Two Lost Worlds (1951)

Great Film overall

Good movie but grossly overrated

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Before he became James Arness, James Aurness was captain of the Clipper ship "the Queen" sailing in the Pacific where he encounters pirates which leads to a trip to the hospital which in 1830 couldn't do much for his health but was an unusual setting for a romantic encounter with another mans girl.Just sit right back And you'll hear a tale A tale of a fateful trip, That started from this tropic port. The skipper was a Marshal brave and sure. the weather was fine but pirates attacked. The ship's aground on the shore Of this uncharted desert isle.So this is the tale of our castaways, They're here for a long, long time. The first mate and his Skipper, Chester and Festus, too!with recycled film from a dozen other movies. too try and keep things interesting.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtC6lu1sxOw

American sailor has his ship attacked by pirates and ends up ashore in Australia where he falls in love with one of the local women. When the pirates attack the village the sailor has to go off to rescue his lady love...only to end up shipwrecked on an island with dinosaurs.Misbegotten adventure film that stands out only because of the dinosaurs in the final minutes, this is a clunky adventure film that isn't very good. One person here on IMDb indicates that this is actually several episodes of an an sold TV show stitched together, which makes perfect sense owing to the compartmentalized structure of the films stories. Not really bad, it is like watching an old TV show that you never heard of for a good reason. I picked up the film because of the dinosaurs on the cover only to later read about how they only show up at the end, and then was shocked at how little even that was. My dislike for the film has nothing to do with the lack of monsters, indeed I was ready to bail on the film early on, but kept going because I wanted to see said beasties.Not worth your time, let alone your money

During the 40s and the 50s many sci-fi and adventure movies were produced about giant monsters fighting brave adventurers. "One Million B.C." (1940) is probably the best known example and the one that started the trend, but there were many low-budget films that tried to emulate the success of that film with less than spectacular results. "Two Lost Worlds" may be one of those lesser known films, but what makes it "different" from the rest is the fact that it contains basically every element of the action-adventure sub genre to tell its story. From pirates to dinosaurs, and from naval fights to cowboys, this one has it all.James Arness is young Kirk Hamilton, a brave captain who is severely injured after being attacked by pirates on their travel to Asia. While his ship continues the trip, he is left in Queensland, Australia to recover, where he'll find the beautiful Elaine Jeffries (Kasey Rogers) and her precocious sister Nancy (Jane Harlan), as well as earning the enmity of Martin Shannon (Bill Kennedy), a man who is also in love with Elaine. But adventure calls him even there, as the pirates return and raid Queensland, kidnapping Elaine and Nancy and taking James and Martin to adventure. In their rescue trip they'll fight not only the pirates, but the strange creatures of a nearby island.Well, this film is basically an epic adventure that includes basically every element necessary to be classified as "adventure". While this is indeed as messy as it sounds, it has an explanation: "Two Lost Worlds" was made of two episodes (maybe three) of a failed TV series project blend together to work as a B-Movie. The origins of the film are very notorious, as the movie changes of "theme" as it changes of setting (aided by some rather poor use of stock footage), as the film goes from one adventure to another the pace feels at times disjointed and the constant narration doesn't help to make it better.The movie's most notorious "detail" is the use of the famous footage "One Million B.C.", and while it is in fact sold as the hook of the film, the actual scenes used are rather short (due mostly to the previously discussed factors). Technically, the film is rather poor and it probably would had worked a lot better as a TV show (as it was intended). This was director Norman Dawn's final movie after directing a long series of adventure movies, some of them rather infamous like "Wild Women" (1951) and "Tundra" (1936).If there is a redeeming feature in this movie (and one that's worth a lot), is the acting. A pre-"Gunsmoke" James Arness carries the film with grace and makes charming a character that otherwise would be poor and stereotypical. Kasey Rogers (who would participate in an iconic scene later that year in "Strangers on a Train") is equally effective although her character may be "too 50s" for today's standards. Bill Kennedy is also good as the Kirk's rival and has very good scenes (his character was probably the most developed of the cast).It would be easy to point out the many problems of "Two Lost Worlds", but one has to consider that it was a low-budget production (for TV) on a time where special effects were a novelty (it wasn't the only movie to use ""One Million B.C."'s stock footage) and while this is no excuse for its disjointed storyline, the film is considerably more enjoyable than most films of its era."Two Lost Worlds" is by no means a classic. It may not even be a good movie. But at least it entertains, and for most movies that's something. People looking for classy horror and adventure better look elsewhere, those interested in a strange novelty and/or the career of a young James Arness will find "Two Lost Worlds" an interesting piece of film. 5/10

Two Lost Worlds is one of those movies that I remember seeing as a very young child...well, at least I remembered one part of the movie, not knowing which one it was from. The scene where the cavegirl is caught in the lava flow was one of those pivotal images with me for some unknown reason. The scene was also repeated (I'm not sure if it was the exact same shot, but it could have been) in Valley of the Dragons.While this movie has special effects and "dinosaurs" (lizards in make-up), it is very hard to classify this as a real science fiction movie, even under the very un-demanding criteria of the time. For the most part, this movie is a pirate-style adventure. James Arness is as stoic as ever in it, and there isn't much else to really recommend the film.