Mondo perduto

It's such a damn shame that the youngest generation of cinema buffs only knows about "Jurassic Park", because they have been making really good dinosaur movies since the silent era already! Particularly Arthur Conan Doyle's legendary novel has always been a very popular story that received decent film versions in practically every decade. In case you know nothing about the plot just yet: the obnoxious and self-centered professor Challenger assembles a troop of unlikely adventurers to go on an expedition deep in the Amazonian jungle, because there's supposed to be a plateau where the dinosaurs never got extinct. The expedition sure is no field trip, since the plateau also homes giant funky green spiders and an aggressive tribe of aboriginals that don't really like intruders. Unavoidably the group also falls apart due to personal intrigues and two adventurers' mutual love-interest for the same girl. "The Lost World" by Irwin Allen by no means is a good film, but it's vastly entertaining, partly because the special effects and set pieces are so incredibly crummy! The dinosaurs are just ordinary reptiles, like lizards and even a crocodile, with fake horns glued onto them and filmed with a fish-eye lens so that they appear to be gigantic. Well, they obviously remain simple reptiles and totally don't evoke feelings of fear or engagement. The decors are quite nice, though, and this film definitely has the irresistible early 60's charm that never fails to put a smile on your face. Claude Rains, here in the final stage of his well-filled career, is excellent as the boisterous professor Challenge and he obviously amused himself with yelling at people and hitting them on their heads with an umbrella. The rest of the cast is rather forgettable, expect from the stunningly beautiful Vitina Marcus who plays the sexy native girl. Even though I only remember it vaguely, the 1925 version of the same story is a much better film, but this version will definitely appeal more to larger audiences.

From the "Master of Disaster", producer & director Irwin Allen, comes this fantasy-adventure that may be too goofy and corny for some tastes. But it's played with a healthy, hard to resist amount of humor, and it's just old-fashioned enough - albeit in color and widescreen - to keep it reasonably fun.

Claude Rains plays Professor George Edward Challenger, a scientist who discovered something extraordinary on a past expedition. It's a plateau, deep in the Amazon jungle, where dinosaurs still roam. A news magnate finances a second expedition to the area, so that Challenger can obtain proof of what he saw. In his company will be a hunter / adventurer (Michael Rennie), the magnates' headstrong daughter (Jill St. John), who actually invites herself along, her brother (Ray Stricklyn), a journalist (David Hedison), a pilot (Fernando Lamas), a cowardly guide (Jay Novello), and Challengers' rival Professor Summerlee (Richard Haydn).

This second screen adaptation of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story doesn't have much of a sense of awe & wonder, but it's staged and executed with some flair, and has its share of amusements. One thing it sadly lacks is effects work by the legendary Willis O'Brien, who worked on the first film. Here, he's credited as "effects technician", but his primary task was coming up with dinosaur designs. The so-called "dinosaurs" are actually played by ordinary Earth reptiles made to look huge through photographic trickery.

Our heroes are a likable enough bunch. Rains chews on the scenery in a flamboyant portrayal. One of his first orders of business is whopping Hedison on the head with his umbrella. St. John is cute, as is Vitina Marcus as a native gal. Rennie is a macho leading man.

It gets better as it goes along, delivering a fair amount of obstacles for the group to surmount on their way to freedom. The finale is particularly exciting as they race through mountainous tunnels and avoid lava flows. The music by Paul Sawtell & Bert Shefter is rousing, the cinematography by Winton C. Hoch fairly colorful.

Seven out of 10.

Producer/director Irwin Allen had big plans for this one. He also had the big budget needed to craft a truly spectacular remake of the original 1925 classic silent film. And, he rightly felt that a new movie based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's science fiction masterpiece had better be up to the task. Allen originally intended using the "Stop-Motion animation" technique (made popular by Ray Harryhausen) to bring his prehistoric monsters to life. But, just as production was about to commence, Twentieth-Century Fox, who commissioned the film (and were then experiencing severe monetary shortages, due to production problems with their money guzzling "Cleopatra") slashed the budgets of nearly every film currently being produced. "The Lost World" was no exception, and Allen's dreams of a Sci-Fi Spectacular were crushed. Being a resourceful film maker, though, he did the best he could with what he had, and that turned out to be very good indeed.

For his cast, he chose British character actor Claude ("The Invisible Man") Rains to play the indomitable Professor Challenger, leader of the expedition. As Playboy Johnny Roxton, he cast another British actor, Michael Rennie. David Hedison played newsman Ed Malone, Jill St. John played Jennifer Holmes, daughter of Malone's publisher and Fernando Lamas was Gomez, the expedition's pilot. Supporting them were Jay Novello, as a cowardly guide, and Vittina Marcus as a helpful island native girl. Forced to forego his original Stop-Motion technique, Allen had to make do with photographing lizards, alligators and such, adding horns and gills when necessary. The result was pretty much the way it sounds - the creatures this bunch discovered were a long way from prehistoric beasts. Nevertheless, the movie entertains, with truly beautiful wide screen photography, a fantastic collection of colors which really bring the striking sets to eerie life.

As for the performances, they are decent enough. Rains has gotten plenty of criticism over the years for his bombastic Challenger, but that's the way the character was written, and Rains is true to the material, and highly enjoyable too. Michael Rennie is a bit colorless in his big game hunter part, but he does have some good scenes as well. David Hedison is OK as Malone, who falls for Jennifer (Roxton's girlfriend) though their romance must have ended up heavily edited, as there's little evidence of it here. Ms. St John and Ms. Marcus are mainly eye candy, (this WAS the '60s after all) but act capably enough, though for a woman described as "brave as a lioness". Jill certainly does a lot of screaming while dressed in a very flattering, if impractical wardrobe (which includes a Toy Poodle). Ray Stricklyn is very persuasive as her rather immature but compassionate brother. Lamas and Novello are the supposed villains of this piece, though Lamas has a reason for his hostility. Allen's direction is good and the score by Bert Shefter and Paul Sawtell adds immeasurably to the drama and suspense. All in all, the picture is perfect Saturday Matinée fare, and though the script is talky in places, it still delivers the goods at the climax. The movie is a textbook example of a period when celluloid escapism was all viewers demanded, and here, they got it In spades.

Fox Home Video has just released "The Lost World" as a two-disc DVD set, with special features (trailer, newsreels and galleries of promotional material) from the film on disc one, and a restored version (with a few outtakes!) of the 1925 original on disc two. Allen's film looks wonderful in it's anamorphic CinemaScope transfer, and after years of suffering through the faded pan-and-scanned prints used for TV and video this is really a revelation. The new stereo soundtracks are equally impressive and make this film, from a producer/director who would one day be known as the "Master of Disaster', (thanks to such fare as The Poseidon Adventure' and "The Towering Inferno") a must have for collectors.

Irwin Allen puts a saddle on the Conan Doyle novel and digs in the spurs in this silly adaptation of the eponymous book. Loaded with action but not much else, and well stocked with useless characters such as Frosty the poodle. SEE! Jill St.John, who starts off feisty but ends up as simpering baggage, explore the Amazon in pink tights. HEAR!! Michael Rennie murder the Spanish language. FEEL!!! The sense of loss as Fernando Lamas deadpans the line: "My helicopter". In an interview years later, David Hedison admitted that he HATED this movie, and it's easy to see why. With typical pre-release hype, Irwin Allen teased the public with promises of unbelievably authentic-looking monsters("like nothing you've ever seen before!"). Wrong: they were exactly like everything we've seen before. The actors, from Claude Rains to Fernando Lamas, are all good to very good, but not in this clunker. Their combined talents were wasted, as will be your money if you buy or rent this film. Get it ONLY if you feel compelled to complete a collection of '50s and '60s B-movies, otherwise: don't walk, run!

Along with King Kong this is one of the first films I remember seeing, on Saturday night TV sometime in the mid '60's. My expert judgement at 6 years old was that it was the best film ever made, over the years since it has somewhat slipped down my list – but at least is still in it! Viewed through rose-tinted spectacles I still enjoy watching it and trot the vid out every 5 years or so for another wallow in personal nostalgia. Viewed dispassionately I think it's also better than both 1925 versions – the long was too slow, the short unintelligible; forget any others.

Eccentric Professor Challenger challenges crusty Professor Summerlee in public to go with him on an expedition to find a plateau in South America where he (claimed) he saw prehistoric dinosaurs roaming around. A motley party is assembled to make the trip consisting of a cynical aristocrat with a secret, his eye-fodder girlfriend in pink and her eye-fodder brother, the hard working reporter who fancies her, and 2 dingy latins with plenty of secrets. A couple of hours after landing they discover … prehistoric dinosaurs roaming around partial to wrecking helicopters, and we discover Challenger appears rather challenged when coming to name them. Corn abounds, the special effects are worse than in 1925, every plot device is telegraphed ahead, and every racial, sexual and class stereotype is out in force – but I love it just the same! At least Jill St. John didn't twist her ankle, and the sets weren't always cardboard though.

If you didn't see this when young and impressionable don't bother, however if you did and you're not a serious type it's worth a try. You still might be horrified but you might return to a lost world of safe family adventure movies.