The Lost World (1960 film)

Infobox Film
name = The Lost World


image_size =
caption = Original 1960 theatrical poster
director = Irwin Allen
producer = Irwin Allen
Cliff Reid
writer = Irwin Allen
Charles Bennett
A. Conan Doyle (novel)
narrator =
starring = Michael Rennie
Jill St. John
David Hedison
Claude Rains
Fernando Lamas
music = Paul Sawtell
Bert Shefter
cinematography = Winton C. Hoch
editing = Hugh S. Fowler
distributor = 20th Century Fox
released = July 13, 1960 (USA)
runtime = 97 min.
country = U.S.A.
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0054038

"The Lost World" is a 1960 science fiction adventure film based on the novel of the same name by Arthur Conan Doyle and directed by Irwin Allen. The plot of the film revolves around the exploration of a mysterious flat mountain in the heart of unknown Venezuela inhabitated by cannibalistic natives, dinosaurs, giant carnivorous plants, and giant spiders.

Special effects for the film were rather simple and involved monitor lizards, iguanas, and crocodiles affixed with miniature horns and fins. This technique has been given the nickname slurpasaur by fans.

Plot

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.

The boisterous, arrogant professor Challenger, a reputed biologist and anthropologist, dares the London Zoological Society to mount an expedition to verify his spectacular claim, without physical proof, that his previous expedition to the Amazonian basin found live dinosaurs. Apart from him and his 'socialite' counterpart, professor Summerlee, it consists of experienced discoverer Lord Roxbury, the young reporter Ed Malone -who got publicly struck down with Challenger's umbrella at his arrival- and Jennifer Holmes, Malone's news agency's boss's daughter, essentially as conditions for putting up the money. In Brazil they are joined by Jennifer's brother David and local 'guide' Manuel Gomez. They soon discover the dinosaurs are real and dangerous, like giant spiders, but loose their helicopter and thus are desperate for a way down from the isolated plateau. They learn Roxbury knew about the fate of Burton White, an explorer whose diary they find, thus presume to be dead, in search of diamonds, and confirmation of the local tribe being the lethal guardians of the plateau's secrets, but also get surprising help...

Featured cast

Legacy

Irwin Allen utilized stock footage from this film for episodes of his various TV series, including Land of the Giants, Lost in Space, Time Tunnel, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV series). In 1966, Irwin Allen even tried to sell a TV series based on the film as he had done with Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea but was unsuccessful. [James Van Hise, "Hot Blooded Dinosaur Movies", Pioneer Books Inc. 1993 Pg.157]

Reception

The film is/was panned by critics and fans alike for its use of lizards with fins rather than using the far more convincing method of stop-motion.

External links

*imdb title|id=0054038|title=The Lost World.
* [http://www.iann.net/movies/lostworld/ Irwin Allen News Network] (The Irwin Allen News Network's Lost World page)

References