ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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We all love "lost world" movies, and Hollywood has done a pretty good job of finding interesting places to hide away these exotic cultures, bizarre ecosystems, and spectacular geographic locations.

Some of the movies below are timeless classics, while others are considerably less popular. But they all endeavor to create a fantasyland that can't be found on any actual map.

So, pack your bags, tell your neighbors you're going on a long trip, and set off with me in search of . . . Hollywood's Lost Worlds!
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The Lost World (1925) — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a great book, and Willis O'Brien brought it to the screen in a spectacular fashion.

A high plateau in South America, cut off from the rest of the world by a combination of location and elevation, miraculously preserves a prehistoric environment for millions of years! It sounds just plausible enough to defy all the extinction theories that refute it. How could we not help but wish it was true?







King Kong (1933) — An uncharted island in the Pacific manages to do the same thing Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's lofty plateau did — preserve prehistoric life forms for millions of years and give us a lush tropical island where dinosaurs can roam free, have babies, and eat natives . . . if they can just get past that damn wall!

Skull Island's lush jungle, misty atmosphere, and spectacular geography make it look so appealing that sci-fi/fantasy fans would gladly buy bogus real estate there from crooked land promoters. This is the Brooklyn Bridge of "lost worlds"!







Lost Continent (1950) — It's a poor man's version of the 1925 The Lost World — a plateau that offers sanctuary for displaced dinosaurs who refuse to becoming extinct — but these aren't the high-classed dinosaurs we see in The Lost World and King Kong. Their the runts of the litter, the inbred versions from the wrong side of the tracks.

Frankly, when the whole region is destroyed by an earthquake in the climax, we aren't all that sorry to see it go. We figure somebody might build a better "lost world" on the devastated site and cause good things to come out of this tragedy.







The Land Unknown (1957) — This is my second favorite "lost world", right after Skull Island. I actually enjoy the lizard / dinosaurs, the puppet / dinosaurs, and the man-in-the-suit T-Rex!

The matte paintings of this Antarctic "lost world", with its spectacular landscape and misty atmosphere, come closer to Skull Island than any other movie before or since. And the method our intrepid explorers use to reach it is cool as hell — an awesome helicopter that takes them there in comfort and brings them back home in a spectacular fashion during the last moments of this fantastic movie.











The Mole People (1956) — After Hollywood discovered "lost worlds" on South American plateaus, South Pacific islands, and hidden Antarctic valleys, they went in a new direction by looking downward, deep beneath the Earth. A group of scientist in Asia find an underground civilization of Sumerian albinos' who relocated into giant caverns after cataclysmic floods occurred in ancient Mesopotamia. They live on mushroom, and they enslave mutant "mole people" to do all the heavy lifting.

I've seen this movie several times but I don"t seem to remember the mushrooms. I guess they were nothin' to write home about, so to speak.

Suffice it say, the lack of dinosaurs in this movie is NOT its only flaw.





Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) — Two years after The Mole People failed to dazzle us with its underground adventure, this one got everything just right! Not only are we treated to a subterranean sea and a mushroom forest which definitely IS memorable —





— we are shown the best example of "accessorized lizards" playing spectacular dinosaurs.

Dimetrodons looked so much like the enhanced iguanas used in this movie that I don't feel the slightest urge to wonder if Harryhausen animation would have been better. In this movie, the lizards rock!

















The Lost World (1960) — Despite the fact that this movie gets no love whatsoever from "lost world" fans (nor does it deserve any), I have a guilty fondness for it. Visually it has its merits, despite its many other flaws, and the cast is stellar. The sets are very impressive, both the full-sized ones and several fine miniatures.

But of course, this movie is forever damned by its lame use of lizards.

"Great Scott, professor! That iguana-like beast is obviously a brontosaurus!"





And all this was done right after Willis O'Brien spent years making preparations for a version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel and then presented his work to Irwin Allen.

Mr. Allen loved the idea — and then promptly stole it from the grand old man who could have made this the ultimate Land of Lost Dinosaurs adventure!

But, as I said, it has some nice cinematic eye-candy which sweetens the taste of the bitter pill we swallowed in 1960 when this monumental disappointment was released.











Mysterious Island (1961) — We'e off again to an uncharted Pacific island, but this time the exotic ecology and the strange creatures aren't prehistoric lifeforms who somehow survived for millions of years. These creatures are man-made . . . and the man is Captain Nemo, who genetically engineered giant crabs, giant bees, giant sea creatures, and giant birds which were delicious when cooked and eaten by the hungry castaways!





Nemo did all this in hopes of ending world hunger, and in doing so alleviating the horrors of war.











This is one of my favorite "lost world" movies, with a very appealing premise, a very attractive cast, and some very impressive special effects by the man who learned his craft from Willis O'Brien himself!

Add to that the wonderful score by Bernard Herrmann and you've got a film that provides a great adventure for fans of "lost world" stories.

Valley of Gwangi (1969) This film is a mixed bag of successful and unsuccessful elements.

It's supposed to be the realization of Willis O'Brien's dream of a King Kong-like adventure in which cowboys encounter dinosaurs in a remote location, and then they wrangle them dogies back to civilization to present a rodeo with a lot more than just ridin' and ropin'!

I'm not sure O'Brien's concept would have worked, but in my opinion, Harryhausen's version definitely does not.

The 1969 movie fails to convince us that a remote valley in Mexico somehow has dinosaurs living in it. The valley itself looks far too ordinary — unlike Skull Island and the Antarctic region in The Land Unknown.

As a result, the Harryhausen film which has more stop motion animation than any of his prior ones (20+ minutes) offers the least satisfying story.








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So, there you have it. Several great "lost world" movies, along with several lost opportunities to excel in this beloved genre. And in this age of surveillance satellites and GPS systems, we'll never again see a movie that convinces us there are exotic animals in strange places which mankind has yet to explore.

Bummer, huh?
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]

[Pow]

I'm not comprehending your views regarding some of these films, Bud.

''The Lost World'' (1960) is lame with its real life lizards, but real life lizards are fine as well as puppets & man-in-a-dino-suit in ''The Land Unknown'' & "Journey to the Center of the Earth."

I have to strongly disagree on those points.

"TLU"is an entertaining, fun 50s sci-fi "B" movie with a good cast. The sets & matte paintings are terrific looking.

The dino scenes totally detract from the movie by how poor & cheesy they appear.

The only thing that works rather well is the dangerous, meat eating animatronic plant.

"JTTCOTE"is a classy, well done movie based upon the Jules Verne novel.

The didno scenes utilizing live lizards are about as well done as that technique could be done.

Still ultimately a disappointment in those scenes for me.

I know I am a broken record but masterful stop-motion animation would have vastly enhanced "TLU.''

It would would have been wonderful in the fine "JTTCOTE.''

Have to say that "The Valley of Gwangi" is a fave of mine & works just fine for me.

[Bud Brewster]

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Ah well, I certainly didn't expect everybody else to completely agree with my own opinions. Besides, where's the fun in that, eh?

I understand your objections based on your own preferences, and I've never been a big fan of lizard-dinosaurs. I have, however, been a fan of Harryhausen since I saw the trailers for Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and It Came from Beneath the Sea, even though I didn't get to see my first Harryhausen movie until 1956, Earth vs the Flying Saucers.

Story-wise, I feel like the FX in The Land Unknown helped create a true "lost world" rather well, and the lizards in Journey to the Center of Earth are (as you said) the best example of the live-lizard technique.

However, when comparing The Land Unknown to The Valley of Gwangi, the former impresses me as a convincing story about a mist-shroud region filled with strange creatures, while the latter is just a large amount of Ray's great animation . . . taking place on Roy Roger's ranch.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Maurice]

re The Land Unknown, I've read that the T-Rex got a second career after a makeover to serve as "Spot" on The Munsters. It's hard to find a great pic of Spot, but the teeth sure seem to match.
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"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."
― Orson Welles

[Pow]

I believe that "The Valley of Gwangi" has the most minutes of stop-motion animation by Ray compared to his other films.

Always admired the vistas where the 'Forbidden Valley' scenes were shot. Ciudad Encantada, near Cuenca in Spain was the actual location for filming. Aided by some beautiful matte paintings.

I found that rugged area in the movie to be like it was something from a distant time. Had a spooky feel to it as the cowboys rode into the valley.

The Mexican town scenes was shot at Tabernas village, also in Spain. I was impressed with the look of this village. It looked as if it truly was a place where people lived & worked. A place that was from another century.

So many movies utilize the western towns constructed by movie studios for their back lot.

Sometimes that works okay but other times it reeks of an artificial environment that is difficult to buy. Tabernas had no such problems.

Trivia } Ray dreaded animating the ancient eohippus because it is the ancestor to the modern day horse. When animating fictional creatures, Ray felt he had artistic license with the stop-motion movements of a Cyclops,dragon,or Hydra.

Even with dinosaurs, he thought that since they were extinct for millions of years we are not exactly sure as to how they moved.

However, since the eohippus would really move like a horse of today, Ray knew he had to get its movements as realistically looking as possible.

Ray was very unhappy with the scene where Gwangi attempts to push through the entrance of the valley & causes a rock slid which knocks Gwangi unconscious. The model in that scene looked unconvincing to ray but the budget did not allow for a larger more detailed model.

According to Ray, a typical effects budget in the late 60s was barely $35,000-to-$40,000 dollars!

Egads, could you imagine what he could have achieved with the lavish & massive FX budgets of this day & age?

Ray's daughter, Vanessa, who was about five years old absolutely loved the Gwangi model. It became her best friend & she would take it everywhere with her.

One day when she was in a stroller & her mother, Diana, was shopping an elderly woman took notice of the fact that Vanessa had Gwangi all wrapped up in a blanket as the little girl hugged her 'doll.'

The older woman was shocked a child would have such a play toy, she lectured Diana on how inappropriate it was for any child to posses such a toy.

[Bud Brewster]

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You're quite correct, Pow, The Valley of Gwangi has the most "pure Harryhausen" animation of an film he did. With Clash of The Titans he got a lot of help (and there's nothing wrong with that, of course).

Naturally Ray's animation in Gwangi was excellent, as aways . . . but Ray chose not to do a "lost world" environment the way I would have preferred, something closer to the Gold Standard of "lost worlds" — King Kong.

My enjoyment of The Land Unknown is rooted just as much in the physical look of the cloud-shrouded valley as it is in the dinosaur scenes (which, as I mentioned, are fun for me).

But in both The Valley of Gwangi and One Million Years B.C., Ray put his dinosaurs out in the middle of rocks and sand, instead of jungles and mist.







That just doesn't work for me.

Staring off into the distance on Skull Island, dazzled by the complexity of the dense foliage, wondering what might be behind the trees, peering into the mist to see what might emerge — that's the feeling that won my young heart when I first saw King Kong







O'Brien understood the proper surroundings for dinosaurs better than Harryhausen did. That's my firm opinion, for what it's worth.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Maurice]

Well, the cost of shooting in a lush forest or jungle is higher for a number of reasons. The live action portion is usually costlier, and for stop motion you'd have to do all the miniature vegatation and/or glass paintings to shoot through. I suspect it was this more than Ray's proclivities that led him to animate in barren wastelands.
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"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."
― Orson Welles

[Bud Brewster]

[Maurice]

You misapprehend my meaning. The cost of properly "greening" a set is sometimes higher than for a set made of rocks, etc.
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* * *
"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."
― Orson Welles

[Bud Brewster]

[Bud Brewster]

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All Sci-Fi's New "Lost World" Concept Threads
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From time to time we've discussed several original ideas for "Lost World" stories, and I figured they deserved honorable mentions here.

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A version of The Land Unknown

The first one was described in a post on Nov 14, 2018 in the SCIENCE now, add FICTION later forum under the title Beneath Antarctica's Ice, Evidence of Lost Continents!. (<— link)

I had a ball coming up with ideas for a hidden valley in Antarctica, located beneath the ice. To illustrate what I had in mind I whipped up the picture below with Paint.net in, using a nice picture of New Zealand, with the sky replaced by an aerial photo of the North Pole . . . turned upside down







Naturally the bright sunlight is all wrong, but you get the idea.

The thread includes links to articles I found which state that a hidden valley under the Antarctoc ice might be possible.

Scientists discover giant trench under Antarctic ice
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The researchers were charting the Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands — an ancient mountain range buried beneath several miles of Antarctic ice — by combining data from satellites and ice-penetrating radar towed behind snowmobiles and onboard small aircraft.
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I didn't create a story to go with this amazing subterranean landscape, I just wanted to see how close I could get to making it seem possible. And I enjoyed every minute of it.

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A version of The Beast of Hollow Mountain

Recently (Oct 17, 2021), Pow and I exchanged ideas for an "improved" version of The Beast of Hollow Mountain (<— link) on the thread for that movie.

My first idea was to have Hollow Mountain contain a cave filled with a gas that put the T-Rex and several smaller dinosaurs in a state of suspended animation for millions of years . . . until one of those infamous Mexican earthquakes created an opening, released the gas, and allowed the dinosaurs to escape.

The T-Rex started dining on the cattle from a big ranch, and the smaller dinosaurs invaded the nearby gator-invested swamp we see in the movie. In other words, they created a miniature Lost World!





I suggested that the gauchos would rope the cattle rustling T-Rex, since this movie was originally going to feature Willis O'Brien's animation, and Valley of Gwangi was a project he had planned to do.







I was impressed when Pow offered a unique and different concept.

He felt that the story should be set inside the cave — and the cave should be base on the World's Biggest Cavern — the 3-million year old Hang Son Doong cave, discovered in central Vietnam.