Dinosaurus! *** (1960, Ward Ramsey, Paul Lukather, Kristina Hanson) – Classic Movie Review 4861

Co-producer/ director Irvin S Yeaworth Jr’s 1960 sci-fi comedy fantasy film Dinosaurus! is hard to dislike, easy to laugh with or at, and very possible to enjoy. It stars Ward Ramsey, Paul Lukather, and Kristina Hanson.

Based on an original idea by co-producer Jack H Harris, this is an amusingly daft sci-fi film in which a boy makes friends with a brontosaurus on a Caribbean tropical island, afflicted by nearby undersea explosions. It’s a bit of a shock when prehistoric creatures are unleashed on the population.

Meanwhile, it’s more of an actual shock when lightning revives a roaring Tyrannosaurus-Rex, while a friendly Neanderthal caveman, also freed from his watery grave, battles Sixties electrical appliances, probably like the housewives of the era.

Dinosaurus! is co-written by the director’s wife Jean Yeaworth and Dan E Weisburd, based on an original idea by Jack H Harris.

It runs 83 minutes, is shot in DeLuxe colour and CinemaScope widescreen by Stanley Cortez, is produced by Jack H Harris and Irvin S Yeaworth Jr, is scored by Ronald Stein, is designed by Jack Senter, and is made by Fairview Productions on a decent $450,000 budget, with fun stop-motion animation special effects by Tim Barr. It is released by Universal Pictures (1960) (US) and Rank Film Distributors (1960) (UK).

Also in the cast are Alan Roberts, Gregg Martell (as The Neanderthal), Fred Engelberg, Luci [Lucita] Blain, Jack Younger, Wayne C Treadway, Howard Dayton, Wilhelm Samuel and James Logan. Producer Jack H Harris has a cameo as Tourist on Boat (uncredited).

Marcel Delgado was given less than half the time agreed on to create the dinosaur models – just two weeks.

The stop-motion crew used their brontosaurus model and miniature jungle set for a shot of an episode of TV’s The Twilight Zone, The Odyssey of Flight 33.

Universal distributed it in a double bill with SOS Pacific (1959).

Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965) re-uses Stein’s music from Dinosaurus!.

The advertising doesn’t seem to know how old the dinos are: ‘Today’s most astounding adventure…that started a million years ago!’ or ‘Alive with thrills after 70 million years!’ A million, 70 million, who cares? They’re old and they’re alive.

Director Irvin S Yeaworth Jr and producer Harris also made The Blob (1958) with Steve McQueen, who lost the lead role here as they allegedly found McQueen difficult to work with.

Irvin S Yeaworth Jr directed three sci-fi films – The Blob (1958), 4D Man (1959), and Dinosaurus! (1960) – then went back to his first love of making religious films.

Irvin S Yeaworth Jr was born on 14 February 1926 in Berlin, Germany, and died in an automobile accident on 19 July 2004 in Amman, Jordan, age 78.

Paul Lukather 9 October 2014, age 88.

Jean Yeaworth died on 24 December 2019, age 93. In 2008, she said of her husband’s The Blob 50 years earlier: ‘He often said it will follow him to his grave, which it has.’

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 4861

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