“I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw a dinosaur.”
An American construction company is building a new harbor for a small Caribbean island. Bart Thompson (Ward Ramsey) and his crew are blasting the sea bed to deepen the harbor. Betty Piper (Kristina Hanson) is bringing lunch to the men. One of the delayed explosions causes her motor boat to bob knocking her cooler overboard. She jumps in to retrieve it. Bart jumps in after her.
While underwater Betty sees something she has never seen before. The underwater blasts unearth two preserved dinosaurs. They appear to have been frozen in suspended animation for millions of years. The prehistoric creatures are a T-Rex and a Brontosaurus. They were preserved in a channel of ice cold water. The explosions removed the rock around them. The two dinosaurs are pulled onshore.
The slimy island manager, Mike Hacker (Fred Engelberg) finds a preserved Neanderthal man (Gregg Martell). Thinking he can make a lot of money with it he hides his little treasure. That night a storm on the island releases a lightning bolt that strikes the dinosaurs and the Neanderthal man bringing all of them back to life.
Since there is a storm raging outside the islanders have no idea that there are two dinosaurs and a caveman running around. At least for a while. Hacker has a ward named Julio (Alan Roberts). Hacker mistreats the kid and he runs away into the jungle.
The dinosaurs begin to rampage all over. The Neanderthal manages to wander into someone’s house and do a bunch of damage. Julio shows up and the two of them bond. When Hacker shows up to capture the ape man the two run off into the night.
Meanwhile the islanders learn of the dinosaurs and need shelter. The only place on the island that may provide some safety from the beasts is an old fort that is partially in ruins. Bart and the others must find a way to fortify the old fort to protect themselves from the rampaging beasts.
“Dinosaurus!” was released in 1960 and was directed by Irvin Yeaworth. The dinosaurs are a combination of stop-motion animation and puppets. During special effects work on the film, the stop-motion animation crew used their brontosaurus model and miniature jungle set to film a shot for The Twilight Zone episode: “The Odyssey of Flight 33” (1961). The roar of the Tyrannosaurus ended up being stock footage for future dinosaur movies and TV shows.
The movie is kind of ridiculous. Especially the little kid and the Neanderthal. And the stop motion is definitely not Harryhausen. It’s a silly piece of nonsense. OK it’s down right dumb, but there is a lot of fun with this movie. I could have done without the kid, and the caveman. But, even though the dinosaurs were pretty lame, I loved them.