Now here’s a movie that doesn’t get near enough attention for being the truly horrible film that it is. I’ve never hid the fact that I enjoy movies that fall into the “so bad it’s good” category, but this… I don’t know. Starring James Arness in his pre-Gunsmoke days, the bizarre 1951 release Two Lost Worlds plays like a pirate yarn crossed with a historical newsreel. It contains dialogue that would do Ed Wood Jr. proud, spiced up with pretentious narration that seems to exist solely to transition between disjointed film clips. One just cannot shake the feeling that footage from three aborted movies was edited together, and after about 45 minutes of pirates, romance and dopey attempts at humor, we’ve completely forgotten that the picture was supposed to include some sort of prehistoric shenanigans. but then we find our heroes stranded upon an island populated with dinosaurs. It’s about time! Unfortunately, those dinosaurs are merely lizards and baby alligators with fins glued to their backs, the footage having been borrowed from the 1940 version of One Million B.C. I can just picture a movie theater in the 1950s on a Saturday afternoon, packed with kids that have endured all this drivel only to see the crappiest dinosaur scene ever… in the last 10 minutes of the movie! Riots must have ensued. If this has somehow whet your appetite for more you’re in luck, as the swell folk at Image Entertainment have put Two Lost Worlds
On an interesting side note, I got curious as to the identity of the attractive actress that played the part of Elaine Jeffries. With a little snooping I found that she, billed here as Laura Elliot, also performed under the name Kasey Rogers. Born Imogene Rogers on December 15, 1925, her screen appearances included, among others, the Hitchcock thriller, Strangers on a Train, and the TV shows, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Maverick, Perry Mason and 77 Sunset Strip. In the 1970s her son’s interest in motocross racing prompted her to race as well, and she became an important advocate for women in the male-dominated sport. She established the PowderPuffs Unlimited Riders and Racers Association in 1974. Rogers died in 2006.
