The Land Unknown (1957)

Sadly Over-hyped

As Good As It Gets

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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.

Seemingly in the same vein as material like "Journey to the Center Of the Earth" and various jungle safari movies (in fact, when I saw Jock Mahoney's name in the credits, I thought it was going to be a Tarzan movie). Pro: Good looking, photogenic cast, who work hard to sell the dialog and the premise. There were very few false notes as lines were delivered. Interesting plot dynamics, with the introduction (SPOILER ALERT) of an additional character halfway into the film; this fifth character's existence and demands complicate issues nicely. Pretty decent sets. And very few of the scenes, even the ones laden with exposition, drag. Not-so-Pro: Some poor special effects, especially the dinosaurs and the flying shots of the crews' helicopter superimposed against stock footage. A couple major plot holes that let the air out of the plot (I won't reveal too much, except to say that the fifth character reveals he has a way to control the dinosaurs, and it's highly portable - its existence takes all the leverage out his demands). Predictable arcs for all the characters (with an exception that the stock character I was sure was marked for death by his complaining and sniveling actually survives and redeems himself somewhat). Same old stock soundtrack - close your eyes and I defy you to distinguish it from "Revenge Of The Creature" or "The Mole People" - appropriate but not at all interesting. Still, worth watching for fans of 50s black and white genre films. I was pleased to see Jock Mahoney (who I remembered fondly from "Tarzan's Three Challenges") in another lead role, playing not just A Body, but a man with a fine mind, so I may be prejudiced a bit in the film's favor, but I give it 6 out of 10. No more than genre filler, but well done genre filler.

Virgil Vogel directed this science fiction yarn about a Naval expedition in the Antarctic(led by Jock Mahoney, William Reynolds, and Phil Harvey) along with a female reporter(played by Shirley Patterson) who land in a crater well below sea level that contains a prehistoric world containing dinosaurs(both on land and in the sea) as well as carnivorous plants and a deranged sole survivor(Dr. Hunter) of a previous expedition. Can they repair their helicopter in time to rendezvous with their ship, before they are stranded in this lethal land? Marginal film has good story but clichéd treatment and characters. Some model F/X are poor(the T-Rex) while others aren't bad at all(the sea dinosaur). Watchable as a rainy-day diversion, but little more, though is an understandable cult item.

Jock Mahoney gets to show plenty of shaved he-man chest in this tale of castaways in a volcanic crater teaming with prehistoric plants and creatures. Their chopper goes down in a storm, and from that point they must find a way to get out of the place while fighting various elephant-sized reptiles, including a pleseosaur, pterosaurs and a rather silly looking T-Rex. There's also a rather large komodo dragon slithering around. They also grapple with a half-crazed human who has been living there for 10 years after his plane went down. Loosely based on the discovery of a tropical-like piece of land in the Antarctic, the movie is fast-paced and well-acted. The sets (many of them miniatures) are absolutely amazing, and I defy anyone to do any better using today's visuals. Of course, the creatures today would be CGI. The scriptwriters throw in a little talk about evolution when the castaways come across a small mammal that eventually will evolve into a monkey and then us. I can imagine how well this went over in the Deep South, if any adults were paying attention. Imagine your kid comes home from a Saturday afternoon showing and asks you if we're descended from monkeys. Anyhow, except for the silly looking T-Rex (man in rubber suit) and a rather slow-moving pleseosaur (a puppet), plus a typical 1950s actress thrown into the mix for unneeded sex appeal, the film is a lot of fun and still looks good today. It was shot in CinemaScope, which is great for the amazing jungle sets. Speaking of jungles, as some of you know, Mahoney would go on to play Tarzan in some of the best Tarzan movies ever made. And his Tarzan films were some of the first to be shot on authentic locations, including one that as Tarzan swinging into action in India!