In 1830 an American clipper ship called “The Queen” is attacked by pirates. First mate Kirk Hamilton (James Arness) is injured in the battle. The ship puts in at Queensland Colony, Australia so that Hamilton can get the medical treatment and rest he needs. Along with him are two shipmates Salty (Tim Graham) and Nat Mercer (Fred Kohler Jr.). While recuperating, Kirk meets and falls in love with Elaine Jeffries (Kasey Rogers). Elaine is secretly engaged to Martin Shannon (Bill Kennedy) but she finds herself falling for Kirk. When Elaine realizes that Kirk will eventually leave she decides she cannot go with him. Her place is in Queensland with her father, Magistrate Jeffries (Pierre Watkin) and her younger sister Janice (Gloria Petroff).
As soon as Elaine decides to stay and marry Martin the colony is invaded by pirates led by Captain Hackett (Michael Rye). Elaine’s father is killed in the battle. The pirates kidnap Elaine and her friend Nancy Holden (Jane Harlan). Nate, Martin and a group of colonists head after them. While they are under sail they find that Elaine’s little sister Janice was hiding on board the ship.
When Nate’s ship catches up to the pirate vessel the two crews battle it out. Both ships are destroyed and set on fire. A small life boat escapes the carnage. In the little boat are Nate, Elaine, Janice, Martin, Nancy, Kirk and another sailor John Hartley (Tom Hubbard). They land on a desolate island. They go searching for food and water. They find dinosaurs.
“Two Lost Worlds” was released in 1951 and was directed by Norman Dawn. The film is labeled as an adventure/romance/science fiction movie. It’s heavy on the romance and adventure but not really a science fiction film. It is a low budget independent movie. Short on budget and short on time, only 61 minutes long.
The dinosaurs show up about 45 minutes into the movie. The dinosaur footage is from “One Million BC” 1940. No new dinosaur footage was made for the film. All of it was stock footage and even the volcano footage was from “One Million BC”. The people footage was shot in Red Rock Canyon State Park in Cantil, California.
The movie was actually good if you are looking for either a romance story or an adventure film. The acting was great. The plot(s) and the dialogue all good. If you are just looking for a dinosaur movie, I’m afraid it’s a rip-off. I was forewarned about the whole, “it’s not really a dinosaur movie”, situation so I got what I expected.
James Arness was billed under the original spelling of his last name “Aurness”. This is one of his earlier movies. Still he did well.
There is only one lost world, for Australians, they sound a lot like Americans and the narration is insipid.
If the movie looks a little disjointed, there’s a reason for that. I heard that the film was actually at least two television episodes of a failed TV series spliced together to make a movie. What the TV series was I don’t know but that little tidbit of information made things a little clearer to me. I believe the obnoxious narration was added to try to make it blend better. It didn’t. Of course this is not the first time I’ve seen this kind of super-glued movie.
The movie is good for James Arness fans, or if you need something to watch on “Talk like a pirate day”. Arrgh.