The Lost World

The second film adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel “The Lost World” (1912) quickly becomes a disaster in every sense of the word. Beyond a mediocre screenplay and appalling performances (Michael Rennie is listless, Claude Rains out of his element, Fernando Lamas wooden), the biggest strike against this movie is that the entire indescribable mess completely lacks any sense of adventure.

The detestable members of the expedition (the prissy Professor Summerlee, the sexist Lord Roxton, the lewd, mean guide Costa, and the irritating Jennifer Holmes) easily make it to the “impenetrable” Amazon plateau in a matter of a few minutes (in a helicopter, no less!). They view the local fauna more as an inconvenient and unpleasant fact than as a source of extraordinary scientific interest and wonder, with the exception of the native girl with great legs, a sort of pre-historic super-model whose “discovery” is described as being of “incalculable pantologic value”.

As far as the “special effects” are concerned, the lame, cruel idea to dress up iguanas and lizards as dinosaurs (along with a poor caiman and even a tokay gecko being passed off as a Tyrannosaurus rex) ranks second only to the idea of having them fight each other.

Catastrophic ending that’s unintentionally ridiculous.