The Lost World is a 1960 De Luxe Color and CinemaScope fantasy adventure film directed by Irwin Allen and loosely based on the 1912 novel of the same name by Arthur Conan Doyle. The plot of the film revolves around the exploration of a plateau in Venezuela inhabited by cannibals, dinosaurs, carnivorous plants, and giant spiders. The cast includes Claude Rains, David Hedison, Fernando Lamas, Jill St. John, and Michael Rennie.

The Lost World
Original 1960 theatrical poster
Directed by	Irwin Allen
Screenplay by	Irwin Allen Charles Bennett
Based on	The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle
Produced by	Irwin Allen Cliff Reid
Starring	Michael Rennie Jill St. John David Hedison Claude Rains Fernando Lamas
Cinematography	Winton C. Hoch
Edited by	Hugh S. Fowler
Music by	Paul Sawtell Bert Shefter
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	July 13, 1960 (U.S.)
Running time	97 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1,515,000[1]
Box office	$2,500,000 (US/ Canada)[2]

Plot

Professor Challenger, a celebrated biologist and anthropologist, reports to the London Zoological Society that he has discovered living specimens of supposedly extinct animals, including dinosaurs, on an expedition to the Amazon Basin and up a barely known plateau.

Much to Challenger's dismay, he has attracted a few very unscientific people to join him on his second journey to the Amazon. This expedition group includes big game hunter Lord John Roxton, newsman Ed Malone whose publisher advances $100,000 to pay for the expedition. The publisher's adventurous daughter, Jennifer and son David join the group at the head of the Amazon. Also, in the group is a Zoological Society bigwig, professor Summerlee, helicopter pilot Gomez and sidekick Jose Costa.

During the first night on the plateau, a dinosaur wrecks the helicopter. As the expedition proceeds, Malone chases a primitive jungle girl through cobwebs to a giant spider. The native girl later falls for David. Roxton argues with the others, and jealousies over Jennifer leads to a fistfight between Malone and Roxton.

They discover a diary of a previous explorer, Burton White, who was lost on the plateau. Roxton is mentioned several times in the diary. Roxton reveals that he had visited the plateau years before, and claims the plateau holds a bounty of diamonds. This motivates Jose to stay with the party instead of striking out on his own to escape from the plateau.

At one point, Malone and Jennifer are separated from the others and have a near death encounter with two battling dinosaurs. Cannibals capture the members of the party, but before they can become dinner the jungle girl leads them to a passage that leads down off the plateau. Along the way, they encounter Burton, now living as a blind hermit.

They encounter more obstacles — pursued by cannibals, spider plants, the "Graveyard of the Damned", and a dinosaur in a lava pit guarding the diamonds, which kills Costa. Gomez sacrifices himself while breaking a rock dam, killing the dinosaur.

During a volcanic eruption, the survivors of the Challenger party escape from the plateau, Challenger carrying the egg of a Tyrannosaurus rex. The financial security of the party is secure because Lord Roxton filled a couple of the bellows pockets of his hunting jacket with diamonds, and shares them with everyone. The dinosaur egg hatches when it is dropped by accident, and Professor Challenger decides to take the infant T. Rex back to London with them.

Featured cast

• Michael Rennie as Lord John Roxton — An experienced big-game hunter who joins the expedition.
• Jill St. John as Jennifer Holmes — The daughter of the owner of the Global News.
• David Hedison as Ed Malone — A journalist at the Global News who volunteers to join the expedition.
• Claude Rains as Professor George Edward Challenger — The short-tempered leader of the expedition.
• Fernando Lamas as Manuel Gomez — The expedition's helicopter pilot.
• Richard Haydn as Professor Summerlee — A rival of Challenger's who joins the expedition.
• Ray Stricklyn as David Holmes — The brother of Jennifer Holmes and the son of Malone's boss Stuart Holmes.
• Jay Novello as Costa — Gomez's assistant who also guides the expedition into the plateau.
• Ian Wolfe as Burton White — a professor who visited the Amazon Plateau before Challenger's expedition.
• John Graham as Stuart Holmes — Edward Malone's employer and the father of Jennifer and David Holmes.
• Colin Campbell as Prof. Waldron who organises the expedition.
• Vitina Marcus as the Native Girl.

Prehistoric creatures

• Iguanostyracus portrayed by an iguana with glued on horns
• Protostegosaurus portrayed by a monitor lizard with a glued-on frill and plates
• Ceratopspinus portrayed by a spectacled caiman and an alligator with glued-on horns, a small tail, and a small sail.
• Centrotyrannus portrayed by a monitor lizard with a glued-on frill and sails.
• Baby Centrotyrannus portrayed by a tokay gecko with glued-on horns and a sail.
• Giant spider portrayed by a Mexican redknee tarantula
• Giant carnivorous vines

Production

In 1959, Allen purchased the rights to Doyle's novel for $100,000. He wanted to make the film with Trevor Howard and Peter Ustinov in support of Rains,[3] as well as Victor Mature and Gilbert Roland (who had been in the 1925 film). None of these plans came to fruition. He hired Charles Bennett to help him adapt the book into a script and commissioned Willis O'Brien, who worked on the 1925[4] film, to do the models. He said he wanted to start filming on 15 October 1959.[3]

Allen eventually received financing to make the film from Buddy Adler, head of production at 20th Century Fox.[5]

Special effects for the film were rather basic and involved monitor lizards, iguanas, and crocodiles affixed with miniature horns and fins. Director Allen later stated that though he wanted stop motion models, he could only work with lizards and live creatures in accordance with the studio's budget.^{[citation needed]}

Legacy

Irwin Allen utilized stock footage from this film for episodes of his various TV series, including Land of the Giants, Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. 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.[6] Stock footage was also used in the movie When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970).

Comic book adaptation

• Dell Four Color #1145 (August 1960)[7][8]

See also

• List of American films of 1960
• Journey to the Beginning of Time (1967)

References

External links

• The Lost World (1960) at IMDb.
• The Lost World at AllMovie
• The Lost World at the TCM Movie Database
• The Lost World at the American Film Institute Catalog
• The Lost World at Rotten Tomatoes

На других языках

[ru] Затерянный мир (фильм, 1960)