Starring Virginia Grey, Phillip Reed, Richard Denning, Barton MacLane, Dick Wessel
Directed by Jack Bernhard
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
A scientist, who once sighted a giant dinosaur on an island, and his fiancee hire an unscrupulous captain to take them there, but only their guide, who knows the island's dangers, seems to care for the lady's safety.
Although the special effects are pretty primitive, this is the first film I can think of to feature dinosaurs played by men in rubber suits or others controlling puppets, instead of using footage of lizards projected to giant size, and deserves some credit for that reason, and some forgiveness of its failings. And when the tyrannosauri begin to stalk the human visitors to the island, although they don't have much mobility, their portrayers shake their heads and show off their sharp teeth in memorable closeups. Another strong asset is Richard Denning, the perfect hero for this type of picture, who talks plain sense and stands up to those willing to waste human lives in their expedition. The prime offender is MacLane as the immoral Captain Tarnowski, familiar for a long career playing tough guys on both sides of the law, who's eager to seize Grey for his vile purposes, and has a greed that will keep everyone on the island longer than they want to be. The independent film is lensed in CineColor, which I've found never looked all that great compared to more expensive processes, but it's nice to see Grey's long red hair shine, and a savage gorilla (per IMDB, played by suit actor Ray Corrigan) later in the film, with its own crimson sheen, definitely makes a colorful impact of its own.
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