Dinosaurus! (1960)

The “Jurassic Park” of its day

While using explosives to build a harbor on a Caribbean island, a construction crew unearths a frozen tyrannosaurus, a brontosaurus and a caveman. They’re eventually regenerated during a storm and naturally terrorize the islanders. Ward Ramsey plays the construction boss and Kristina Hanson his girlfriend. Fred Engelberg is on hand as the abusive island authority.

"Dinosaurus!" (1960) is a ‘B’ creature feature with a 50’s residue (being shot in 1959), but it was the “Jurassic Park” of its day, featuring stop-motion & miniature F/X mixed with puppets for close-ups. The story is simple, but it’s compelling entertainment; including a couple of laugh-out-loud moments with the Neanderthal (Gregg Martell). Kristina Hanson is fetching, especially in her one-piece bathing suit in the opening, but more shoulda been done with her than prancing around in a long dress (I’m thinking in terms of Beth Rogan in “Mysterious Island,” which was released the next year).

A shot of the Tyrannosaurus was used six years later for the episode of Gilligan’s Island where Gilligan dreamed that the castaways were living in prehistoric times.

The film runs 1 hour, 23 minutes and was shot at St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.

GRADE: B