The Land Unknown (1957) Review

The Land Unknown (1957) Review

 

Like many people, I have a lot of nostalgia for movies from my childhood, but the kinds of movies I’m nostalgic for can be pretty niche. In the past I’ve talked about how I tried to find all the films that had been featured in PaleoWorld, a docuseries I watched as a kid (specifically here: CCC Issue #64, https://cccmovies.blogspot.com/2017/07/top-five-best-dvdblu-ray-finds-ccc.html, and here: Dinosaurus Review: https://cccmovies.blogspot.com/2019/10/dinosaurus-1960-review.html), and I thought I had found them all, but there was still one left, and I finally tracked it down on Blu-ray. For me, The Land Unknown was the final fabled film from a bygone era of dinosaur cinema, but for most, it’s right there in the title, an unknown film, so let me tell you about it.

In the 1940’s, an ambitious expedition to Antarctica is about to set out, and when reporter Margaret Hathaway walks into the team’s debrief, all the men ogle her and interrupt the briefing, but she is confident she knows how to deal with men. What she’s unsure about dealing with, though, is when she goes out in a helicopter with three other men and ends up in a mysterious chasm in the ice where volcanic activity has created a pocket environment. In this unknown land evolution hasn’t progressed past the Mesozoic Era, but it turns out dealing with her fellow male team mates wasn’t the thing for Margaret to worry about, nor were the dinosaurs and carnivorous plants, but rather Carl Hunter, the only survivor from a previous expedition who has gone caveman-mode and intends to abduct her and kill the other three—that is, if the ferocious creatures don’t accomplish that first.

The Land Unknown plays right into the mysterious-uncharted-prehistoric-locale trope we had seen more than once before this movie and would see many times again after it, but it is distinct for one accidental reason: having some of the most laughable special effects you’ll ever see in a big studio dinosaur film. It was the Carnosaur of its day, except that it wasn’t competing with another contemporary film about dinos. To the production’s credit, it was shot in CinemaScope, and they intended to make it in lavish colour, but the budget was cut down and it shows not only in the creature effects but with the sets and performers, too. The cast of B-movie actors say their cheesy lines with gusto and traverse the elaborate (and obvious) Mesozoic set with the confidence of the best explorers in any adventure film of its time. High definition definitely doesn’t help a film like this where you can see the line between the background matte painting and the edge of the set where the prop trees (placed upside down to appear more prehistoric, allegedly) and Styrofoam rocks begin.

I have to comment on the dinosaurs, because even though the effects are bad, there is still a charming campiness to them. The Tyrannosaurus rex has pupils so small it looks blind, and proportions that do nothing to hide the fact that it’s a guy in a suit. This was three years after the original Godzilla, which looks exceedingly more realistic. They also use the old deplorable trick of featuring monitor lizards using rear projection to make them appear giant and pit them against each other in a real fight with real blood and injuries. The standout creature is the long-necked Elasmosaurus lurking in the lagoon, which they don’t reveal until later in the story. To think, I was scared of this thing when I was five years old, cowering at the clip of Carl Hunter throwing a flaming spear into its gaping jaws. Even though the predatory plesiosaur is not too convincing, it’s still a cool example of early mechanical effects for a life-sized prehistoric animal. This movie walked (er, plodded) so Jurassic Park could run.

The Land Unknown is the kind of genre classic that does not need to be watched with the caveat that it’s outdated by today’s standards. This thing was never in-dated, but if you like these kinds of adventure story tropes combined with SFX that are so bad you can’t help but laugh, it’s a pretty entertaining throwback.