TWO LOST WORLDS (1950)
Article #137 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing date: 7-31-2001
Posting date: 12-14-2001

The first mate of an American clipper ship is injured in a pirate attack, and is left in a small farming village in Australia to recuperate. There he gets involved in a romantic triangle and tangles with the pirates some more. Eventually, he ends up on a deserted island and has a brush with slurpasaurs.

James Arness appeared in two of the finest science fiction movies of the fifties. He also appeared in this one, which, if Rich Wannen’s theory is correct, was originally a straightforward pirate movie that had slurpasaur footage added to make it more marketable. This footage lasts about a minute and a half, and has little to do with the rest of the movie, which is a lot more concerned about clipper ships than it is about lost worlds. As a pirate flick, it seems competent but totally uninspired; as a lost world movie, it is a waste of time.

Now I’ve gone on about the title of this movie before, and I’ll probably do so again, and I’m certainly not going to miss this opportunity; where the hell is the other lost world? The title promises two; the island with the slurpasaurs is one; where is the other? Is it Australia? Does Australia really qualify as a lost world? If so, how about Nebraska? Does this make me the resident of a lost world? This movie wins the uncoveted DS Bait-and-Switch award for deceptive film titles.

By the way, those two slurpasaurs look like my old friends from ONE MILLION B.C., Ignatz and Rumsford! Glad to see you back, boys. Destroy a clipper ship for me, won’t you?

Possible alternate titles:

ONE LOST HOUR
TWO LOST SLURPASAURS
CLIPPER SHIPS A-BLAZING!

Sorry, I’m babbling. It’s been a long week.