King Dinosaur

Release Date    1955

Running time 	63 min.

Directed by 	Bert I. Gordon

Produced by 	Bert I. Gordon

Written by 	Bert I. Gordon
                Tom Gries

Starring 	William Bryant
                Wanda Curtis
                Douglas Henderson
                Patti Gallagher
                Marvin Miller


From the title on down, King Dinosaur consistently promises more than it delivers. Filmed in three days by quickie king Bert I. Gordon, the story is predicated on the notion that a new solar system has set up shop "a half-year's rocket flight away" from our own. A group of intrepid space travellers blast off (via stock footage of Germany's V-2 rocket) to explore the earth's new neighbors. Upon landing on one of the planets (actually the mountains surrounding Los Angeles) the astronauts confront all manner of outsized reptiles (courtesy of clips from One Million BC). They are also "attacked" by a harmless-looking kinkajou. When the planet's dinosaurs threaten our heroes, the huge lizards are dissipated by an atomic-bomb blast (more library footage). Having made the planet safe for colonization (?), the space travellers return to Earth. Finding nice things to say about King Dinosaur is about as easy as swallowing lighter fluid.