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| 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?
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| 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.
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| 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. ***.
Definitely a "guilty pleasure" movie, and especially so if you're a hard core Irwin Allen fan.
ReplyDeleteI think it speaks to the professionalism of Claude Rains that he jumped into the role with as much enthusiasm as he did in the "Invisible Man", "Now Voyager", "Casablanca" and any other film he was in.
Always thought it was funny that budget money was spent on the services of Willis O'Brien and yet as far as I know there's not a single stop motion frame in the entire picture. I can't imagine that O'Brien's skills were utilized just to glue fins on baby alligators!
I guess it's also well known that Producer Cheapskate Irwin didn't wait seven episodes before he turned footage from this movie into a "clip show" for Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and even drug in the likes of Nick Adams to round out the cast.
For the time, "Lost World" is an entertaining big budget spectacle of silliness, and it still holds up as such today.
I couldn't agree more, Neil! Rains was a solid professional -- he only did the picture for the money, as he admitted to co-player Ray Stricklyn -- but he gave it his all in spite of that. As for Willis O'Brien, I'm glad he got some money for "consulting" on the picture even if his stop-motion FX weren't used-- I think a prop person probably handled the job of gluing on fins! Footage from "The Lost World" shows up in at least three episodes -- probably more -- of Allen's "Voyage" TV series, which I am currently re-watching. I'll be watching out for another appearance by Yehudi the fire monster!
ReplyDeleteLoved this one growing up, and have been a big Irwin Allen fan ever since. Very fun adventure film!
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Yes, one could quibble about so many things but it really is entertaining, isn't it?
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