JohnHowardReid Producer: Irwin Allen. An Irwin Allen Production. Copyright 1960 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Warner: 13 July 1960. U.S. release: July 1960. U.K. release: 28 August 1960. Australian release: December 1960. 97 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Zoology Professor George Edward Challenger (Claude Rains) flies home to London from South America to announce he has discovered a "lost world" where Jurassic monsters from 150,000,000 B.C. still roam. His claim is doubted by members of the Zoological Institute, so he offers to lead an expedition back to the area. Those who accompany Challenger on his next exploration are Lord Roxton (Michael Rennie), a playboy and big game hunter; Jennifer Holmes (Jill St John), daughter of the American newspaper executive who finances this venture; David Holmes (Ray Stricklyn), Jennifer's brother; Ed Malone (David Hedison), American newsman and photographer; and Professor Walter Summerlee (Richard Haydn), a scientist who has long been critical of Challenger.When the party arrives at a remote trading post on the Amazon, two others join the expedition — Gomez (Fernando Lamas), who pilots the helicopter to the plateau where the "lost world" exists, and Costa (Jay Novello), a jungle travel agent and guide. Gomez, who notices everything while he plays his guitar and sings, realizes that Jennifer is very interested in Lord Roxton, but Roxton isn't serious about Jennifer.Gomez lands the helicopter beside a cliff, atop the "lost world". This is a land of strange vegetation, of intertwining vines, of contorted trees and bizarre colors.NOTES: "The Lost World" was first filmed by First National in 1925. It was directed by Harry Hoyt and starred Lewis Stone, Bessie Love and Wallace Beery. In the earlier film the adventurers returned to London with the baby dinosaur which later terrorized the city.COMMENT: After carping about "Journey to the Center of the Earth", a lot of critics then had the audacity to compare this movie unfavorably. I found both equally enjoyable. Neither is meant to be taken seriously so far as plot and characters are concerned, but both have wonderful sets and effects which are ideally suited to and look absolutely great in CinemaScope.I especially liked Claude Rains as the larger-than-life Challenger, Michael Rennie as the steadfast hero, Richard Haydn the ideal Summerlee, and Jill St John the appealingly comic-stripped heroine.OTHER VIEWS: Pleasingly chipper... refuses to take itself too seriously... fright with a smile on its face. — Paul V. Beckley in the N.Y. Herald Tribune.

GUENOT PHILIPPE I watched this movie after nearly thirty years and I saw the 1925 version just after. I did not remember this one and I was astonished to see that the first version of Conan Doyle's novel was far far better. I know this sounds strange, but the remake seems to end where the original resumed towards a terrific climax: the prehistoric monster loose in a big city, in the pure KING KONG manner, or so many other monster movies, such as those we saw during the fifties. I don't know why Irwin Allen did not continue his story in NY, London or Paris...This would have been great; instead of that we only see a baby monster where maybe in the future give many difficulties to the human kind. A sort of open ending. And watching such an end and then resuming with the original, with an ending where the monster is brought to London to finally attack the city, watching the Irwin Allen's feature may be really painful, such as an one arm man who, after an amputation, still feels his missing arm.

Scarecrow-88 While I'm a fan of adventure fantasy as the next nerd, unfortunately, a sci-fi picture like "The Lost World" has a plot that has become shopworn and a bit too familiar (watch numerous Irwin Allen shows from the 60s, like "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" or "Lost in Space" for reptiles "disguised" as dinosaurs, and the plot of this film is almost copied to the point of scenes practically being identical to that of an episode of "Voyage" in its First Season) to have the kind of resounding effect it might have had for kids back then. A group of characters (like a professor played with bluster and gruff by the wonderful Claude Rains and the dignified and proper Michael Rennie as wealthy hunter, and the usual assortment of colorful tag-alongs, like David Hedison (who would go on to star for Allen in "Voyage"), and curvy Jill St. John as the love interest that seems to come between Hedison and Rennie) pursue the location of a "hidden" world where prehistoric dinosaurs still exist, finding a lot more than they bargained for.Diamonds, lava-flowing volcano eruption, cave-ins, a tribe with spears ready to sacrifice, and giant lizards—oops, dinosaurs all offer dangers to the cast. Included is the smokin' Vitina Marcus as a tribe babe (with a tan to die for) the group encounters and brings into the fold, character actor Ian Wolfe (he's been in a little bit of everything) as the blind, lost scientist Burton White, Richard Hadyn (the Twilight Zone episode "A Thing About Machines" and "The Sound of Music") as the hapless, always-embarrassed professor who accompanies them and often played as a comic foil, & Ray Striklyn and Fernando Lamas, both sketchy and perhaps not to be trusted (Lamas is amusing as the local who offers salutations to the group once they arrive to the jungle prior to traveling into the lost world). With diamonds, greed could motivate a gun from its holster and pointed at people.Marcus seems to be in the film merely as eye candy, and I must admit that it was hard to pay attention to anything else going one when she's bandying about in such a skimpy costume of such barely-there rags. I can only imagine how cool this could have been if Willis O'Brien had been hired for stop motion effects instead of the laughable lizards used as fake dinosaurs that are very unconvincing. The Lost World, in widescreen color, looks every bit the large sets on a Fox lot. I felt like I was watching a television show of "Voyage" expanded to 90 minutes. Still, seeing Rains brushing annoying people aside that get on his nerves (at one point, knocking Hedison to the ground after leaving his plane!), and Rennie every bit the stoic gentleman (on screen) are fun to watch in the same film together. While Jill St John is stuck with the gold digger part, pursuing Rennie, thankfully she's likable enough to flesh out her character a bit (these kinds of films often feature the stunner with the well-manicured pet who has no business participating in a grand adventure that requires a tolerance for the outdoors, sweat, dirt, and monsters). Dinosaurs fighting with their tails threatening Hedison and St. John who try to keep from plunging off the side of a mountain and even the large flowers that open and close on humans who walk within them ("Lost in Space" fans will recognize this), Irwin Allen wasn't about to let such scenes and sets go unused after this film. For a Saturday afternoon, in need of an adequate adventure to waste some time on, "The Lost World" could do the trick, but I have seen "Voyage" episodes from the first season that are just as good.

Ross Care Almost all of the 50 or more reviews here have cited and re-cited the repulsively live lizards and overall B-movie ambiance of this controversial remake of the Conan Doyle novel and 1925 silent classic. Does anyone read anyone else's reviews before submitting?????Anyway, I'll try to say something new (or at least unsaid) about this slightly tarnished Golden Oldie. I think one person did note the excellent score. One of the best things in the film is the Main Title sequence with the tempestuous music of Paul Sawtell and Bert Sheftner playing against FANTASIA-like shots of swirling molten lava. (These are certainly more vividly fantastic than the disgusting looking goo that passes for lava at the climax of the film).One might say the film goes downhill from there, but the DVD's stereo version of the original 4-track CinemaScope soundtrack makes the entire score (and film) sound even better. The impressive aerial shots of the Amazonian jungles during the flight to the plateau are an especially effective fusion of wide-screen cinematography and music.I personally was drawn back into this LOST WORLD after revisiting the great Circus-Circus episode in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, one of the best sequences in the middle-period Bond cycle. Her role as Bond girl, Tiffany Case, is certainly a high point of Jill St. John's film career. Her smart pants suits and stylish look in DIAMONDS are possibly modeled on singer Elly Stone in the long-running Off Broadway show, Jacque Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. At any rate, she looks great and the DIAMONDS wardrobe is certainly an improvement on the hot pink Capri pants she impeccably sports throughout the jungle madness and slobbering lizard attacks in LW. (The versatile Ms. St. John also wrote a cookbook, which is still apparently in print).Claude Rains and Richard Hayden, the voice of the caterpillar in Disney's ALICE IN WONDERLAND, do the best they can with the material. Rains even looks something like the original Challenger in the classic silent version.Ray Stricklyn as David Holmes was nominated for a 1961 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in THE PLUNDERERS, and also for Most Promising Newcomer in 1959. But for better or worse LOST WORLD (and THE RETURN OF Dracula) remain the films for which he is most remembered. Scarlet Street, the cult genre magazine (for which I used to write about film music) published an interview with the then out-of-the-closet (and since deceased) Stricklyn in issue #35. The 2-disc LOST WORLD DVD set includes an excellent restoration of the original silent version. The dream-like, sometimes surreal imagery is made even more so by the restored multi-colored tinting. For viewers who fondly remember the era of the original 1960 release a complete version of the Dell movie tie-in comic will be an especially welcome and nostalgic addition among the bonus features.