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| 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.
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| 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.
Here’s one I haven’t seen...but looks like you don’t much like it, even though the cast is certainly attractive!
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Yes, there are definitely some good-looking people in the cast! Which helped -- but not by much, LOL!
ReplyDeleteAw! Imagine seeing this as a dinosaur-starved 6 yr old and loving it for almost all the things you say you dislike about it, Bill! But I have to admit this is another one I can't look at objectively, I saw it at such an impressionable age. I actually think Gregg Martell as the caveman gives an outstanding comic performance though. He appealed to me as a kid, anyway. Little Julio, not so much. Ugh, his whiney, ongoing monologues to his Bronto pal made me want to throw up even then. And yeah (sigh) the dino animation now seems very sub-par... all I can say is, at the time I simply didn't care. It's what I wanted in a movie at the time--I really was STARVED for this type of thing! And yep, I like to watch this every now and then, even now. I'd blush, but I have no shame.
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Don't feel bad -- I've actually seen this picture a few times over the years and undoubtedly will watch it again one of these days! Fortunately it's in color already so I don't have to look for a colorized version! Normally I hate anything bad happening to children in movies, but I think when I first saw this I hoped Julio would get eaten!
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