The 1950s saw an exciting rise in the production of sci-fi movies produced by major and independent studios alike in Hollywood. Most employed the then-new plot devices of alien invasions and normal animals enlarged to gigantic proportions. Others used more traditional plotlines but tweaked them for the 1950s. One of them was the expedition-to-a-land-where-dinosaurs-are-still-living storyline. The Land Unknown was just one of these types of films.
After a warm water lake is discovered near Antarctica, a Naval expedition led by Commander Harold Roberts (longtime stuntman and action star Jock Mahoney) is dispatched to investigate the area. Cmdr. Roberts's crew includes news reporter Margaret Hathaway (Shawn Smith), Lieutenant Jack Carmen (William Reynolds), and machinist's mate Steve Miller (Phil Harvey, and yes, Steve Miller really is the character's name!) They are forced to descend into a volcanic crater by a violent storm. Upon touching down, they find themselves in a tropical land that is a throwback to the Mesozoic Era. There they encounter different types of dinosaurs, carnivorous plants, a cute little tarsier (a small gray primate that lives throughout Southeast Asia, East India, and the Philippines), and even a survivor from a previous expedition, the crazed Dr. Carl Hunter (Henry Brandon).
Universal-International planned this to be their biggest sci-fi production to date. While their previous entries like It Came from Outer Space and Tarantula had modest budgets, The Land Unknown was going to be their 800-pound gorilla. Director Virgil W. Vogel had this to say in an interview published in Fangoria #73, May 1988:
Jack Arnold was originally assigned to direct The Land Unknown. I was helping him storyboard the picture. It was supposed to be in color and have an all-star cast; it was really going to be a big picture. In fact, one of the guys they talked about for the lead was Cary Grant, although I don't think they ever approached him on it. Universal sent me to the Astoria Studios in New York, where I spent three or four weeks going through footage of the [Richard] Byrd expedition [1946-47], looking for stock footage we could use in The Land Unknown.So why is it, you ask, that no A-list actors or color are anywhere to be found in The Land Unknown? The answer is money. Vogel went on to say in the same interview:
... but then the effects department and the makeup department spent all their money. Universal spent so much on the monsters, they didn't have any money left to make the picture!And with this overspending, the proposed color and name stars were 86'ed. Jack Arnold lost interest in the project, feeling that it wouldn't be worth his time. Vogel was then assigned to the picture by the powers-that-be. He was able to convince U-I to let him keep the Cinemascope for the movie so it would have at least one other selling point besides the dinosaurs.
As it stands today, The Land Unknown is a good Saturday matinee movie. Jock Mahoney, more renowned for his stunts and roles in Westerns and a few Tarzan movies, is an odd choice for a leading man. What he lacks in charisma he more than makes up for with his leaping, diving, jumping, and other amazing stunts. Mahoney does okay with the role he's given, but just doesn't come across too effectively. Shawn Smith is fine as the movie's sole female cast member. Although she plays more of a typical submissive female character who always seems to get in trouble, she does do her share of exploring on her own without the men. Smith looks very much like Janet Leigh in the scenes where her hair is tied up.
If there is one standout performance in The Land Unknown, it's got to be Henry Brandon's part as Dr. Carl Hunter. He does a fantastic job playing a crazed man who has lived in a prehistoric land without any human contact for a decade. In one of his arguments with Cmdr. Roberts, Hunter gives this choice speech:
Maybe you will if you aren't trampled to death first or eaten alive or die of starvation. Wait till the Antarctic night comes and for nine months the black air hangs round you like a rotten rag and your eyes are blinded from the dark and from your own sweat, and you lose each other - and you're alone - alone. Do you hear me? ...Always alone!And to think that snobby critics say these kinds of movies don't have any good acting! No one ever said this was Shakespeare, and it's not meant to be. I hate to sound like I'm going on a tangent, but I've loved monster movies since I was a young child and always will. I've always preferred my movies to be fun and entertaining. Let some reclusive snob take all the pretentious Fellini and Bergman nonsense for himself or herself. I'd rather be swept away into a world of wonder and imagination than be bored to tears by some clichéd "social issue" drama.
Alright, enough bitching on my part. Let's get back to the review! The special effects, although dated by today's CGI standards (or lack thereof), they are acceptable and get the illusions across well. The much-maligned T-rex is a man a 12-foot tall suit with hydraulic-controlled eyelids, mouth, etc. Costumed dinosaurs mostly come across badly in movies (check out the ones in the forgettable 1948 lost world adventure Unknown Island for example), but the one here is good for what it is. The best scene with the t-rex is the one where it confronts the crew's helicopter. In the movie's only instance of blood, one of the chopper blades cuts the monster across the throat. This scene and the other rex-copter encounter were both filmed in miniature. They are both very convincing, even if the background landscape is just a cyclorama backdrop with painted mountains and trees!
The elasmosaurus which lives in the lake near Hunter's cave retreat is by far the most effective creation in The Land Unknown. At fifteen feet wide and 6-8 feet high above the water, it makes a great first impression. Its first appearance occurs when Hathaway is rowing in a boat alone, and it's a very scary scene indeed! How would you like to be kayaking along along a lake and seeing something like this?
I don't know about you, but I'd be amazed at the sight of such a large creature!
Another equally effective shot with the elasmosaurus occurs when Hathaway prepares to leave Hunter's cave to join the rest of her mates. As she climbs the ladder, she sees the monster's head pop out near the entrance and immediately drops back down. Even for a child of today's technology-driven society, this would still be a frightening sight!
The rest of the creatures seen here range from fair (the pterodactyl that flies over the team's helicopter, which is merely a prop on a fishpole!) to just plain bad (a pair of battling monitor lizards enlarged via trick photography). In the movie's original theatrical trailer, the narrator hilariously calls the monitor lizards a pair of stegosauri! Now if I'm not mistaken, stegosauri had plates across their backs and spikes on the ends of their tails. These monitor lizards have none of those features. While the tyrannosaurus rex, elasmosaurus, and pterodactyl are convincing enough, there is no way you can tell me with a straight face that these monitor lizards are supposed to be stegosauri! Now do these look anything like stegosauri to you?
Nah, I didn't think so either.
So overall we have a somewhat flawed but still entertaining prehistoric monster movie. It's available on DVD as part of Universal's Classic Ultimate Sci-Fi Collection, a combination of two formerly exclusive to Best Buy five-movie sets. They are now together in one giant set, which also contains such favorites as the previously mentioned Tarantula, Cult of the Cobra, The Mole People, and Monster on the Campus. The Land Unknown is heartily recommended to anyone with a love for 1950s sci-fi movies, dinosaurs, Jock Mahoney, and/or expedition-to-a-lost-world movies. Just remember to look all around the next time you decide to go kayaking or swimming at a big lake. You just never know where an elasmosaurus might be lurking!
Overall rating: ***1/2 out of ***** stars
