Updated: April 28, 2024

The Lost World is a 1960 science fiction adventure film based on the novel of the same name by Arthur Conan Doyle and directed by Irwin Allen. The plot of the film revolves around the exploration of a mysterious flat mountain ( see Tepui ) in the heart of unknown Venezuela inhabited by cannibalistic natives, dinosaurs, carnivorous plants, and giant spiders.

Special effects for the film were rather simple and involved monitor lizards, iguanas, and crocodiles affixed with miniature horns and fins. This technique has been given the nickname slurpasaur by fans.

Professor Challenger leads team of scientists and adventurers to a remote plateau deep within the Amazonian jungle to investigate reports that dinosaurs still live there.

The boisterous, arrogant Professor Challenger ( Claude Rains ), a reputed biologist and anthropologist, dares the London Zoological Society to mount an expedition to verify his spectacular claim, without physical proof, that his previous expedition to the Amazon Basin found live dinosaurs. Apart from him and his 'socialite' counterpart, Professor Summerlee ( Richard Haydn ), it consists of experienced discoverer Lord Roxton ( Michael Rennie ), the young reporter Ed Malone ( David Hedison ) - who got publicly struck down with Challenger's umbrella at his arrival - and Jennifer Holmes ( Jill St. John ), Malone's news agency's boss's daughter, essentially as conditions for putting up the money. In Brazil they are joined by Jennifer's brother David ( Ray Stricklyn ) and local 'guide' Manuel Gomez ( Fernando Lamas ). They soon discover the dinosaurs and other creatures are real and dangerous, but lose their helicopter and thus are desperate for a way down from the isolated plateau. They learn Roxton knew about the fate of Burton White, an explorer whose diary they find, search for diamonds, and confirm that the local tribesmen are lethal guardians of the plateau's secrets. During a volcanic eruption, they manage to escape from the plateau, carrying a Tyrannosaurus rex egg with them. The egg hatches when it is dropped by accident, and Professor Challenger resolves to take the infant dinosaur ( here represented by a cosmetically altered gecko lizard ) back to London with them.

Shown here are a series of different promotional posters that were marketed during the original release of the film.

Value: $50. ( Each )