside from Rains, who appears to be having fun if nothing else. The others all perform with a certain stalwart dignity, although many critics noted that St. John in her "shocking pink knee boots" seems out of her element. The film is well photographed in CinemaScope and Technicolor by Winton C. Hoch, and the score by Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter is quite effective. 

Verdict: The biggest star is the Fire Monster. ***. 

CAPTAIN SINDBAD

Guy Williams as Sindbad

CAPTAIN SINDBAD (1963). Director: Byron Haskins. 

Captain Sindbad (Guy Williams) returns to Baristan from a long ocean voyage and discovers that the kingdom has been taken over by the vile dictator, El Kerim (Pedro Armendariz). El Kerim is invulnerable to death and injury because his heart is hidden away in a high tower inside a swamp filled with deadly creatures. As El Kerim prepares to put Sindbad's beloved Princess Jana (Heidi Bruhl) to death for refusing to marry him, Sindbad and his men attempt to get through the swamp and destroy his large beating heart. But with the unwilling aid of magician Gagol (Abraham Sofaer), El Kerim is not going to make it easy for him ... 

Amendariz and Bruhl

This highly entertaining, fast-paced fantasy film lacks only one thing, some wonderful Ray Harryhausen effects. But you almost don't miss them because this picture has the usual MGM gloss complete with gorgeous technicolor. The production makes the most of that with some stunning art direction and beautiful costuming that is borderline garish but effective. Besides that the film is well-directed by Byron Haskin, who also helmed The War of the Worlds. You do miss the Harryhausen effects when a many-headed hydra shows up late in the picture. Although it is well-designed, it simply can't compare to the stop-motion hydra crafted by Harryhausen in the same year's Jason and the Argonauts. Almost as fake are a bunch of gators who sort of glide over the ground instead of actually walking.

dueling swords

One of the movie's best scenes takes place in an arena, when Sindbad must face a gigantic but invisible creature that leaves huge footprints in the ground -- this has real suspense and excitement. The dangerous trek through the swamp when Sindbad and his men face a dozen perils is also notable, as is the climax in the tower and a climactic sword fight between Sindbad and El Kerim. Williams is heroic enough as Sindbad, Amendariz makes an excellent villain, Bruhl is an attractive and competent heroine, and we also have Abraham Sofaer as the riotous Gagol, Henry Brandon as El Kerim's good right hand, Bernie Hamilton as a mute sailor, and others. The best one can say of Michel Michelet's musical score -- Bernard Herrmann is sorely missed -- is that it is highly derivative. For a kid's film, the movie is pretty intense at times.

Verdict: MGM presents a colorful and even glamorous fantasy picture. ***. 

THE 3 WORLDS OF GULLIVER

Gulliver with the Lilliputians

THE 3 WORLDS OF GULLIVER (1960). Director: Jack Sher.

In 1699 Dr. Lemuel Gulliver (Kerwin Mathews) sets sail to find his fortune over his fiancee, Elizabeth's (June Thorburn), objections, but discovers that she's a stowaway on board. During an argument on deck, Gulliver is washed overboard, and finds himself in the land of tiny Lilliputians, where he gets involved in their insane politics. Later he winds up in the land of Brobdingnag, where the inhabitants are giants, and he and Elizabeth are the playthings of the king. Gulliver is right to contemplate the fact that eventually the king and his cohorts may tire of their dolls and he and Elizabeth are soon fleeing for their lives ... 

Gulliver in the land of giants

The 3 Worlds of Gulliver may be a kid's film in many ways, but Jonathan Swift's satiric jabs about pettiness and hypocrisy, especially of politicians and "important" people, still hit home. Director Jack Sher keeps the picture moving at a swift pace, and Ray Harryhausen's effects are good (the process work of older movies was never meant to stand up to the scrutiny of High Definition, which is why some shots seem comparatively shabby today). Harryhausen's stop-motion creations include a squirrel that pulls Gulliver into its burrow, and a gator that nearly makes a meal out of the doctor. The gator is perhaps not Harryhausen's best work. 

Kerwin Mathews and June Thorburn

Kerwin Mathews [The 7th Voyage of Sinbad] was on a roll as an adventurer during this period and he gives a good performance, although June Thorburn is really outstanding as Elizabeth, giving a committed and passionate performance that adds a human level to the proceedings. There are a host of excellent British character actors playing the assorted members of the Lilliputian and Bribdingnagian royal courts. Special mention should go to Charles Lloyd Pack as Makovan, who insists that Gulliver is a witch, and his bitchy little daughter, Shrike (Waveney Lee). Sherry Alberoni is a little too obvious as the friendly giantess Glumdalclitch. Lee Patterson [The Spaniard's Curse] and Jo Morrow play illicit Lilliputian lovers, Martin Benson is a tiny politician, and Peter Bull is Morrow's dyspeptic father -- all are very good. Bernard Herrmann's score is especially rich -- I particularly loved the music during the sequence when Gulliver, no bigger than a chess piece, plays chess with the giant king. 

Verdict: Colorful satiric fantasy is fine for both children and adults. ***. 

TRUE BELIEVER: THE RISE AND FALL OF STAN LEE

TRUE BELIEVER: THE RISE AND FALL OF STAN LEE. Abraham Riesman. Crown; 2021. 

This very interesting and readable biography of the man most associated with Marvel comics examines the life of author and entrepreneur Stan Lee. Lee gets deserved credit for being the man who took a second or third-rate comic book company and put it on the map, competing with, and becoming, one of the Big Boys. Lee, however, often took more credit than he deserved, although it may be true that other people simply jumped to conclusions. Many people believe that Lee was the sole creator of such characters as Spider-Man, the Hulk, X-Men etc. - there is still debate today as to who contributed what -- but it is clear that people such as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko had as big a hand in this, (although they, too, especially Kirby, may also have taken too much credit). The book reveals that it was never Lee's (Stanley Lieber)  goal in life to become associated with comic books, although -- perhaps for his own purposes -- he did much to make them respectable. He and others made the Marvel heroes flawed human beings as opposed to the perfect almost god-like characters of DC Comics such as Superman and Wonder Woman. 

True Believer looks at the attempts Lee made to create different companies in his later years and to produce films, often with people who turned out to be utterly disreputable or downright criminal. The bio also looks at Lee's relationships with his wife and daughter -- who is depicted as being a bit crazy -- and his brother, Larry Lieber. Although there are no great surprises in the earlier chapters of the book -- much has been rehashed-- the later chapters detailing numerous lawsuits, charges of elder abuse, and the like, are fascinating and page-turning. It's amazing that so many Marvel characters who were created back in the sixties (Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's Captain America, who was in no way a creation of Stan Lee, debuted in the 1940s!), are now the stars of mega-billion dollar Hollywood films. 

Verdict: Intriguing look at the late Stan Lee. ***. 
 

DINOSAURUS!

Ward Ramsey and Paul Lukather

DINOSAURUS! (1960). Director: Irwin S. Yeaworth, Jr. 

On a tropical island two engineers, Bart Thompson (Ward Ramsey) and his partner Chuck (Paul Lukather), come across two frozen dinosaurs -- and a caveman -- inadvertently freed by their blasting. When the monsters and the caveman thaw out, havoc ensues. Not only do the men have to worry about Bart's girlfriend, Betty (Kristina Hanson), but also a little orphaned kid named Julio (Alan Roberts), who is in danger from both a hungry tyrannosaur and the kid's nasty ward, Hacker (Fred Engleberg), who hopes to sell the caveman for a profit. 

Kristina Hanson and Gregg Martell

Dinosaurus! is one of the least memorable dino-on-the-loose films ever made. The premise is fine, but the monster models and stop-motion FX -- this is definitely not the work of Ray Harryhausen -- are mediocre at best. Far too much of the running time is given over to the silly antics of the caveman (Gregg Martell), who is meant to be comic relief but is only irritating. A scene when the T-Rex attacks a bus and apparently crushes the screaming passengers inside is out of sync with the rest of the childish movie. Julio is meant to be just a cute, likable kid, but he acts more like a five-year-old than someone twice as old, and he becomes tiresome very quickly. 

steam shovel vs. T-Rex

This was the first film for Ward Ramsey, who had just a few undistinguished credits afterwards. Paul Lukather had a great many credits, mostly on television. Kristina Hanson, who was more decorative than anything else, only had five credits, and Alan Roberts had a few more as a child actor. A hilarious scene has Betty coming across the T Rex and fainting -- while underwater! The somber score by Ronald Stein is better than the picture deserves. Widescreen photography and color don't add that much to the proceedings.

Verdict: Watch The Land Unknown or The Lost World instead. *1/2.  

FIRST MEN IN THE MOON

Lionel Jeffries and Edward Judd

FIRST MEN IN THE MOON (1965). Director: Nathan Juran. 

In 1899 a scientist named Cavor (Lionel Jeffries) creates a substance that cancels out gravity, to which purpose he decides to fly in a sphere to the moon. His companions are greedy, bankrupt playwright, Bedford (Edward Judd), and his fiancee, Kate (Martha Hyer) who is only dragged along to save her life when she comes to confront Bedford over his nefarious financial dealings. On the moon they discover an insect-like civilization of "selenites," but while Cavor approaches these creatures with respect and scientific curiosity, Bedford is more like a bull in a china shop, creating dangerous complications. 

a gigantic moon calf attacks

First Men in the Moon is a very loose adaptation of the novel by H. G. Wells. It takes nearly an hour for our trio to actually reach the moon and the first half of the film is full of supposedly comical incident largely centered on Cavor, who is riotously overplayed in very tiresome fashion by a normally dependable Jeffries. Just when you think the film can't get any sillier, our voyagers literally hit the moon and the film becomes much more interesting. A highlight is the appearance of unpleasant and bad-tempered moon calves -- like gigantic caterpillars -- who go on the attack thanks to the stop-motion artistry of Ray Harryhausen. In general the FX of the film are very, very good. 

Jeffries and Hyer inside the moon

There is a sub-text of Cavor's intellectual approach versus the macho meat-headedness of Bedford, but the film, determined to be as stupid as possible, sort of throws this away, dismissing the destruction of an entire civilization with a quip at the end. (Bedford was just as unlikable in Wells' novel as he is in the film). Judd plays his distasteful character adroitly, Hyer is fine as the throwaway gal who never appeared in the book, and the score -- especially the stunning theme music -- by Laurie Johnson is exceptional. Wilkie Cooper's widescreen cinematography is another plus. The story is bookended by a modern-day sequence with sixties astronauts arriving on the moon only to find a Union Jack implanted in the ground! Peter Finch has a cameo as a process server. 

Verdict: The moon sequences are generally quite well done, but the rest is hash. **3.4, 

HERCULES UNCHAINED

Reeves, Koscina, Antonini

HERCULES UNCHAINED (Ercole e la regina di Lidia/1959). Director: Pietro Francisci.

After the events of Hercules, Hercules (Steve Reeves) has returned to his homeland of Greece with his new bride, Iole (Sylva Koscina), and several of his friends, including Ulysses (Gabriele Antonini). The three of them decide to return to Thebes, but Hercules learns that there have been many changes in his absence. Oedipus the King has given his throne to his two sons with the understanding that they each rule a year and trade off, but Etocles (Sergio Fantoni) refuses to leave Thebes while his brother Polinices (Mimmo Palmara) has gathered together an army of ruthless foreigners to help him take over the city. Hercules agrees  to mediate a peace between the two men, but before he can do so he is kidnapped to the island of Lidia after accidentally partaking of the "waters of forgetfulness."

Evil queen: Reeves with Lopez

On Lidia Queen Omphale (Sylvia Lopez) tries to turn Hercules into the latest in her long line of lovers, all of whom have been preserved, quite dead, in a special underground gallery (this reminds one of developments in Jayne Mansfield's Loves of Hercules). The climax of the film actually brings us back to Thebes, where total war has broken out, but in one of the film's best sequences, the two brothers fight a vivid dual to the literal death with swords. 

Sergio Fantoni with Reeves

Hercules Unchained is a notch above Hercules, with a better story and more action. The dubbed performances all seem adept enough, and cinematographer Mario Bava's often garish color schemes -- reminding one more of neon-lit Las Vegas than ancient Greece --  are as wild as ever. Hercules also has an interesting fight with a creep named Anteo, played by boxer-actor-strongman Primo Carnera. The film includes a ballet, and if that weren't enough, a ditty is sung by Iole as Hercules takes a nap in the back of their wagon. Aside from the waters of forgetfulness, the film has no fantastic elements to speak of. 

Verdict: Surprisingly entertaining bit of "peplum." ***. 

THE LAND UNKNOWN

Henry Brandon vs plesiosaur

THE LAND UNKNOWN (1957). Director: Virgil Vogel. 

Commander Roberts (Jock Mahoney), reporter Maggie Hathaway (Shawn Smith/Shirley Patterson), pilot Lt. Carmen (William Reynolds of Cult of the Cobra), and Steve Miller (Phil Harvey) take off in a copter from a Naval ship in the hopes of finding a reported area of warmer temperatures, and find it they do. Only this valley, far below sea level, is full of prehistoric animals and one crazed survivor (Henry Brandon) of an earlier plane crash. He can help get the others out of the valley before the ship strands them near the South Pole, but in return he wants the woman ... 

Mahoney, Reynolds, Smith and Harvey

The Land Unknown was supposed to be a major release from Universal, and there are still signs of this in the finished production, which is a CinemaScope feature with an elaborate sound stage set employing large matte paintings and classy Jurassic art direction. The film betrays its "B" status from the studio with its cast -- no major names although Mahoney did star in several low-budget films and Brandon was a well-known character actor -- and black and white filming. 

Shawn Smith and Henry Brandon

The dinosaurs consist of blown-up real-life lizards as well as one mechanical T-Rex which is serviceable but extremely fake-looking next to the lizards. There is also a well-designed sea serpent or plesiosaur that bedevils Brandon in the lake near his cavern home -- it has limited mobility but looks a lot better than the tyrannosaur. The picture is fast-paced and works up some suspense, both in the scene when the copter descends into a thick fog and the passengers have no idea what they're getting into, and the exciting climax. The effective musical score is taken from several sources. The actors all give professional performances -- Brandon underplays as a man driven mad by loneliness -- although it's amazing that the script doesn't have anyone astonished  by the presence of living dinosaurs -- they all react as if finding them is an everyday occurrence! 

Verdict: Fun lost world-dino movie must be seen in widescreen. ***. 

NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF

NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF. The Hardy Boys # 59.(1979). Franklin W. Dixon (house pseudonym). 

In this excellent adventure story for kids of all ages with many interesting facets, the boys investigate a supposed werewolf curse affecting the son of a construction contractor. At the same time some of the man’s buildings have been sabotaged, meaning he could go out of business. One of the fellow's employees is a native American who is hoping to find a missing bejeweled axe that belonged to his ancestor. A phosphorescent wolf – shades of Hound of the Baskervilles  -- appears at different times to menace assorted characters. There are many suspenseful and exciting sequences that range from dark forests to isolated mansions to high beams on skyscraper frames. In addition to Frank and Joe Hardy, we have lovable, chubby Chet Morton, who develops a crush on the contractor's pleasingly plump daughter. 

The first 58 books in the Hardy Boys series were published by Grosset and Dunlap, who lost the contract to the Wanderer books division of Simon and Schuster. The series continued in both paperback and hardback format for quite a few years. It was then replaced with The Hardy Boys Case Files, a somewhat edgier series for older readers. When that series wrapped up its run, we had The Hardy Boys, Undercover Brothers, where they became agents and the stories often were turned into trilogies. Currently Frank and Joe still have their own series in "The Hardy Boys Adventures" (as well as a new television program). The cover of Night of the Werewolf is typical for the time as if portrays the boys as looking a little too young and much less tougher and competent than they actually are in the stories. 

Verdict: One of the better of the post-58 books in the series. ***.  

KING SOLOMON'S TREASURE

Macnee, Colicos, McCallum 

KING SOLOMON'S TREASURE (1979). Director: Alvin Rakoff. 

Allan Quatermaine (John Colicos), Henry Curtis (David McCallum), and Captain Good (Patrick Macnee) travel through Africa to try and find King Solomon's lost treasure. Along the way they pick up a portly French chef, Alphonse (Yvon Dufour), and a handsome, noble African named Umpslopogas (Ken Gampu). They also encounter -- oddly enough -- a variety of dinosaurs, but don't seem all that befuddled by their presence. Finally they come upon the lost kingdom of Zuvenda ruled over by -- you guessed it -- a beautiful blond queen (Britt Ekland). Then there's warfare and an erupting volcano for good measure.

Britt Ekland

If ever there were a picture made strictly for tax loss purposes, King Solomon's Treasure is it. It is chockful of absurdities. Things seem headed in the right direction when African natives are actually played by African natives  -- this was filmed in Swaziland as well as in Montreal -- but when Britt Ekland shows up you know you're back in fantasy land. The presence of dinosaurs -- all of which look pretty terrible and are mock-ups of limited movement -- doesn't make any sense at all. There are a couple of giant crabs as well. McCallum and Macnee -- both of whom had starred in successful TV series in the sixties (The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Avengers, respectively) must have thought this was the absolute nadir of their careers. Macnee dispenses his usual suavity and charm, and McCallum portrays the comic relief until he starts necking with Ekland. Any similarity to H. Rider Haggard is strictly coincidental.

Verdict: Terrible. Just terrible! *.