Two Lost Worlds

The same year that he played the rampaging alien in "The Thing from Another World" a studly young James Arness is our jut-jawed hero in this agreeable adventure. Arness plays Kirk Hamilton, a mate on a 19th century clipper ship who, after a skirmish with pirates, spends some time in Australia getting his wounds treated. After helping the locals deal with this pirate problem, he and several other characters end up marooned on an uncharted island that is frozen in time, complete with oversized lizards.

This film is a little misrepresented by ad copy. Much more of an adventure film (dividing its time between action on land and action at sea) than sci-fi, it only spends its final third on this island. And we never get to see very many prehistoric animals, only the aforementioned lizards that are stock footage from "One Million B.C." ("Two Lost Worlds" didn't shoot any of its own creature scenes.) Also, while a fair amount of time is spent with Australian characters, NONE of them have Australian accents!

Still, this minor but agreeable feature shows its audience a reasonable time. At the very least, it has a very brief running time of 62 minutes. Much like many a fun B movie, it doesn't waste too much time. That is, except for portraying a love triangle between Kirk, Queensland native Elaine Jeffries (Kasey Rogers), and a resentful rancher named Martin Shannon (Bill Kennedy). The supporting cast is filled out by capable character actors such as Pierre Watkin, Tom Monroe, Michael Rye as the evil pirate leader (you'll have a good time hating this guy), Fred Kohler Jr., Tim Graham, and Richard Bartell. Young co-star Gloria Petroff is the daughter of producer Boris Petroff (a.k.a. Brooke L. Peters). Co-star Tom Hubbard (who plays John Hartley) also helped to adapt the story by Petroff and wrote the screenplay.

The movie does give its viewers an exciting finish with a volcanic eruption (more stock footage), and features some hilariously florid narration written by Bill Shaw and spoken by Dan Riss. All in all, it's amusing stuff.

Six out of 10.

Two Lost Worlds and I only counted one of them is a cheap knockoff of a film with stock footage from One Million BC and Captain Caution thrown together fill out a film where a Yankee sailor finds love and romance and dinosaurs and volcanoes and kangaroos in one sixty minute film. If you like all those things you got your money's worth.

This low budget independent casts James Arness in the lead as the Yankee sailor who after a firefight with some pirates in the New Hebrides island is dropped off in Queensland in Australia to recover from wounds. Where he falls in love with Laura Elliot who is engaged to rancher Bill Kennedy. That's your romance.

But the pirates aren't done yet, they capture Elliot and her little sister as hostages after a raid and Arness and Kennedy lead a rescue attempt. After another pirate firefight they get stranded on a volcanic island with some dinosaurs. I think you can figure the rest out.

I saw this when I was about 8 years old on Million Dollar Movie in New York. I thought it was hot stuff then, but my ardor for this film has considerably cooled. It's half romance novel, half science fiction and not done well in either department. And absolutely no one talks like they're from Australia.

Two Lost Worlds is one of those movies that I remember seeing as a very young child...well, at least I remembered one part of the movie, not knowing which one it was from. The scene where the cavegirl is caught in the lava flow was one of those pivotal images with me for some unknown reason. The scene was also repeated (I'm not sure if it was the exact same shot, but it could have been) in Valley of the Dragons.

While this movie has special effects and "dinosaurs" (lizards in make-up), it is very hard to classify this as a real science fiction movie, even under the very un-demanding criteria of the time. For the most part, this movie is a pirate-style adventure. James Arness is as stoic as ever in it, and there isn't much else to really recommend the film.

According to the review by youroldpaljim, two episodes of a television series were edited together to make this movie. Additionally, some footage (often reused in other films) of 'dinosaurs' fighting was inserted from the 1940 film "One Million BC"! To make this all a semi-coherent film, there is LOTS of narration...filling in the gaps in the stories! Talk about a cheap and cynical way of film making!!

Jame Arness stars as Kirk Hamilton, an American sailor who is injured in a pirate attack at sea and is left by his ship to recuperate in 1830s Australia. There he falls in love with a local girl AND assists the locals in fighting these same pirates that attacked his ship. Later, after any semblance to a real movie is lost and dinosaurs, volcanic explosions and more are unleashed on the audience....along with LOTS of stock footage.

I guess the mantra for this film is 'if you can get it for nothing or very little, shove it into this movie'...and it shows. Although parts of the story are good and Arness tries his best, chopping it all apart and shoving all sorts of crap into the film completely ruins it. It's also funny how NONE of the Australians sound the least bit Australian, but American! Overall, a dopey and cynical film that starts well and eventually degenerates into an incomprehensible mess.

My research indicates that TWO LOST WORLDS is made up of two episodes of an un-aired T.V. series. Perhaps the producers of this T.V. series thought these pilot episodes were so spiffy that they decided to edit them into a feature film and release it to theaters. Perhaps not. It is more likely the series just did not sell. This explains the films bifurcated structure. The dinosaur sequences come from that often mined film ONE MILLION B.C.

Other films made from unsold T.V. shows include PROJECT MOON BASE; JUNGLE HELL; TARZAN AND THE TRAPPERS; and INVISIBLE AVENGER. I'm sure there are a least a dozen more examples of films made from unsold pilots that could be found.