Dino Flicks: Dinosaurus! (1960)

Believe it or not, this is a dinosaur/monster movie from the 50's and 60's that I didn't first learn about from either Fantastic Dinosaurs of the Movies or The History of Sci-Fi and Horror. In fact, I can't really pinpoint when I first heard of it, as the title is strangely both generic and yet, kind of unique. John Landis mentions it briefly in his book, Monsters In The Movies, which I first read back in 2018, so that may be where it. In that book, he notes that he has something of a connection to Dinosaurus!, as clips from it are playing in a theater in a scene from his first movie, Schlock, and the producer, Jack H. Harris, has a cameo there. There wasn't much else to go on, as Landis just showed one picture, of a not too convincing Brontosaurus with a puppet on its back, meant to be a little boy who's riding it. However, I was a bit interested just from reading that the director was Irvin Yeaworth Jr., who directed The Blob. And it turned out that Dinosaurus! was not only given a Blu-Ray release by Kino Lorber the following year, but said Blu-Ray is often sold by the vendors at G-Fest in Chicago, which I started attending regularly in 2018. So, I eventually had the opportunity to get my hands on it, which I did in 2023. I wasn't expecting an overlooked classic, but stop-motion dinosaurs always pique my interest, even if the results aren't always the greatest, i.e. Planet of Dinosaurs or The Beast of Hollow Mountain, to name a few. And when you start watching Dinosaurus!, you may be surprised to see how, as opposed to other low budget dinosaur and monster movies during this period, it's in both color, which looks really good thanks to Kino Lorber's 4K scan, and CinemaScope, and also features a fair amount of location work. Unfortunately, as the movie goes on, not only does it fall into the same old trap of bland human characters and a story that can feel slow, despite it being only 83 minutes, but the dinosaurs, the very things you come to the movie for, aren't that impressive. In fact, save for fleeting instances of some passable stop-motion, they're pretty lackluster, and it's a caveman who's revived along with them that gets the most screentime. The good thing is that the caveman is one of the more memorable characters, but on the whole, this is the definition of "mid."

On a small island in the Caribbean, Bart Thompson is overseeing an American construction project to build a large, modern harbor. When two of the explosive charges they're using fail to go off, Bart and his assistant, Chuck, consider their next move. But then, Bart's girlfriend, Betty Piper, arrives in the channel on a motorboat. As she doesn't understand their warnings about the danger, Bart goes out to meet her in his own boat, just as the charges explode. This causes Betty to drop the food she brought out to the men and, ignoring Bart's warning, she dives down after it. Bart, in turn, follows her, and finds her just after she's been frightened by the sight of a monstrous creature, which nearly causes her to drown. Bart gets her back to shore and revives her, then has Chuck investigate the bottom of the channel, as the water was unusually cold down there. When Betty comes to, she tells Bart what she saw, but before he can comment, he gets an unwelcome visitor: Mike Hacker, the island manager, who has been hostile towards hi operation and attempts to impede and sabotage it at every turn. In the middle of their argument, Chuck comes running in, telling them that he and another diver discovered two dinosaurs at the bottom of the channel, perfectly preserved and frozen solid. Bart decides to bring the creatures up onto the beach, and writes a letter to the island governor, who's currently in Washington, asking him to contact the Smithsonian Institute. When the dinosaurs are excavated, Julio, a young boy who's fascinated by them, and also happens to be Hacker's charge, identifies them as a Tyrannosaurs Rex and a Brontosaurus. Chuck then has a man named O'Leary watch over them for the night, but unbeknownst to anyone else, Hacker returns to the site and finds the body of a Neanderthal caveman. Intending to make some money off this discovery on the mainland, he hides the caveman in the bushes. During the night, a storm passes over the island and knocks out all the power, as well as revives both of the dinosaurs. The caveman returns to life as well and roams the island, eventually befriending Julio, as well as the Brontosaurus. Everyone else, meanwhile, is evacuated to an old fort to try to hold off the marauding Tyrannosaurus. But Hacker is still intent on capturing and profiting off the caveman, and there's no limit to what he'll do.

Dinosaurus! was the brainchild of maverick producer Jack H. Harris, whose first major success was The Blob. By this point, he'd also been behind the 1959 movie, 4D Man, and decided that he next wanted to do a dinosaur movie. In developing the screenplay, he contacted a couple of science fiction writers, Alfred Bester and Algis Budrys, for help, and in the documentary, Dinosaurus! A Monstrous Tale, Harris talks about how he and Budrys got together and, over the course of two weeks, wrote out 600 pages... and still weren't close to the ending! However, he says it convinced one of the higher-ups at Universal to make a deal with him once he had an ending. In the end, the final screenplay was written by Dan E. Weisburd, who would go on to mainly work in television, and Jean Yeaworth, the wife of the film's director, who worked exclusively on his projects.

Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr., or "Shorty," as his friends and family called him because his middle name was "Shortess" (although he was also a fairly tall man), was the natural choice to direct Dinosaurus!, seeing as how he'd also done The Blob and 4D Man for Harris. It also marks the end of a brief period where Yeaworth, whose main interest was producing Christian films, took a shot at directing science fiction films following the unexpected success of The Blob. He had no interest in the genre whatsoever, and only did The Blob on a lark to see if his production company could make something that would be successful with general audiences. Given how, to the end of his life, he always seemed to lament that that was his most well-known work, I can imagine that he also didn't think much of either 4D Man or Dinosaurus!, as profitable as they were as well. Sure enough, after Dinosaurus!, Yeaworth went back to almost exclusively making religious films, including some with Billy Graham. I say "almost" because, in 1966, he made the movie Way Out, a drama about the lives of two heroin addicts.

Even for the lead in this kind of movie, Bart Thompson (Ward Ramsey) is really bland. While a nice, understanding guy who's just trying to do his job and build a new harbor for the island, all while dealing with Mike Hacker's constant interference, and young Julio sneaking onto the construction site and unintentionally causing more trouble for him, since Hacker is his guardian, Bart has very little real personality to him. In fact, he's such a goody two-shoes that, when they discover the dinosaurs, rather than having even the slightest hint of trying to make money off them, he's more concerned with getting them out of the way so he can get back to work. He also intends to contact the Smithsonian and have them send some paleontologists down so they can decide what to do with them. But again, if nothing else, he is a likable guy, as he looks out for Julio, and becomes so furious when Hacker's abuse towards him causes him to run off into the storm that Bart is about ready to challenge Hacker to a fight. He takes charge when he realizes the dinosaurs have been revived and are roaming around the island, helping round up all the residents and send them to an old fort for shelter. Also, in trying find a way to contact the outside world when he learns that the storm knocked out all the phones, he decides to try to use a radio that Betty's father has at their house; unfortunately, the Caveman ends up destroying that. Though initially concerned about the Caveman's motives towards Betty and Julio, when he holds up the mine shaft's collapsing roof so they can escape, Bart tries to get him to come with them but to no avail. And by the time the third act rolls around, Bart finds himself literally battling the Tyrannosaurus to save his friends, first when the dinosaur traps them in the mine shaft, and at the fort, using a backhoe to knock him off a cliff and into the water.

Like Julio, Betty Piper (Kristina Hanson) unintentionally adds to Bart's troubles during her first appearance. She shows up in a motorboat when two of the construction's explosive charges have failed to go off, and when she doesn't understand their trying to warn her, Bart has to go out there and meet her. When the charges then go off, causing Betty to drop the lunch she brought for the men into the water, she initially thinks they were shooting at her, then further ignores Bart's warnings and dives down after it! While searching the bottom of the channel, she comes face-to-face with the Tyrannosaurus and nearly drowns out of fright. Fortunately for her, Bart followed after her and gets her back to shore. When she regains consciousness, Betty claims to have seen a monster down there, though Bart doesn't really believe her until his assistant, Chuck, spots the dinosaurs as well. Also, Betty, very stupidly, accuses Bart of being "awfully hard" on Hacker, despite knowing the trouble he's been causing him. She also later falls for Hacker's fake concern for Julio after he's run off, despite it clearly being insincere. In any case, after the dinosaurs have been hauled up onto the beach and someone is hired to guard them during the night, Bart decides to take Betty on a nice date in town. Things immediately go sideways, though, with a storm knocking power out over much of the island and the dinosaurs being revived. While much of the population heads to the island's fortress, Betty stays with Bart as he heads to her home to use her father's short-wave radio and call for help. 

Betty gets caught up in the action herself when, while trying to help Julio, she's chased and nearly killed by the Tyrannosaurus, only to be rescued by the Caveman. He takes her to the mine shaft and there, when she wakes up, he makes his intentions for her very clear, right down to making her cook a rabbit that he killed. This leads into Kristina Hanson's best bit of acting in the film, as Betty tries to placate the Caveman while waiting for a chance to escape. Telling him that she's not much of a cook, she goes,

"Okay. One rabbit, medium rare. I hope that's how you like it." She then puts the skewered rabbit over the fire, only for the Caveman to pull her back over to the bed of straw he's made. She says, "I hope you don't have anything else on your mind," when he starts fiddling with her hair, then takes off her pearl necklace. To keep him further entertained, she gives him her wristwatch, but when he next becomes interested in the hem of her skirt, she quickly goes back to cooking the rabbit. Faced with him again, she

asks, "Now let's see; just what does a caveman do after as a hard day's work in the jungle?" He goes for her hair again and she says, "No, don't tell me. Let me think of something tame on my own," She motions for him to sit down while backing him up, and when he does sit, she says, "And we'll keep all other thoughts out of our romantic little Neanderthal minds, okay?" She nods and smiles, which he imitates, and, while smiling at him, thinks aloud, "Maybe if I sing you a song, you'll fall asleep and then I can run away from you, hmm?" She gets him to nod and smile 

again, and starts nervously singing an impromptu version of Brahms' Lullaby, as he nuzzles against her. But before she has the opportunity to run, the two of them, as well as Julio and then Hacker, are trapped in the mine shaft by the Tyrannosaurus. This is where Betty, and the audience, finally sees just how monstrous Hacker is, as he intends to use Julio as bait in order to save his own skin. In the end, the Caveman manages to save both Betty and Julio, and they make it to the fort for the final standoff with the Tyrannosaurus. During the climax, when Bart decides to take the dinosaur on himself using the backhoe, Betty tries to accompany him, but he doesn't let her. She instead tells him that she loves him and wishes him good luck.

The role of Chuck (Paul Lukather), Bart's assistant, is a pretty thankless one, even though he is the one who confirms that Betty was right about what she saw down in the channel. He's relegated to doing little more than what Bart asks him to, although he is the one who comes up with the idea of taking refuge at the fortress, as well as to widen its moat, fill it with oil, and set it afire as a further barrier. After that, though, he spends most of his time getting together all the necessary equipment and leading a convoy of people up there. He also seems to have something of a relationship with Chica, the woman who owns the cantina and whom Mike Hacker has his sleazy eye on, but not much is made of it. There's really not much else to say about Chuck, as he's even blander than Bart himself. Still, in the documentary on the Blu-Ray, Paul Lukather said he was thankful for the work, as he was pretty inexperienced at the time, and was cast because Irvin Yeaworth had previously directed him in a Salvation Army training film.

While his performance isn't the greatest, the young boy named Julio (Alan Roberts) is one of the best characters in the movie. A curious and precocious kid who, unfortunately, has that bastard Mike Hacker as a legal guardian, and is often beaten and abused by him when he does something he doesn't like, Julio is constantly sneaking out to the construction site and unintentionally adding to Bart Thompson's problems with Hacker. When the dinosaurs are discovered and brought ashore, Julio is not only thrilled, like any kid would be (he describes one of them as "magnifico,"), but, being a dinosaur enthusiast, knows that they're a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Brontosaurus. Later, when Bart and Betty are on a date at the local cantina, Julio shows them some small dinosaur models that he got by sending away cereal box-tops. But then, Hacker, who told him to stay in the back and do the dishes, catches him and cruelly crushes the models with his feet. When he threatens to further punish Julio, the kid runs off into the storm and the jungle. Shortly afterward, when the dinosaurs come to life, Julio sees the Tyrannosaurus attack a vehicle full of people, but then meets and becomes friends with the gentle Brontosaurus. And when he finds his way to Betty's home, he meets and befriends the Caveman, and tries to teach him how to eat food properly. Hacker and his two cronies show up and attempt to capture the Caveman, and Julio actually stops the Caveman from attacking them with an axe, but the two of them do manage to escape. 

The Caveman takes Julio to the Brontosaurus, whom they ride through the jungle. Julio continues riding the dinosaur even when he gets separated from the Caveman, who saves Betty from the Tyrannosaurus and takes her to the mine. And when the Tyrannosaurus then attacks the Brontosaur, Julio is knocked off the latter's back but tries to help him by throwing rocks at the Tyrannosaurus when the two of them fight. Unfortunately, he's not able to save the Brontosaurus from being seriously injured, and the

Tyrannosaurus eventually turns his attention on Julio himself. The Caveman saves him and takes him to the mine, only for the Tyrannosaurus to trap them and Betty inside, along with Hacker. Again, Hacker proves what a scumbag he really is by intending to use Julio as a way to distract the Tyrannosaurus so he can escape and profit off the Caveman. But in the end, he dies and the Caveman sacrifices himself to save Julio and Betty from being crushed when the mine caves in. Julio, of course, is crestfallen by this, and seeing the Brontosaurus blunder into some

quicksand doesn't help either. When everybody has taken shelter at the fort, Julio refuses to eat, saying he doesn't want to grow up anymore, and doesn't care much about anything. He gets out of his funk by the end of the movie, when Bart battles and vanquishes the Tyrannosaurus. Bart then has to explain to Julio why the Caveman wouldn't have lasted long in the modern world, but when he asks how he would like it if he woke up in the next century to find a completely different world than what he knows, Julio answers, "I would like it!" With that, he looks forward to being around in the 21st century.

It's already obvious by this point that Mike Hacker (Fred Engelberg) is a very cut-and-dry bad guy. As the island manager, he's supposed to give Bart and his company complete cooperation, seeing as how the governor does the same. But because the governor is away in Washington, and likely because he knows he can't personally profit from Bart's construction project, Hacker interferes with it at every turn. Upon hearing of the dinosaurs, his first thoughts are about how valuable they are and all but orders Bart to bring them to the surface. Bart does so, but also writes a letter to the governor to have the Smithsonian send some paleontologists down. He makes the mistake of getting Hacker to send the letter, which he never does, as after the dinosaurs are brought up, he finds the Caveman and hides his body. That night, at the cantina, he tells his two cronies, Mousey and Jasper, that they're going to be rich after they take the Caveman to the mainland and sell him. He also tells Chica and says he plans to make her his woman... but then threatens to tell the island authorities lies about her if she doesn't comply, sneering, "Who will be believed, huh? Your or the island manager? So, you see, Chica, you are mine. Why not enjoy it?" And he monstrously abuses and punishes Julio, his ward, at every turn, even stomping his dinosaur models when he feels he's disobeyed him. This prompts Julio to run off into the night, with Hacker yelling that he doesn't care at all. Bart almost gets into a fight with Hacker over this, with Hacker grabbing and breaking a bottle, threatening to slash him up. However, he pathetically cuts his own hand in the process. Afterward, under the guise of trying to find Julio, Hacker searches for the Caveman, only to realize he's been revived as well. Despite the dinosaurs roaming the island, he and his cronies continue searching for their meal ticket, eventually finding both him and Julio at Betty's home. The two of them manage to outwit them, and Hacker gets humiliated in the process. 

Later, when the Tyrannosaurus traps the Caveman in the mine, along with Julio and Betty, Hacker still intends to get in there and capture him. Jasper and Mousey both chicken out at this, even when Hacker pulls a gun on the latter. He climbs down into the back of the shaft himself using a rope, only for it to fall loose when he jumps down. Holding the trio at gunpoint, Hacker reveals how he intends to use Julio to distract the Tyrannosaurus so he can escape. Amused when the Caveman tries to protect Julio and Betty, Hacker shoots him in the arm when he lunges at him, and tries to put his despicable plan into action. But when the mine begins to cave in from the Tyrannosaurus' attack, Hacker runs for it, but is crushed by falling debris.

Despite his name and fairly big girth, Dumpy (Wayne Treadway), Bart's bulldozer operator, is a pretty straightforward character, for the most part. Like everyone else who works for Bart, Dumpy can't stand Mike Hacker, especially for how badly he treats Julio. At the beginning of the movie, he sneaks Julio onto the site on his bulldozer, much to Bart's irritation when he finds out, as this isn't the first time he's done it. When Hacker catches Julio on the site, Dumpy has to reluctantly make him go with his guardian, and later tries to defend him when Hacker is being particularly abusive. Later, when they realize what's going on, Dumpy helps Bart in warning the other villagers and sending them to the fort, and also finds some walkie-talkies to allow them to keep in touch with Chuck as he leads the convoy up there. He does have one funny moment when he's riding with Bart and Betty up to the latter's home, holding a bag of unlit Molotov cocktails. Momentarily forgetting that he was warned not to light a cigarette, he goes to do so after the bag gets jostled in his arms... then remembers and throws away both the match and the cigarette before Bart and Betty see him from up front. He also tries to help Bart save Betty and Julio from the dinosaurs, with the two of them, at one point, throwing the Molotovs at the Tyrannosaurus when he has them and the Caveman trapped in the mine. Initially ineffective, they're able to momentarily drive him away when Dumpy hits him in the face and Bart then gets one in his mouth. Dumpy then helps them get to the fort, where he serves as a lookout. When he sees the Tyrannosaurus approaching through his binoculars, he yells, "Sound the alarm! Dinosaurus!" And when Bart faces off with the Tyrannosaurus using the backhoe, Dumpy considers helping him with the bulldozer, though he's unable to drive it through the flames they've started.

One poor guy who dies for simply doing what he was asked is O'Leary (James Logan), an Irishman whom Chuck tasks with keeping watch over the dinosaurs after they've been brought ashore (I assume that he's part of the crew, but I'm not sure). Being quite fond of the drink, when Chuck first gives him the job, O'Leary says of the dinosaurs, "Then they're really there? Thank the good lord. I've been seein' them all afternoon and was afraid to tell anyone for fear it was the d.t.'s." (Delirium tremens, a symptom of alcohol withdrawal, for those not in the know... like me.) That night, as the storm comes through, O'Leary runs out into the rain to check on the dinosaurs and talks to them, "Well, how are you feelin', my fine, strappin' babes?" Turning to the Tyrannosaurus, he comments, "Oh, teethin', are you? Well... [hiccups] you're a very sweet and quiet babe not to be shriekin' about it." He then turns to the Brontosaurus, adding, "And you, too. Mustn't play favorites. Well, I'm goin' in where it's warm, boys. So, you be good now, and sleep tight." Later, after the storm intensifies and knocks the power out, O'Leary puts on a coat and prepares to leave, only to open the door and see the Caveman standing there. He screams at the sight of him, with the Caveman smashing through the wood when he closes the door on him, going to grab a stick of dynamite. The Caveman runs off into the jungle and the sight of this prompts O'Leary to pray, swearing he'll never take another drink again. Not long after that, he walks outside to find the Brontosaurus gone, and is attacked by the Tyrannosaurus, which picks him up and walks off with him. Since he's never seen again, it can safely be assumed that O'Leary was eaten.

The best character in the film is the Caveman (Gregg Martell), or "the Neanderthal," as he's called in the credits. While the first thing he does after he's been revived is scare the crap out of O'Leary and act like he's going to attack him, he proves to be a confused and sometimes frightened but, on the whole, benevolent guy. There are some funny moments with him when he wanders towards Betty's house, sees her mother, who has a face mask on, and they end up scaring the hell out of each other and running off in the opposite directions. Shortly afterward, the Caveman returns to the house, which is now abandoned, as Betty's mother ran to the fort, and explores it, checking out everything he sees. He wanders into a workshop, grabs a hatchet and baseball bat, sees which one works better, then drops them both and goes for a big axe on the wall, seeming to think it gives him the best of both. He destroys the two-way radio in there when it beeps loudly, startling him (before, he was grunting at the voice coming over it), then goes into the house, eats some fruit he saw in the window, only for it to turn out to be wax, smashes a mirror after seeing his reflection, pokes at a chair, and inspects some books and tries to eat the pages in one. There's a really funny moment when he walks into the next room and you hear some crashing, followed by the sound of a toilet flushing, as he comes running out with a goofy, startled expression on his face. He goes upstairs to the bedroom, looks around, and briefly puts a woman's nightgown on backwards. Next, he meets Julio, who immediately befriends him. The Caveman makes him give over a banana he was eating, then motions for him to get him more food, which leads to Julio heating up some tea for them. The Caveman becomes fascinated with the stove, at one point cranking it up a tad too high, and Julio also tries to teach him how to eat properly. They don't get very far before Hacker and his guys show up to capture him. Though Julio stops him from killing them with the axe, the Caveman does give Hacker a pie to the face, and the two of them then escape. Having clearly grown fond of Julio, the Caveman allows the kid to ride on the Brontosaurus with him. And when Betty is attacked by the Tyrannosaurus, the Caveman has the Brontosaurus take Julio to safety, while he saves Betty and takes her to the nearby mine-shaft. Though he initially acts a bit too much like a typical man for her, the Caveman does prove to be truly good-hearted when he tries to protect them from Hacker. He gets shot in the arm for his trouble but, in the end, sacrifices himself by holding up the mine's collapsing ceiling so Betty and Julio can escape, getting crushed in the process.

Though his look is rather stereotypical, with his being shirtless, wearing a fur loincloth and primitive footwear, and wielding a rock-like weapon, the makeup design for the Caveman, by makeup artist Don Cash, is pretty cool. Looking at photos of what Gregg Martell really looked like, it seems as though they didn't have to do much to him in the long run, as he had very strong facial features (his eyes especially stand out), and just gave him a larger forehead and brow, as well as possibly a wig and some fake teeth, but it's a great look nonetheless. It makes me think of the way Lou Ferrigno's Hulk makeup looked in the first few episodes of the TV show (minus the green greasepaint, of course), when it had more pronounced Neanderthal-like features.

Like I said in the introduction, what's really surprising about Dinosaurus! is that it's quite technically sophisticated. It's shot in both CinemaScope and vivid color, the latter of which really pops in certain scenes when you see it in a good transfer. The lovely visuals can also be attributed to cinematographer Stanley Cortez, a well-renowned, Oscar-nominated DP who'd shot movies like Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons, The Night of the Hunter, Man from Del Rio, and The Three Faces of Eve, among many others. He really took advantage of the shooting location of

St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, bringing out the blue in the skies and the water, and the green in the countryside. Speaking of blue, the nighttime exteriors, like when the Caveman finds his way to Betty's home, are sometimes shot with a lovely blue lighting effect. And as he'd done in some black-and-white movies he'd shot in the past, Cortez makes the most of the darker, shadowy scenes, which you get a lot of after the storm knocks out the island's electricity. (Though, it can be a bit too dark, depending on the print, and I had to switch screenshot sources so you could 

actually the images of the dinosaurs later.) There's also some underwater photography early on, such as during the opening credits sequence, which plays over footage of a diver planting charges at the bottom of the channel, and when Bart dives down after Betty. These sequences were shot by Paul Stader, who'd worked on similar sequences on the 1957 monster flick, The Monster That Challenged the World, and would go on to provide his talents on episodes of the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea TV show 

and The Six Million Dollar Man (as well as work as a stuntman and coordinator on numerous movies and TV shows, including Irwin Allen's disaster movies, like The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno). While this underwater cinematography is nothing all that amazing (for me, the work in the Creature from the Black Lagoon movies were much more impressive), it's much better than you might expect from a movie like this.

The filmmakers scored a major coup when they were able to shoot on the island of St. Croix, and according to Jack Harris, they mostly filmed on a privately-owned piece of property that they were able to use for no charge. The island makes for a truly beautiful location, with its lovely beaches and blue water bays, palm trees, lush, green jungles and hills in the interior, and even an old fort near the seaside, which you can tell was also an actual location they shot at (I could be wrong but it may have been either Fort Frederick or Fort Christiansvaern). As for the actual sets, which

include the cantina, the interiors of Betty's home, and the mine shaft where the Caveman, Betty, and Julio are trapped by both the Tyrannosaurus and Hacker, they're nothing much to write home about in terms of distinctive production design, but they do their job. Betty's home is the most notable setting because of how much we see of it when the Caveman explores it, and you can tell by looking at it that she and her parents are a fairly well-to-do little family.

Even though, by Harris' estimate, they shot at St. Croix for three weeks, they clearly didn't get all everything there that they wanted, as there are numerous instances of rear-screen work. While you might expect it for shots where the characters are driving around in vehicles or when they're in small boats on the ocean, there are also many moments where the actors are simply standing around in front of an obvious rear-projection screen (sometimes, it even projects background footage of both the location and some extras). And, as you might also expect, 

there's some day-for-night footage, notably during the initial part of the climactic sequence at the fort, which is meant to be very early in the morning. Speaking of which, it's interesting to note how, just like The Blob, this is a story that takes place over the course of a single night and is, again, about a small community being threatened by something unnatural, forcing them to band together to overcome it. It even ends in the same manner: the threat is dealt with, but "THE END" morphs into a question mark, suggesting the crisis may only be over for the time being.

The difference, though, is that The Blob, despite its reputation as being very campy, is played straight, with very little humor, and all of the people who die are completely innocent; Dinosaurus! is much more light-hearted, with ample humor, most of it courtesy of the Caveman and his scenes with Julio, and it sometimes goes full slapstick. And while some innocents are killed by the Tyrannosaurus, and the Caveman performs a heroic sacrifice, it's more along the lines of what I would call a family movie. But, as slow and dated as The Blob can, admittedly,

sometimes be, I would much rather watch it. As I've already gone into, most of the characters in Dinosaurus! are really bland and forgettable, making it nigh impossible to get into them. I do like Julio and the Caveman, but after the Caveman sacrifices himself, we have to spend the rest of the movie's ten or so remaining minutes watching the other bland characters attempt to vanquish the Tyrannosaurus, while Julio mopes around, depressed. Speaking of the dinosaurs, they don't revive until

about thirty minutes in, and the lead-up to their revival feels like it takes an eternity, as it goes back and forth from Bart trying to find Julio after he runs away from Hacker and O'Leary keeping an eye on the dinosaurs as the storm intensifies, to Bart confronting Hacker back at the cantina and, finally, the big strike of lightning that both knocks out the island's power and revives the dinosaurs. Even after they're struck, it still takes a little bit for them to revive, which they do mostly offscreen. And as we'll get into, when we finally see them, the low budget keeps them from being as awesome as they could've been.

The respective depictions of the two dinosaurs is about what you would expect. The Tyrannosaurus Rex is the real threat, as he goes around, attacking everything he sees, and is the monster whom the characters work to vanquish during the third act. He also has a memorable, wailing sort of roar that was reused in other movies and TV afterward. The Brontosaurus, on the other hand, is depicted as a gentle giant who lumbers about the island, eating plants, and curiously inspects any living person that he sees, as well as befriends both Julio and the

Caveman. While he does, predictably, become a target for the Tyrannosaurus, he puts up a fight against the carnivore, even biting at him with his own teeth. Ironically, even though the Tyrannosaurus does deliver a seemingly fatal bite to his neck, what kills the Brontosaurus is a big pool of quicksand that he blunders into. In fact, both the movie and the characters immediately forget about him, as it cuts away as soon as he's pulled completely under it, and Julio, for the rest of the movie, is more bummed about the Caveman dying, despite having desperately tried to save the Brontosaur earlier.

Though he's not credited, Jack Harris was able to get Willis O'Brien to help out as a "technical consultant," and O'Brien's old friend and colleague, sculptor Marcel Delgado, made the dinosaur models. While the design of the models aren't too bad, as they're of the classic depiction of dinosaurs based on the work of Charles R. Knight, it's the way they're utilized that hurts them. While the stop-motion is certainly nothing amazing, especially when compared to the work that Ray Harryhausen was doing at the time, or even what work O'Brien himself was getting, it's still passable,

akin to the quality of Rankin/Bass' stop-motion, and the fight between the dinosaurs is one of the film's best moments. What's more, the people who actually did the effects work, Project Unlimited, were hardly slouches, as they provided work for some fairly significant films during that period, such as The Time Machine, and they would go on to show off some really good stop motion in Jack the Giant Killer. However, because of the low budget and time constraints that Delgado was under, the models' armatures were made with lightweight wire joints,

rather than metal ones. This led to their movements not being as precise, strong, or smooth as in other films. And much of the dinosaurs' close-ups, especially the Tyrannosaurus, were done with very stiff puppets rather than stop motion, and those don't hold up to close scrutiny at all. The optical and matting effects used to put the real actors into shots with the dinosaurs often aren't that great either, as the rear-screen work is, again, really obvious. It looks especially awkward in the scene where the

Tyrannosaurus attempts to pick up O'Leary, with the rear-screen projection and stop-motion in the foreground not matching up. And right before that, there's a shot with the Tyrannosaurus lurking off to the side of the screen as O'Leary walks out that's very poorly composited.

An interesting footnote about this film's production is that the Brontosaurus model appeared in a Season Two episode of The Twilight Zone, The Odyssey of Flight 33 (a personal favorite of mine), which was filming around this time. And it wasn't stock footage from this film but, rather, a shot that the special effects crew produced specifically for the show, using both the model and miniature jungle set. A shot of the Tyrannosaurus also appeared years later in an episode of Gilligan's Island.

I don't know if the lightning strikes simply defrost the dinosaurs enough to where it breaks their suspended animation or if it literally brings them back to life, a la Frankenstein, but, either way, not long after they're struck, they slowly begin to revive. The Brontosaurus' eyelid begins to move, as does his tail, and he glances over at the Tyrannosaurus, who's also slowly beginning to stir. Following O'Leary's quick encounter with the Caveman at his shack's door, he walks outside to find the Brontosaurus gone, then turns around to see the Tyrannosaurus, which

immediately lunges for him. O'Leary runs and trips, and as the Tyrannosaurus comes at him, he lights a stick of dynamite, attempting to drive the dinosaur away. Instead, the Tyrannosaurus looms over him, picks him up in his hand, and carries him off. And I guess in his struggling, O'Leary tossed the dynamite into the shack, as it suddenly explodes, which everyone in town hears. After they realize what's going on, and they head off in different directions, the film cuts to Julio as he wanders through the jungle. 

He trips onto a dirt path, then hears the Tyrannosaurus roar and sees him standing in a dirt road. A bus full of people comes by and stops, as he's standing right in their path. He immediately goes on the attack, roaring at the passengers through the windows, prompting them to duck beneath their seats for cover. He then raises up and crushes the roof in with his foot, as Julio watches, hearing the passengers scream. Fortunately for Julio, when he next encounters a dinosaur, it's the gentle Brontosaurus. Just as he befriends the very

chill plant-eater, who bends down to curiously inspect the boy when he sees him, they both hear the Tyrannosaurus roar nearby. Julio begs the Brontosaurus to run away, telling him to find a swamp he can hide himself in. The Brontosaurus does eventually move off, while elsewhere, the Tyrannosaurus, having finished killing everyone in the bus, heads on through the jungle.

The next time we see the dinosaurs, it's when Julio and the Caveman are riding the Brontosaurus. Worried for Julio's safety, Betty runs after them, followed by Bart and Dumpy. The Brontosaurus stops in front of a banana tree to munch on a clump of them, when the Caveman hears the Tyrannosaurus growling nearby. Sure enough, he comes stomping through the jungle and spots Betty. Seeing that she's in danger, the Caveman jumps down off the Brontosaur's back, giving him a slap so he'll take Julio to safety, and then goes for Betty. Running from

the Tyrannosaurus, Betty trips and falls, and the dinosaur is soon looming over her, then bends down and picks her up in his hand. Watching from nearby, the Caveman comes running in and stabs the Tyrannosaurus in his left foot with the axe he's been wielding. The dinosaur roars in pain and drops Betty. The Caveman catches her in his arms and runs off with her, while the Tyrannosaurus manages to remove the axe. He storms through the jungle, trying to find them, while elsewhere, Julio tries to make the Brontosaurus stop, saying they'll end up back where

they started. Following the scene between Betty and the Caveman in the mine, the Tyrannosaurus catches up to Julio and the Brontosaurus. Julio falls off the latter's back, as the Tyrannosaurus charges in after him. When Julio regains consciousness, he sees that the two dinosaurs fighting, with the Brontosaurus managing to come in and bite one of the Tyrannosaur's small arms. But when he lets go, the Tyrannosaurus starts biting at the Brontosaur's side, then bites him near the base of his long neck. The

Brontosaurus manages to bulldoze the Tyrannosaur, forcing him to the ground, but he gets right back up and resumes his attack. Julio tries to help by tossing rocks at the Tyrannosaurus, though it does no good, as he manages to tear a nasty, bleeding wound out of the Brontosaur's neck. He continues attacking the Brontosaur, with the two of them tearing up the jungle around them, and Julio gets knocked to the ground by a branch that falls towards him. By this point, the Tyrannosaurus has bitten deep into the Brontosaur 

near the base of his head and forces him to the ground. He bites him until he stops moving and stands back up, as blood gushes from the Brontosaur's wound. Julio keeps throwing rocks at him, and he turns his attention on him, right as the Caveman comes in and carries him to safety. Once the Tyrannosaur walks off, the Brontosaur proves to still be alive, but badly injured.

The Tyrannosaurus tracks Julio and the Caveman to the mine. He starts furiously digging at and ramming his head against the entrance, and is so determined to get at his prey that he doesn't notice when Bart and Dumpy throw some Molotov cocktails at his side. That's when Bart decides to go for his mouth and, after he gets into a good position to throw it, he has Dumpy thrown one near the Tyrannosaur's face. When he turns and looks at this, Bart throws his own Molotov and manages to score a hit in the mouth. With flames and then smoke billowing out through 

his teeth, the Tyrannosaurus goes to run for it, only for his foot to get snagged in the mine entrance. When he tries to pull it out in a panic, it causes the interior to begin to cave in. The Caveman saves Betty and Julio from being crushed, while the Tyrannosaurus finally runs away. Bart and Dumpy get Betty and Julio out of the mine, but Bart is unable to save the Caveman from being crushed to death. Immediately afterward, the Brontosaurus, who managed to get 

back on his feet, blunders into a large bog of quicksand (this was established earlier, when Bart stopped Dumpy from going into it). It isn't long before the Tyrannosaurus returns, circling around the rim of the quicksand, as the Brontosaur sinks down and finally disappears beneath the muck. Meanwhile, the humans run for the safety of the fort.

Later, as everyone has gathered at the fort, and have widened up the moat in order to pour oil into it and set it aflame, it isn't long before Dumpy sees the Tyrannosaurus approaching through his binoculars. He yells for the alarm to be sounded, and those still working on the moat run back up to the fortress as well. When the Tyrannosaurus gets really close, Bart and Chuck douse some torches in oil, then light and toss them down into the oil-soaked moat. They manage to create a large wall of fire, which holds the dinosaur back. However, knowing it won't for long,

given how Chuck told him they only have enough fuel to keep the fire going for five minutes, Bart runs to a backhoe. Climbing into the cab, he starts the engine and tells Betty, when she runs over to him, that he plans to knock the Tyrannosaurus off the cliff. He then drives it around the edge of the fire and towards the dinosaur. Seeing the machine, he runs right at it, slamming into its side with his head. As everyone at the fort watches, and Julio cheers Bart on, he continuously swings the arm and whacks the

Tyrannosaurus in the head with a dump bucket. He then drives closer to the edge of the cliff, luring the Tyrannosaurus over there as well. But when he swings the arm around this time, the dinosaur grabs it with his mouth. He tries to pull away but the backhoe's wheels get stuck in the loose dirt, and the Tyrannosaurus holds tight. With a little persistence, Bart manages to break the arm free of his jaws, then swings it around a full 360 degrees and hits him in the side of the head. This is enough to send the

Tyrannosaurus tumbling over the edge of the cliff and into the ocean below, as everyone at the fort cheers. The movie ends with a boat, which Hacker said would arrive that morning, approaching, with a bunch of tourists onboard expecting to find a sleepy little island where not much excitement happens. And then, we get that last shot of the Tyrannosaurus lying at the bottom of the ocean.

For the music score, Jack Harris said he wanted a composer who, "Scores the old-fashioned way." The composer they went with was Ronald Stein, who scored a lot of B-movies in the 50's and 60's, including a number of Roger Corman's films. And just as Harris wanted, his music for Dinosaurus! is a very old-school, big and bombastic monster movie score, with a lot of Mickey Mousing to it, right down to how, during the opening credits, the title comes up one letter at a time and there's a note attached to each one. Overall, the music is just okay, highlighting the movie's nature, and Stein does also manage to come up with some memorable leitmotifs for both dinosaurs: an aggressive, monstrous one for the Tyrannosaurus, and a lumbering, slightly dopey one for the Brontosaurus (in case you're wondering, the Caveman doesn't really get a theme).

Dinosaurus! is not an awful movie by any means. Trust me, there are other dinosaur movies, both old-school and contemporary, that I've found harder to sit through. It's just a very unremarkable movie, at the end of the day. It benefits from being shot in color and CinemaScope, making it stand out from other films of its type during this period, as well as for having a beautiful shooting location. But, on the downside, while there are some memorable characters amid the cast, chief among them being the Caveman, most of them are very bland and forgettable; there's a lot of obvious rear-screen work, even for scenes that don't involve special effects; the music score is okay but nothing that memorable; the story has some slow spots and is never that exciting; and, worst of all, the dinosaurs are mostly a letdown in terms of execution. It makes for an okay distraction but, even for connoisseurs of the genre, it's not essential viewing.