The Land Unknown (1957)

"It is true that you can't live among beasts without becoming one.", 15 September 2007

While doing some scientific explorations of Antarctica, four scientists are forced to make an emergency landing in a volcanic crater. Beneath the perpetual cloud cover at the volcano rim, they discover a warm and humid land that hasn't changed in centuries. They discover a world full of strange dinosaurs and carnivorous plants. While trying to repair their helicopter, they discover something else – the existence of at least one other human. Will this unknown man help them or is he as savage as the rest of the world in which they find themselves?

As far as a movie about modern man trapped in a prehistoric world goes, The Land Unknown is about average. I really wanted to like this one more, but rating it a 5/10 is about the best I can do. For the most part, the film is well paced and director Virgil Vogel keeps things interesting. But even at 78 minutes in length, The Land Unknown is not without an excessive amount of padding – especially at the beginning. Other than the giant T-Rex, the dinosaur effects are surprisingly strong. I was especially impressed with the dinosaur who lived in the water (sorry, I'm no dinosaur expert so I'm not sure what kind of dino they were going for). Very nicely done. And the sets, from the imaginative plant life to the wonderful matte paintings, make the movie look much better than it should. But as good as that special effects were, the previously mentioned T-Rex is pitiful. It's just laughably bad. It's one of the most obvious man-in-a-suit monsters I can remember seeing. And as with seemingly everything else, the acting is hit-or-miss at best. No one really stands out and Shirley Patterson comes across as plain old annoying.

In the end, I'm glad I finally had the opportunity to catch The Land Unknown. Even with some of the problems I had with the movie, it's one I plan to revisit in the future. An average Universal film from the 50s is still better than many of the alternatives.

5/10