One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing

And it's in my top ten best films. Hilarious from the very start, with Lord Southmere hitching a lift from the yeti ("Thanks for the lift old boy - I don't think you're abominable at all!") and then escaping from the villains in the Natural History Museum disguised as a baby. It may be racist in the same way as Carry on Up the Khyber (most of the Chinese are occidentals in terrible eye makeup) but it's certainly feminist, celebrating the power of women in grey stockings fuelled only by nice cups of tea. (What if this great beast should fall on us, Hetty? Then we would be the first people in two million years to be killed by a dinosaur!) xxxxxx

Clearly any film nearly 30 years old is going to have flaws by today's standards and I know many people knock this film because of the now very politically incorrect portrayals of the Chinese.

However (and I am part Chinese myself) I regard the performances as pure pantomime or affectionate parody and not offensive. Besides - the bumbling British upper classes hardly fare any better.

I watched this on DVD last night and I still find it funny. Nostalgia of course plays a big part - I was 8 when it came out, still into palaeontology and visiting the Natural History Museum regularly.

But it still has some cracking dialogue, great slapstick and visual humour and of course the incomparable Helen Hayes and Peter Ustinov.

So if you want a chuckle and to escape back to a gentler (albeit fictitious) time - you could do a lot worse than spend 90 minutes watching this.

Lord Southmere has a ring of Chinese spies chasing him because he has in his possession a secret microfilm, the contents of this microfilm reveals the formula for mysterious Lotus X. After being chased into the Natural History Museum, Southmere hides the film in the bones of a Brontosaurus skeleton. After Southmere's capture, it's up to his old nanny and her hardy band of friends to find the film and keep it from the clutches of the evil Hnup Wan.....

.....and so is the plot for Disney's charmingly silly live action venture. It's not masquerading as anything other than a fun family film, it's got bags of energy, and it boasts a quite delightful premise. Obviously taking its lead from Ealing's brilliant The Ladykillers, One Of Our Dinosaur's Is Missing's strength is that a couple of English old dears are taking on {and defying} a gang of Chinese nasties. Some mirthful gags {both visual and oral} light up the film, including a great sequence as the ladies steal the skeleton and whisk thru London with it on the back of a coal fuelled truck!

It's good old harmless fun that doesn't deserve the charge of stereotyping the Chinese, it's 1975 and the cast are having fun, and honestly, so should the family. 7/10

Helen Hayes and Joan Sims are British Nannies that get involved in espionage trying to find Lotus X. A brilliant comedy, with great performances all round. There are also a lot of familiar faces in small roles. A memorable plot line and a great fight near the end of the film between the Chinese and the Nannies.

I'm not sure why this movie receives as bad reviews as it does. Admittedly, Ustinov's performance is the worst I've seen from him, and nowdays the portrayal of Orientals comes across as out and out racist. But, if you forgive the movie these problems (this was 1976 when sensibilities were different) it's not that bad. Not wonderful, but with a few laughs. And I had little trouble following the plot.