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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. ***.
