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Professor Challenger (Claude Rains) launches an expedition to the
Amazon rainforest in search of a plateau upon which dinosaurs still walk
the earth ... but his traveling companions couldn't be less perfect for an
enterprise of this sort: Of all people a woman - Jennifer Holmes
(Jill St. John), daughter of the expeditions backer -, her kid brother
David (Ray Stricklyn), two men who fight over her - British adventurer
Roxton (Michael Rennie) and American hotshot reporter Malone (David
Hedison) -, professor Summerlee (Richard Haydn), his biggest doubter back
home, Gomez (Fernando Lamas), a helicopter pilot with his own agenda, and
Costa (Jay Novello), the stereotypical cowardly latino. Still, they make
it to the plateau in one piece, see (and run from) dinosaurs, capture a
native girl (Vitina Marcus) David is quick to fall in love with, Roxton
turns out to be a coward who has lost his companions on an earlier
expedition to here, Gomez turns out to be the brother of one of Roxton's
companions who now wants revenge, Costa turns out to be after some
diamonds said to be in the region, Jennifer gradually falls for Malone ...
and then they are all captured by a tribe of natives, but saved by their
native girl, who ultimately leads them to safety while the lost world is
erradicated by the outbreak of its resident volcano ... First
and foremost, this is the last special effects credit of stop motion
superstar Willis O'Brien, and while an earlier adaptation of the story,
1925's The Lost World, was
pretty much his breakthrough movie, this one is pretty much a sad
swansong, as he was hired to do the stop motion work, and actually did
many a conceptual drawing, the movie ultimately used live lizards in
monster masks for budgetary reasons. So O'Brien's last credit is actually
a non-credit ... The film itself certainly is some sort of fun if you're
into jungle/lost world movies shot inside-for-outside mostly, with rather
unconvincing (and a bit ridiculous) looking dinosaurs - both of which has
some charm to it I have to admit -, but it's by no means a good film, it's
filled to the brink with clichées, is quite a bit more formulaic than its
(already formulaic) source material while at the same time pretty much
lacks that book's wit, and the story takes quite a bit too much screentime
with its exposition, which leaves to little time for the "good
parts". Not a trainwreck mind you, and certainly of nostalgic
value, but not a good film by any measure.
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