mark.waltz
Magnified stock footage of lizards fighting, a tall man in a rubber suit (where you can almost see the zipper), and a cute marmoset which ends up as an h'orderve for a mammal eating plant give this entertaining but overall silly variation of "Land of the Lost" a memorable camp quotient. Unfortunately filmed in black and white (much of it overly foggy and difficult to make out what's going on in the background), this adventure is perhaps not as well known as other similar time travel movies or films set in lost continents because it isn't as technically superb as the many others in that genre. As a film historian and fan of this genre, I was surprised that I had never even heard of this, but found it fun overall in spite of obvious flaws. If there is a world out there on our huge planet, I hope it is never discovered or revealed to the public if it has been. What we don't need is a real life Jurassic Park, as the last films of that modern series have proven.The story surrounds an expedition to the south pole where commander Jock Mahoney takes a helicopter filled with scientists and reporter Shirley Patterson and finds more than he bargained for. As we witness the cracks and crevices of the sharp snowy mountain ranges, it becomes obvious that the world beyond our reach is one not meant for human visitors, and neither is the way below sea level lost world they find themselves stranded in where the dense fog keeps out the Antarctic snow and has that world stuck in one long gone from the rest of our planet. Unable to see what's going on around her, Patterson is unaware of the vegetation branches nearly pulling her in to a fate worse than death itself, but is spared (for now) that agonizing ending. Only when they find the cute little monkey to be do they get to see the power of ancient nature, and it's very disturbing to watch this cuddly little creature pulled into the abyss of a painful ending.When the lizards first appear, I began to wonder if this was stock footage used in other similar films, and when the T-Rex comes on, I had to chuckle by its lack of realism. A swimming dinosaur with huge teeth is scared off by the sound of a mysterious horn, and when Patterson is suddenly abducted, it is apparent that they are not alone. She ends up in the cave dwelling of the stranded Henry Brandon whose haircut does not resemble anyone who has been out of society for 10 years. Obviously, he wants a mate, and the only way he will help the others out is if she stays behind. Among the other crew is William Reynolds who calls for help but isn't about to stick around to try to rescue Patterson from Brandon if he can get out alive. This leads to fights between members of the expedition over rescuing Patterson, as well as trying to get Patterson away from Brandon or later on, going out of their way to try to get him to come back to civilization with them.Suspenseful but not scary, this is a popcorn movie that might satisfy for one viewing but in comparison with others falls short of becoming a classic. It's obvious that this was rushed out for the teenage boy matinee crowd and possibly for drive-in showings, but doesn't really hold up 60 years later due to weak special effects, phony looking sets and the rubber dinosaur suits that expose their seams and don't even direct the person inside the suit to walk with commanding fear like a T-Rex would. I would say in spite of his modern hairstyle, Brandon comes off the best in the acting department, and in the conclusion, the theme of surviving without leaving carnage behind does have an impact on how the crew members and their leader deal with the cave-man like Brandon. It's also interesting to see how the dinosaur deals with the sharp pains it gets as it is sliced open by the revolving blades of the helicopter.
ferbs54
The "lost world" sci-fi/adventure movie "The Land Unknown" is available today on DVD as part of Universal Studios' Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection, just one of 10 films in this impressive box set. Perhaps not coincidentally, it shares a disc with another film, "The Deadly Mantis," with which it has much in common. For starters, both Universal films were released in 1957 (May for "TDM" and August for "TLU"), both were shot in B&W, and both, strangely enough, clock in at precisely 78 compact minutes. In addition, the two films both feature prehistoric monsters, a polar setting (the North Pole for the earlier film, Antarctica for "TLU"), the use of well-integrated stock footage, some dry, scientific narration at the film's opening, and a female character who happens to be a magazine reporter. And both, happily, are as fun as can be; intelligent, well-realized films that hold up very well today.In "TLU," a Navy scientific team heads to Antarctica to perform a mapping and exploratory mission; specifically, to explore the warm inland sea that Admiral Byrd's crew had discovered a decade before. But trouble arises when a chopper containing Commander/geophysicist Hal Roberts (future Tarzan star Jock Mahoney), pilot Jack Carmen (William Reynolds), machinist Steve Miller (hmmm, why does that name seem so familiar?, and played by Phil Harvey) and pretty "Oceanic Press" reporter Maggie Hathaway (Shawn Smith, who would go on to appear with Jock in "Tarzan the Magnificent" BEFORE Jock assumed the Tarzan role, and who here looks more than a little like the young Janet Leigh) is forced down by a sudden storm...and a collision with a pterodactyl! The helicopter lands in the titular "land unknown": at the bottom of a crater, 3,000 feet below sea level, with a temperature above 90 degrees and a sultry, humid, steaming jungle environment. Unable to fly out due to a busted rotor, the unfortunate quartet must contend not only with the terrain's prehistoric inhabitants--carnivorous plants, a T. rex, enormous lizards, and a water-dwelling, flippered "elasmosaurus"--but also with Dr. Carl Hunter (Henry Brandon), a survivor from the Byrd expedition who has been marooned in this inhospitable landscape for a decade, has reverted to savagery, and who now kidnaps Maggie so as to possess a cavegirl of his own....Shot in CinemaScope and boasting very passable special FX, "The Land Unknown" certainly does look better than one might reasonably expect. Utilizing beautiful matte paintings in the backgrounds and lush vegetation and swirling steam to the fore, the filmmakers have succeeded in creating a fully convincing Mesozoic landscape ("...a pretty effective lost world," says Michael Weldon in my "Psychotronic Encyclopedia" bible). The dinosaurs--although only NON-stop-motion models or, in the case of that T. rex, a man in a suit--are just passable enough to avoid the dreaded "cheese factor," and the battling reptiles (actually monitor lizards in close-up, and a seemingly unavoidable convention in this type of film) are well integrated onto their backdrops. In a word, the FX in the film are adequate, and often endearing, and always artistically done. Director Virgil Vogel (who had helmed the Universal "classic" "The Mole People" just the year before) gives his film a memorable look and even manages to generate some real suspense near the conclusion, as our team of heroes races to repair that chopper as T. rex slowly advances on them. "A paradise of hidden terrors," proclaimed the original poster for the film, and Vogel does a fine job of keeping those terrors and jolts coming. In all, a hugely entertaining affair, and of course, a perfect film to watch with your favorite 10-year-old...another similarity the picture shares with "The Deadly Mantis." And as a bonus, "The Land Unknown" provides all us men with what might be the most memorable pickup line in screen history, courtesy of he-man scientist/nerd Commander Roberts: "Although I know basically women consist mostly of water, with a few pinches of salt and metals thrown in, you have a very unsaltlike and nonmetallic effect on me"!
Lee Eisenberg
As can be expected of a 1950s movie about people having to battle monsters, "The Land Unknown" is totally hokey but very enjoyable. When a navy expedition is forced to make an emergency landing in Antarctica, it finds a land where dinosaurs still exist. It's Jurassic* Park as a surprise! The best scenes are of course the dinosaurs. There's a tyrannosaurus and an elasmosaurus, and even some monitor lizards. Hell, there's even a man-eating plant. Obviously, a lot of the content is pretty dated, but we can expect that in one of these movies. The point is to luxuriate in the occasional confrontations between the humans and the dinosaurs. I figure that the cast probably had a lot of fun making it.PS: Jock Mahoney was Sally Field's stepfather.*They actually say that the area is trapped in the Mesozoic Era.
