The Lost World (1960)

Professor Challenger leads an expedition of scientists and adventurers to a remote plateau deep in the Amazonian jungle to verify his claim that dinosaurs still live there.

Director:

Irwin Allen

Writers:

Charles Bennett (screenplay), Irwin Allen (screenplay)

Stars:

Michael Rennie, Jill St. John, David Hedison

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Michael Rennie	...	Lord John Roxton
Jill St. John	...	Jennifer Holmes (as Jill St.John)
David Hedison	...	Ed Malone
Claude Rains	...	Prof. George Edward Challenger
Fernando Lamas	...	Manuel Gomez
Richard Haydn	...	Prof. Summerlee
Ray Stricklyn	...	David Holmes
Jay Novello	...	Costa
Vitina Marcus	...	Native Girl
Ian Wolfe	...	Burton White

Storyline

Professor Challenger leads team of scientists and adventurers to a remote plateau deep within the Amazonian jungle to investigate reports that dinosaurs still live there.

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Plot Keywords:

professor | dinosaur | expedition | helicopter | jungle | 

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Taglines:

Suddenly, in the mysterious heart of the Amazon, you see the death-battle of the Jurassic dinosaurs! 70-foot brontosaurus goes wild! Tyrannosaurus hatches baby monster! Sea-serpent of the lava lake appears from the depths! Flesh-eating vegetable traps explorers! Spiders that stalk human victims!

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Genres:

Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

13 July 1960 (USA)

Also Known As:

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Saratoga Productions, Irwin Allen Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

3 Channel Stereo (Westrex Recording System) (5.0) (L-R)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Professor Challenger was Arthur Conan Doyle's favorite of all his creations.

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Goofs

In the exterior shots of the helicopter, Manuel Gomez can be seen in a tiny cockpit on top flying it (this also houses much of the rotor engine). When they approach the plateau, the interior cockpit expands to accommodate the Professor and the rest of the cast.

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Quotes

Professor George Edward Challenger: [to the people at the Zoological Institute] Live dinosaurs!

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Connections

Version of Die verlorene Welt (1998)

User Reviews

It just isn't what it shoud have been . . ..

Unlike `The Lost Continent' (1951), this 20th Century Fox Cinemascope production had an ample budget -- but the money wasn't spent very well. A good cast (Michael Rennie, Claude Rains, Jill St. John, David Hedison, and Fernando Lamas) are all part of an expedition that discovers a plateau in South America where dinosaurs still thrive.

Unfortunately producer Irwin Allen elected not to use stop motion animation to create the dinosaurs. Instead, the audience is treated to two hours of disguised iguanas and enlarged baby alligators. Irwin Allen also co-wrote the script, which is burdened by an excess of soap opera melodrama. The good musical score, however, is by Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter.

Top quality production values and good photography make the film easy enough to watch, but there's a tragic story behind `The Lost World'. Willis O'Brien, creator of `King Kong', spent several years during the late 1950s making preparations for a big-budget remake of his 1925 version of `The Lost World'. He made his pitch to producer Irwin Allen and the big wheels at 20th Century Fox, showing them the hundreds of preproduction drawings and paintings he had done. He succeeded in persuading them to make the film -- but Fox refused to let O'Brien do the film's special effects, substituting the poorly embellished reptiles instead.

From all reports, O'Brien's version would have been the greatest lost-land adventure movie of all time. Irwin Allen's lack of vision is puzzling in view of the fact that in 1955 he produced `The Animal World' with animated dinosaurs by Ray Harryhausen and Wills O'Brien! See my comments on `Animal World' for more info.