Two Lost Worlds

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.

Pirates attack the ship carrying Kirk Hamilton (Jim Aurness aka James Arness), scion of a ship-building family, in the New Hebrides forcing the ship to take refuge in Australia (in a part of Queensland where everyone has an American accent). When the pirates begin ransacking the local villages, Hamilton convinces a Royal Navy captain (Tom Monroe) to pursue their ship. Both the navy ship and the pirate ship are sunk in the ensuing battle but a small group of survivors (including Hamilton) escape in a lifeboat only to find themselves marooned on a volcanic island populated by gigantic beasts. The low-budget film, directed by Norman Dawn, is an uneven mix of sea-adventure and fantasy with little to connect the two elements. This is particularly noticeable on the island, when the narrator (Dan Riss) excitedly describes the castaways' search for water, and later food, while making no comments whatsoever about the 'dinosaur' fight that occurs in front of them, almost killing them. Typical for a low-budget B-film 'Two Lost Worlds' liberally borrows from earlier films, notably One Million B. C. (1940) for the 'dinosaurs' and 'Captain Caution' (1940) for the climactic fight with the pirates. Discounting the repurposed footage, the film has the production values of a '50's TV show and none of the cast do much with the trite storyline and script. Since there is nothing novel or interesting in the new material, the sum of the film is worse than its parts.

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.

Soon after America gained its independence, a new-fangled clipper sets sail from Boston to the East Indies. Attacked by pirates off the Hebrides, the ship's builder, James Arness, is wounded, and landed to recover at the ship's next port of call, in Australia. There he falls in love with Elaine Jeffries, and she with him. She is due to be engaged to Bill Kennedy, who scowls at the thought. However, other things are going on, particularly pirates. Arness is commissioned to build a ship to clear the sea of pirates. On its maiden voyage, with Miss Jeffries, her kid sister Gloria Petroff, and Kennedy, they run into a pirate ship and give battle. Both ships are sunk, but our main players escape by raft to a small island with dinosaurs from One Million B. C.

If, like me, you gave up hope of any of this making sense at the second sentence, be reassured! Dan Riss narrates about a third of the movie, and whoever wrote his lines never saw a noun that didn't need at least two adjectives and a dependent clause. The battle scenes with the second pirate ship are nicely shot by DP Harry Neumann. Arness and Miss Jeffries changed their names after appearing in this. With Pierre Watkins, Fred Kohler Jr. And Hank Mann.