Past Times
As the latest Jurassic Park unleashes more CGI dinosaurs in our cinemas, MARION McMULLEN celebrates some of their earlier, big-screen incarnations
bloodcurdling roar of a Tyrannosaurus Rex on the rampage has proved box office gold at the movies.
The appeal of dinosaurs on the big screen continues with the release of Jurassic World: Dominion, but the prehistoric critters have had cinema audiences on the edge of their seats from the early days of film.
Since animated film short Gertie The Dinosaur came out in 1913, there has been a steady stream of velociraptors, triceratops and T Rex in cinemas.
The real T-Rex weighed 80 tons and was 40ft long, but on film the predator has often been a man in a rubber suit or a small scale model.
The Lost World, in 1925, was the first film adaptation of Sherlock Holmes writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel about the discovery of dinosaurs still living on a mountain plateau in South America. It showed why bringing a brontosaurus back to London was not a good idea as it promptly escaped into the River Thames... stomping London Bridge to rubble in the process.
It took three men to operate the head of the brontosaurus and a football bladder was used to create the sound of its breathing.
Ads for The Animal World in 1956 billed it as “Two Billion Years In The Making”. The documentary looked at life on Earth from prehistoric times to the present day and it contained the first colour work of legendary stop-motion expert Ray Harryhausen.
He brought dinosaurs, monsters and mythical creatures to life in the movies and said: “The cinema was made for fantasy, rather than normal types of stories, mundane stories. It gives you a feeling of wonder for one thing, it gives you stimulation of the imagination, and I think adults like fantasy as well as children.”
Actors in rubber suits played the two-legged ceratosaurs in 1948 movie Unknown Island, which saw a couple called Carole and Ted seeking out an uncharted Pacific island inhabited by deadly dinosaurs.
Ray Harryhausen also worked on 1953 movie The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms which saw a dinosaur striking terror into the population of New York City after being awakened from the depths by an atomic test.
An American cowboy in Mexico ran into problems in 1956 film The Beast Of Hollow Mountain when he discovered his cattle were being gobbled up by a giant prehistoric dinosaur. “One Day, After A Million Years, It Came Out Of Hiding To ... Kill! Kill. Kill!” declared the film’s publicity.
A 2ft-high rubber-covered model and others made of plaster were used to create the dinosaur, while two large rubber feet were utilised for close up shots of it walking.
Raquel Welch and her famous bikini almost stole the thunder away of her dino co-stars in One Million Years BC.
She said: “I had no suspicion that a dinosaur movie would ever pay off for me as an actress. ”
The 1966 movie rewrote history to show cavemen and dinosaurs living side by side with a poster screaming “Men And Monsters Battle To Rule The Earth”. Once again, Ray HarryTHE hausen brought the prehistoric reptiles to life.
Gorgo, in 1961, saw a giant lizard being caught off the Irish coast and sold to a London circus... with junior’s angry mum showing up shortly afterwards. A horrified radio reporter in the movie tells listeners: “The bridge is gone. One of London’s oldest landmarks smashed like matchwood.”
Puppet animator Bob Bura wore the same suit to play both mum and baby and film sets and models were changed to make the two dinosaurs look different sizes.
The special effects for 1970’s When Dinosaurs
Ruled The Earth were
nominated for an Oscar. It saw cavemen once again fighting for survival against the giant reptiles. Filming finished in 1968, but it took two years to finish the special effects.
Doug McClure had to battle with dinosaurs when he starred as the action hero in 1974 movie The Land That Time Forgot. It was based on the 1918 novel by Tarzan writer Edgar Rice Burroughs about a hidden land called Caprona where dinosaurs still roamed.
Puppets were used for the film’s cast of dinosaurs and the success spawned two sequels.
It seems dinosaurs are always a roaring success on film.