One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing *** (1975, Helen Hayes, Peter Ustinov, Derek Nimmo, Clive Revill, Joan Sims) – Classic Movie Review 5430

Director Robert Stevenson’s old-style 1975 Twenties period Walt Disney dinosaur family adventure comedy movie offers plenty of good fun and frolics.

It stars Peter Ustinov, dodgily cast as Hnup Wan of the Chinese London Intelligence Office, chasing the microfilm of a secret formula for the mysterious Lotus X. Derek Nimmo plays Lord Southmere, who escapes from China with the formula hides the microfilm inside the skeleton of a large dinosaur in London’s Natural History Museum.

Helen Hayes also stars as Hettie, Southmere’s former nanny, whom he asks to retrieve the microfilm before the Chinese spies can find it.

Disney conjure up a slapstick suspense comedy caper with exciting chases, lots of shouting, excellent special effects and amusingly inept kung-fu fights between Chinese assassins and a brave band of British nannies.

The treasurable British vintage comedy cast of truly funny people is a major asset. That cast includes Derek Nimmo, Clive Revill, Joan Sims, Bernard Bresslaw, Roy Kinnear, Deryck Guyler, Richard Pearson, Natasha Pyne, Joss Ackland, Andrew Dove, Max Harris, Jon Pertwee, Amanda Barrie, John Laurie, Max Wall, Hugh Burden, Arthur Howard, Joan Hickson and Molly Weir, sadly almost all of them gone now.

Co-producer Bill Walsh’s screenplay is based on David Forrest’s novel The Great Dinosaur Robbery. The reworked movie title is presumably a spoof on One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1941), which also features Peter Ustinov and Hugh Burden, and later One of Our Spies Is Missing, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. 1966 film.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5430

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