The Lost World (1960)

 

The idea of a hitherto lost place somewhere on Earth where evolution had stopped enabling dinosaurs to stomp about was a popular one in the early twentieth century. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle got there first with The Lost World published in 1912 (sadly he never penned a crossover in which Sherlock Holmes fought dinosaurs) followed six years later by Edgar Rich Burroughs’ Land That Time Forgot. The story beats of both are remarkably similar and having recently watched the Burroughs adaptations it feels like he copied Conan Doyle’s premise not just in the scenario but the characters who undertake the journey and what happens to them after arrival down to the eccentric professor and chauvinism aplenty

 

This 1960 version, directed by Irwin Allen, was made fifteen years before The Land That Time Forgot was turned into a film. It opens with the fussy Professor Challenger played with gusto by Claude Rains claiming he has found a place untouched by evolution. In a remarkably lightly played debate at the Botanic Institute he ends up getting enough funding to go back to prove his discovery, this time accompanied by a party including big game hunter John Loxton and Jennifer the daughter of the trip’s financier who ends up bringing along her brother and her dog (!).

Of course, the very idea of a woman going on such an adventure is greeted with near outrage and objected to by almost everyone but she insists she is a tough resourceful gal. Guess what? She then spends the rest of the film screaming and having to be rescued. To be fair there are moments when Jill St John is allowed to be more proactive and at least she has plenty of dialogue unlike the mostly silent Vitina Marcus whose character isn’t even gifted a name. the credits list her as `Native Girl` though she is fairly pivotal to the plot.

The cast is led by the Michale Rennie as Loxton who’s always slicked back hair (whatever happens) is presumably meant to indicate his wealth. He’s a great actor but seems slightly miscast here though the script doesn’t help him much. When Loxton is questioned as to why he never went back to rescue the previous group he appears to say he couldn’t be bothered which is actually either funny or appalling, I’m  not sure which. David Hedison is the more traditional hero type with designs on Jennifer who wants to marry Loxton who knows he will not be faithful so is putting her off. It always amuses me when such personal concerns are discussed in the midst of them being in clear and present danger from dinosaurs but I suppose it is a trope of this sort of film.

Also in the party is pilot Manuel Gomez whose seemingly relaxed persona (he plays Spanish guitar in between being attacked by monsters) hides a vengeful agenda. It seems that Loxton was supposed to meet up with the previous expedition and because he didn’t they all died, someone close to Gomez included. For a while I wondered if the filmmakers had smuggled in a gay character especially when we see him with a locket containing photos of the two men but, no, the other man depicted is his brother. I’d forgotten what year it was!  Who keeps a photo of their brother strung round their neck? Anyway, it still makes Gomez an interesting person, played through skilful slipping of moods by Fernando Lamas.

Without enough budget to afford expensive stop motion animation, the film uses real lizards and a small crocodile disguising them with prehistoric style appendages and having them roam around on miniature sets. Notwithstanding the morality of this it turns out to be quite effective because they move much more naturally than the jerky stop motion species. Though kept largely in the shadows, the small sets are detailed enough to pass as the real thing and Allen is confident enough to include a tracking shot lasting roughly twenty seconds of one of these creatures as it moves through the foliage. The composition between the real life shots and the models is good too; there are several moments when both people and dinosaurs are in shot and Allen makes it look like close proximity. The only issue is that none of these creatures actually look like recognisable species but more like alien monsters and they don’t really seem aggressive enough. Some careful editing does disguise such moments.

You do think though that some of the familiar beats from dinosaur movies since may have their origins here notably a scene where the humans escape a predator when another rival turns up and the two beast battle each other instead, a trope still used to this day in the Jurassic World movies. There’s also their first encounter with the native population being a girl whom one of the party falls for. Of course, there’s also an eccentric professor whom nobody believes but he’s been right this whole time. Making up the list are a lost tribe and their unexplained desire to burn everyone or sacrifice them. Many of these and more have turned up multiple times since.

Irwin Allen (who also wrote the screenplay) amps up the thrills after a talky, exposition led first section building to a well staged climax deep inside a mountain that involves a perilous narrow ledge (really well done even if the rocks are red) and finally killing off some characters. You do have to admire the ambition here and the results are good for their time. Obviously to modern eyes this film looks cheap and dated but there are some good aspects and it just about works as a veteran pot boiler from another time that somehow seems longer ago than the prehistoric world the characters are visiting.