# The Lost World (1960 film)
**The Lost World** is a 1960 American science fiction adventure film directed, produced, and co-written by [Irwin Allen](https://www.edgepedia.org/irwin-allen), loosely adapting Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel about an expedition to an Amazonian plateau where dinosaurs still live. The title card reads "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World," and the film was produced by Saratoga Productions, Inc. and released by Twentieth Century-Fox in July 1960.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53213-THE-LOSTWORLD?cp=1&cxt=Filmography2&pos=9&sid=5c719644-9a83-4e13-8bb5-2af79b1b97a8&sr=1.1321743)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / producer / writers | Irwin Allen (director, producer, co-writer) with Charles Bennett; cinematography by Winton C. Hoch[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53213-THE-LOSTWORLD?cp=1&cxt=Filmography2&pos=9&sid=5c719644-9a83-4e13-8bb5-2af79b1b97a8&sr=1.1321743) |
| Principal cast | Claude Rains as Professor George Edward Challenger, Michael Rennie as Sir John Roxton, Jill St. John as Jennifer Holmes, David Hedison as Ed Malone, with Fernando Lamas and Richard Haydn[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53213-THE-LOSTWORLD?cp=1&pos=4&sid=3df0cce7-a12c-4a72-9326-185ec4c482cf&sr=0.09106725) |
| Release | July 1960; New York opening 13 July 1960; copyright registered 13 July 1960 (LP16707)[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53213-THE-LOSTWORLD?cp=1&pos=4&sid=3df0cce7-a12c-4a72-9326-185ec4c482cf&sr=0.09106725) |
| Format | CinemaScope widescreen, De Luxe color, Westrex sound; duration 96-97 minutes[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53213-THE-LOSTWORLD?cp=1&pos=4&sid=3df0cce7-a12c-4a72-9326-185ec4c482cf&sr=0.09106725) |
| Special effects | Willis O'Brien, the stop-motion pioneer of the 1925 version and King Kong (1933), was credited with technical effects, but the dinosaurs were played by live iguanas, monitor lizards, and adolescent alligators with horns, hoods, or fins attached[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53213-THE-LOSTWORLD?cp=1&cxt=Filmography2&pos=9&sid=5c719644-9a83-4e13-8bb5-2af79b1b97a8&sr=1.1321743) • [3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054038/trivia/) |
| Box office | Reported gross of $10 million worldwide by 5 October 1960[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/19554-VOYAGE-TOTHEBOTTOMOFTHESEA?cp=1&cxt=Filmography2&pos=4&sid=3bc6b560-0d41-4a6a-a13c-8e3b096e78b5&sr=0.18028145) |
| Reception | Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer 20% from 3 reviews; IMDb rating 5.5/10 from about 5,200 users[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lost_world) • [6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054038/ratings/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Professor George Edward Challenger ([Claude Rains](https://www.edgepedia.org/claude-rains)) returns to London from an expedition to the headwaters of the [Amazon River](https://www.edgepedia.org/amazon-river) and announces at the Zoological Institute that living dinosaurs survive on an isolated plateau. His photographs were lost when his boat overturned, so he organizes a return expedition to prove his claim. The party includes the rival scientist Professor Summerlee ([Richard Haydn](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-haydn)), the reporter Ed Malone (David Hedison), whose newspaper funds the trip, the big game hunter Lord John Roxton (Michael Rennie), and, despite Challenger's initial objection to a woman on the expedition, the socialite Jennifer Holmes (Jill St. John) and her younger brother David (Ray Stricklyn). In South America they are guided by Costa (Jay Novello) and flown by helicopter pilot Manuel Gomez (Fernando Lamas) onto the plateau, where a dinosaur destroys their helicopter and radio, stranding them in a world of prehistoric creatures, native tribes, and an erupting volcano.[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53213-THE-LOSTWORLD?cp=1&pos=4&sid=3df0cce7-a12c-4a72-9326-185ec4c482cf&sr=0.09106725)
The adaptation updates the novel to the 1960s and simplifies its plot; reviewers have described the changes as arbitrary, with plot elements arriving in what one critic called "premise-spasms" throughout the film.[7](https://public.archive.wsu.edu/delahoyd/public_html/lw.60.html)
## Production
**Casting and format.** In May 1959 Allen negotiated with [Victor Mature](https://www.edgepedia.org/victor-mature), Robert Mitchum, Peter Ustinov, Trevor Howard, and [Gilbert Roland](https://www.edgepedia.org/gilbert-roland) for a version to be shot in Todd-AO and [Technicolor](https://www.edgepedia.org/technicolor) as a "blockbuster treatment." A January 1960 report added Clifton Webb, Orson Welles, and Robert Morley as intended stars. None of these arrangements produced the final cast, which centered on Rains, Rennie, St. John, and Hedison.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53213-THE-LOSTWORLD?cp=1&cxt=Filmography2&pos=9&sid=5c719644-9a83-4e13-8bb5-2af79b1b97a8&sr=1.1321743)
**Schedule.** Production ran from mid February to 6 March 1960 and again from mid April to early May 1960, the gap caused by the Screen Actors Guild Strike, which lasted from 7 March to 18 April 1960.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53213-THE-LOSTWORLD?cp=1&cxt=Filmography2&pos=9&sid=5c719644-9a83-4e13-8bb5-2af79b1b97a8&sr=1.1321743)
**Music.** Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter composed the score, recorded with two orchestras: one played conventional background music while the other played South American music on native instruments, blended with the voice of Gwen Johnson to create the "lost world" sound.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53213-THE-LOSTWORLD?cp=1&cxt=Filmography2&pos=9&sid=5c719644-9a83-4e13-8bb5-2af79b1b97a8&sr=1.1321743)
## The dinosaurs problem
The film's most discussed feature is its creatures. Allen originally intended to use stop-motion sequences designed by Willis O'Brien, the animator whose work on the 1925 First National version of the same novel and on [King Kong](https://www.edgepedia.org/king-kong) (1933) had defined screen dinosaurs. O'Brien received an effects-technician credit on the 1960 film, but budget constraints kept the production from realizing his models; instead the dinosaurs were created from iguanas, monitor lizards, and adolescent alligators with horns, bony hoods, or fins attached, filmed in slow motion, a technique fans later nicknamed "slurpasaurs."[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53213-THE-LOSTWORLD?cp=1&cxt=Filmography2&pos=9&sid=5c719644-9a83-4e13-8bb5-2af79b1b97a8&sr=1.1321743) • [3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054038/trivia/) • [8](https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s2411lost.html) • [9](https://www.broughtonspurtle.org.uk/sites/default/files/story/the_lost_world_final.pdf) The result is a film in which, as one retrospective put it, there are no recognizable dinosaurs, and the visual effects of the 1925 silent version remain, in that writer's judgment, better.[10](https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/the-lost-world-1960-retrospective)
## Reception and box office
The film was a substantial hit in 1960: a Daily Variety item of 5 October 1960 reported that Allen's most recent film had grossed an impressive $10 million worldwide to that time.[4](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/19554-VOYAGE-TOTHEBOTTOMOFTHESEA?cp=1&cxt=Filmography2&pos=4&sid=3bc6b560-0d41-4a6a-a13c-8e3b096e78b5&sr=0.18028145) • [8](https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s2411lost.html)
Critical reception was cooler. Reviewers gave the monsters the main billing of attention and judged that the actors, script, and direction "are no competition for the prehistoric monsters," a judgment the scholarly account calls hardly complimentary. The New York Times review by A.H. Weiler found the film unfit for "moviegoers past voting age," in contrast to the family-friendly positioning of the same year's Journey to the Centre of the Earth and [The Time Machine](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-time-machine).[11](https://doi.org/10.1057%2Fpalcomms.2017.28) Later aggregate scores reflect the same divide: Rotten Tomatoes lists a 20% Tomatometer from 3 critics, while audiences on IMDb rate it 5.5/10.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lost_world) • [6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054038/ratings/)
In Britain the film was classified by the BBFC on 29 July 1960 at 95 minutes with cuts as part of the classification process; a 2015 home-entertainment reclassification ran 92 minutes 10 seconds, with content advice of mild violence and threat.[12](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-lost-world-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0ynjc0odu)
## Legacy
Scenes from the film were pan-scanned and reused in the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea television episode "Turn Back the Clock" (1964), which also starred [David Hedison](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-hedison); Allen produced that series as well.[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054038/trivia/) • [8](https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s2411lost.html) The title itself proved durable: [Michael Crichton](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-crichton) borrowed it wholesale for his 1995 sequel novel to [Jurassic Park](https://www.edgepedia.org/jurassic-park), which became the 1997 film The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and further adaptations of Doyle's novel followed in 1992, 1998, 2001, and a television series from 1999.[10](https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/the-lost-world-1960-retrospective) • [13](https://www.tcm.com/articles/720919/the-lost-world) • [9](https://www.broughtonspurtle.org.uk/sites/default/files/story/the_lost_world_final.pdf) Allen, meanwhile, moved on to the disaster spectacles The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974) that became his primary claim to fame.[13](https://www.tcm.com/articles/720919/the-lost-world)
## References
1. [The Lost World (1960), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53213-THE-LOSTWORLD?cp=1&cxt=Filmography2&pos=9&sid=5c719644-9a83-4e13-8bb5-2af79b1b97a8&sr=1.1321743)
2. [The Lost World (1960), AFI Catalog, full credits and details](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53213-THE-LOSTWORLD?cp=1&pos=4&sid=3df0cce7-a12c-4a72-9326-185ec4c482cf&sr=0.09106725)
3. [The Lost World (1960) - Trivia, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054038/trivia/)
4. [The Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961), AFI Catalog (citing 5 Oct 1960 Daily Variety on The Lost World gross)](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/19554-VOYAGE-TOTHEBOTTOMOFTHESEA?cp=1&cxt=Filmography2&pos=4&sid=3bc6b560-0d41-4a6a-a13c-8e3b096e78b5&sr=0.18028145)
5. [The Lost World, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lost_world)
6. [The Lost World (1960) - Ratings, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054038/ratings/)
7. [The Lost World (1960), Washington State University course notes](https://public.archive.wsu.edu/delahoyd/public_html/lw.60.html)
8. [DVD Savant Review: The Lost World (1960), DVD Talk](https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s2411lost.html)
9. [The Lost World (adaptations overview), Broughton Spurtle](https://www.broughtonspurtle.org.uk/sites/default/files/story/the_lost_world_final.pdf)
10. [65 Years Ago, One Ambitious Sci-Fi Reboot Was Murdered By A Fatal Flaw, Inverse](https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/the-lost-world-1960-retrospective)
11. [Beyond Hammer: the first run market and the prestige horror film in the early 1960s, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications](https://doi.org/10.1057%2Fpalcomms.2017.28)
12. [The Lost World, British Board of Film Classification](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-lost-world-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0ynjc0odu)
13. [The Lost World, Turner Classic Movies article by Jeremy Arnold](https://www.tcm.com/articles/720919/the-lost-world)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Science fiction and fantasy films (individual works) › Science fiction and fantasy films before 1970*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license