THE LAND UNKNOWN: Blu-ray (Universal-International, 1957) Kino Lorber

Utilizing all manner of rubber puppetry, miniatures, and even some stunt guy walking around the set in a full T-Rex bodysuit, to emulate prehistoric wonders lain undiscovered since the beginning of time, director, Virgil W. Vogel’s The Land Unknown (1957) persists – principally –as a flashy and fun bit of late-fifties super-kitsch in sci-fi. Topmost among the picture’s pluses is Ellis W. Carter’s tremendous B&W cinematography, in expansive B&W Cinemascope no less, and, Alexander Golitzen and Richard H. Riedel’s production design, faultlessly joined to some enlivening matte shots, blending full-scale sets (teeming in swampy vegetation, dense fog and bubbling cauldrons of sulfuric acid-tainted water), hanging miniatures, and, the aforementioned menagerie of antediluvian oddities. The Land Unknown gives a passably plausible sense of what the earth may have looked like a million or so years ago, updating the time-honored ‘fish out of water’ premise to include an Antarctic expedition gone horribly awry. Personally, I think it would have served Charles Palmer’s story better had the mission begun somewhere in the isolated and remote tropics of South America. Finding a sub-tropical micro-climate in the heart of an active volcano in the middle of the frigid Antarctic is suspending belief just a bit much, n’est pas? But I digress. Nevertheless, László Görög’s screenplay, based on William N. Robson adaptation, achieves, with considerable dexterity, to iron out the dubious crinkles and questionability, enough so we can engross ourselves in these exotic locales that steam and ooze with hazardous life, both animal and plant-based.

The atomic age yielded many such fanciful treasures in the realm of sci-fi throughout the 1950’s, though few as lavishly appointed as this. The Land Unknown stars Jock Mahoney as stoic, Commander Alan Roberts, and, Shirley Patterson, a comely edition to this otherwise all-male cast, albeit, as token estrogen, Margaret Hathaway. Interestingly, Patterson is billed in the credits as ‘Shawn Smith’. Also, along for the trip; William Reynolds (as bright young pilot, Lt. Jack Carmen), Phil Harvey (as straggler-on, Steve Miller) and, as the human villain of the piece, Henry Brandon (Dr. Carl Hunter). Seems Hunter and his troop pitched a similar trek across this frozen tundra ten years ago, only to disappear without a trace. After an initial debriefing of the situation, given at base camp by Capt. Burnham (as Douglas R. Kennedy), our intrepid adventurers are off to the farthest reaches of the globe in search of…well, nobody quite knows. The opening act of The Land Unknown is its least prepossessing; producer, William Alland relying on some clumsily assembled stock footage of the real Antarctic, along with mattes of a relatively calm, cloud-filled sky onto which an observable miniature of the helicopter has been pasted with little attention paid to mask its camera trickery. However, once the copter encounters a terrible electrical storm, driven down below radar, The Land Unknown officially enters a sublime suspension of disbelief where even the obviousness of its mechanical trickery evaporates. Indeed, Universal-International spent so lavishly on such plastic paraphernalia the studio had to scrap Vogel’s aspirations to shoot the picture in color. Ironically, this helps the production immensely, as in B&W, it acquires a very authentic ‘newsreel’ and/or documentarian quality and, in hindsight, hides a lot of sins otherwise committed by such camp-laden artifice.

The Land Unknown is notable for making the most of its low-budget special effects. There is rarely an instance where these are not shown to their very best advantage, meaning, that for the bulk of our run time we are totally immersed in a world unlike anything the movies had given us up till that point; the closest facsimile, the unkempt tropical undergrowth created for RKO concocted island, seen in King Kong (1933). The Land Unknown will never win any awards for greatest movie of all time – arguably, not even for the top 50 best sci-fi flicks. But what it does, it does exceptionally well, despite being stocked with actors who are about as enigmatic as four sticks of dry-wrought kindling. No kidding, none of the headliners know the first thing about their craft. Shirley Patterson is the most fetching of the lot, radiating a sort of plainspoken womanly magnetism that is flavorsome, slightly on the sultry side, and, semi-immune to behaving like the perennially afflicted damsel in distress.

After a quick debriefing, a small crew led by Commander Harold Roberts, board a Sikorsky S-51 and make their way to the Antarctic on a routine mission for the U.S. Navy. Aboard is reporter, Maggie Hathaway and scientist, Steve Miller; their helicopter piloted by Lt. Jack Carmen. All goes according to plan until an unexpected gale fast approaches, cutting off the copter’s return. At first, Carmen attempts to navigate his way around the advancing clouds. However, low on fuel, he has no choice but to fly directly into the unusual electrical storm. Dense mist and fog obliterate Carmen’s line of sight, the copter descending further and further below sea level after a near mid-air collision with a pterosaur. Having sabotaged the rotor, Carmen is forced to pitch his aircraft into an emergency landing. The troop fly into what they believe is a volcanic crater. Instead, they discover a muggy tropical rain forest populated by dinosaurs and flesh-eating plants.  After a harrowing escape from a pair of wrestling lizards, Roberts spies barefoot human imprints in the fresh mud. After trying without success to make contact by radio, both to their home base, but also a plane they can hear, though not see, flying overhead, Roberts reasons they have enough rations for two weeks. Alas, even he is already believing the worst about their situation. Indeed, no one knows they have survived the crash. Making the best of their situation, Roberts and Maggie narrowly avoid being eaten by a towering T-Rex. Carmen shoes away the beast by spinning the helicopter blades, thus creating a diversion; also, a powerfully sharp weapon to keep this dino-monster at bay.

Separated in the fog, Maggie is taken captive by Dr. Carl Hunter, a scientist from a previous mission, vanished and presumed to have died a decade ago.  Maggie has nothing to fear…perhaps. Hunter, while hardly attune to social graces, has nevertheless managed to stay alive under the most inhospitable conditions, protecting against dino attacks by blowing on a conch (the sound annoys them like a dog whistle) and, simultaneously raiding their nests for food.  Offering the remains of his downed plane to repair the helicopter, the trade is only possible if Roberts agrees to leave Maggie behind. At first refusing to comply with this exception, Roberts reasons their window of opportunity for escape is narrowing. In 25 days, Antarctic winter will set in and force the Navy to call off their search.  Carmen and Miller suggest torturing Hunter to gain insight into where he has hidden the parts necessary for their repairs.  Perhaps, they should leave Maggie behind.  Chivalrously, Roberts refuses to entertain either option.  Momentarily leaving Maggie in Hunter’s care, the pair are attacked by an Elasmosaurus. Hunter successfully wards off this latest attack. Afterward, Maggie explains how, weighing their options, Roberts refused to stoop to Hunter’s level to get what he wants. Hunter rethinks his position and offers Roberts a map to the hidden plane’s location.

Maggie remains with Hunter while Carmen, Miller and Roberts hurry to repair the copter. Their efforts are interrupted by the T-Rex. Incredibly, Carmen succeeds in getting the helicopter into the air before the beast can attack.  Now, Carmen navigates his way over rough terrain, spotting Maggie and Hunter on a raft in the middle of a steamy bog.  In attempting to lower a winch to rescue the pair, Hunter’s raft is ambushed by the Elasmosaurus. Again, Roberts chivalrously comes to Hunter’s aid, salvaging him from certain death by drowning.  With barely enough fuel left, Carmen banks the helicopter hard, pulling up and over the rim of the volcanic crater, thus exposing their whereabouts to a fleet of destroyers nearby.  Reaching out to their ship by radio, it seems time has run out. The copter’s propellers fail as it runs out of fuel. It plummets from the sky and crashes into the ocean mere feet away from the landing pad. Amazingly, everyone is rescued by crew members aboard ship.  Having narrowly survived, Roberts and Maggie declare their love for each other.

The Land Unknown is a special effects extravaganza with little to no story line outside its Darwinian-premised ‘survival of the fittest’. At barely 78 minutes, the picture lasts just long enough to show off its elaborate creature effects and seemingly endless vistas of primordial jungle terrain. Nothing more is required to sell the story, and, even more ironically, nothing extra is offered. Initially, The Land Unknown was slated as Universal-International’s last-ditch effort to resurrect Sci-Fi’s dwindling popularity at the box office. To this end, the original plan was to make it a big and bloated ‘color’ production with Jack Arnold assigned to direct it. Arnold actually began pre-production when Universal decided to cut corners and undercut the original budget by nearly half, reducing its status from an ‘A’ picture to a decidedly low-end ‘B’ movie. Unwilling to attach his name to this revised plan, Arnold withdrew and Virgil Vogel stepped in to replace him. To Vogel’s credit, very little about The Land Unknown looks second-hand or as though any sacrifices (outside of shooting in B&W) were actually made. In years yet to follow, props from this movie would turn up in the most curious places. The T-Rex’s head became ‘Spot’ – the beloved ‘under the stairs’ house pet on TV’s The Munsters (1964) while the T-Rex’s iconic roar was reused in 1971’s Duel as the sound heard when the iconic truck in that movie topples over the edge of a cliff.

The Land Unknown arrives on Blu-ray via Kino Lorber’s alliance with Universal Home Video. Like most studios, Uni has long-since dissolved its once-thriving home video apparatus for all but a handful of 4K UHD releases. Mercifully, some preliminary restoration work appears to have been done on this deep catalog title. The anamorphic ‘scope’ image looks fairly ravishing with barely an age-related blemish. The gray scale is superbly rendered. Barring stock and newsreel footage of the real Antarctica (shot under less than optimal light conditions, and therefore appearing rough around the edges, softly focused and riddled in age-related damage, the rest of the image here is razor-sharp and exceptionally clean, with good solid tonality, excellent contrast, and a light smattering of film grain looking very indigenous to its source. The DTS 1.0 mono sounds wonderful, if limited; very clean, with zero hiss and pop. We get a new audio commentary from historians, Tom Weaver and David Schecter. These two have great fun with this track, delving into fascinating back stories and factoid info to augment our appreciation. There is also a theatrical trailer. Bottom line: The Land Unknown is a prehistoric potboiler, but pulled off with such panache and attention to detail, its virtues easily outweigh its vices. This Blu-ray, while not perfect, is pretty darn close and will surely not disappoint. Bottom line: recommended!

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

3

VIDEO/AUDIO

4

EXTRAS

1