Bert Gordon may have hit the nadir of his career with King Dinosaur. This one is a stinker of massive proportions just like the creatures discovered on a new planet in the solar system.The first third of the film is documentary like with the solemn tones of Marvin Miller telling us how four select scientists, two men and two women got chosen to explore the new planet Nova. After that the players take over none of whom you will ever have heard of.A lot of nature films fill in as the explorers discover a planet that looks like a giant national park. But there's a lake and a mysterious looking island in the middle. So two of them paddle over in a rubber raft.The island is Jurassic Park with stock footage from One Million BC used as it is in a slew of cheap science fiction films. What to do, but blow the place up.And for that the expedition has packed an atomic bomb. With a timer too. Just set it for a half hour delay and then run and paddle for your life. The end the island blows up so future explorers will never see a glimpse of real prehistoric life. To think scientists did this and none of them is a nuclear physicist.It's one of the worst science fiction films ever done and definitely one of the worst productions to come out of Lippert Pictures which was on its last legs.If you watch it you'll find it frighteningly ghastly.

1955's "King Dinosaur" marked the first feature from director Bert I. Gordon (Mr BIG), who specialized in giant monsters during the 1950s, turning his hand to fantasy ("The Boy and the Pirates," "The Magic Sword"), thriller ("Picture Mommy Dead," "The Mad Bomber"), horror ("Tormented," "Necromancy"), even sexploitation ("How to Succeed with Sex," "The Big Bet," "Let's Do It!"), over a span of 35 years. Judging by the evidence present with this initial film, he clearly had nowhere else to go but up, a hodgepodge of stock footage merged with new scenes of novice actors wandering around Bronson Caverns, a popular location for low budget producers. An earthlike planet is shown to have an island occupied by 'dinosaurs' (only appearing in the final 18 minutes), actually a monitor lizard, gila monster, a simple alligator, and an iguana hilariously described by the doofus head scientist as a "Tyrannosaurus Rex." Apparently the only way to escape the island, apart from rowing of course, is to break out the Atom Bomb! 36 minutes of sheer torture, "King Dinosaur" made three appearances on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater, Sept 18 1965 (followed by the debut of 1941's "The Wolf Man"), Oct 26 1968 (following 1957's "Giant from the Unknown"), and Sept 14 1974 (following 1966's "Terror Beneath the Sea").

This is one of the worst 'monster island' type early fifties cheapies. It's note worthy only, however, for the mind boggling ending. This time the 'monster island' is actually a new Earth like planet, Nova, that has suddenly appeared near the Earth. The premise, development, dialog and acting are full of laughable 'science' making this an outstanding choice for Mystery Science Theater 3000. For some this also means it qualifies for the "So bad, it's good," category, but this is just plain bad film making. The great 'SBIG' movies, like Ed Wood's 'Citizen Kane,' 'Glen or Glenda' (1953) or 'Plan 9 From Outer Space' (1959) have absurd or unique qualities in the writing, photography, use of stock footage and acting.You always hope that the dinosaurs in these films will not be men in monster suits as in 'Unknown Island' (1948), or close ups of iguanas and salamanders. But no-- there are the iguanas, but we also get a gila monster and a Kodomo dragon (monitor lizard).It was Roger Corman who broke ground by creating his own monsters for his mid fifties science fiction films, definitely the peaks of the fifties genre with such wonders as 'The Day the World Ended,' (1955), the amazing story of the Ultimate Collaborator (Lee Van Cleef) in the under rated 'It! Conquered the World,' (1956), 'Not of This Earth' (1957), and 'Attack of the Crab Monsters' (1957), leading the way. But not Bert I. Gordon.Usually when the characters first land and see a volcano, you know that at the end of the movie, the volcano is going to explode and destroy the island, a cliché done to death in countless movies (and serials) since the 1930s. But wait! This one ends differently! As two of the four scientists rush to the island to save the others, the man is lugging a rectangular box, and as they are reunited, running away from the 'dinosaurs' he says "I brought an atomic bomb. This is a good time to use it!" !! He sets the timer for 30 minutes, and they escape in rubber rafts to the mainland, hiding behind a knoll just as the A-Bomb goes off. As the mushroom cloud rises and blooms, one man says to the other, "Well, we did it!" The other replies, "Yes, we certainly did! We brought civilization to Nova!" Your jaw drops in disbelief. The unintentional meaning of this according to our current reading (i.e., Civilization equals destruction by man-- see also the Catholic Church's list of new sins; Oppenheimer's naming the bomb Shiva, and the new definition of man as the species destroying the earth through global warming and causing extinction of other species) must be in stark contrast to the fifities' meanings, I'm assuming, which must combine "wiping out evils paves the way for civilization," and America's ability to wield such a weapon 'proves' that we are the forefront of 'civilization,' both referenced by our dropping of the A-Bomb on Japan.Is that what they were thinking? Other than the ending, this movie was not absurd or well written enough to merit more than a 1.NOTE: The current DVD version has another Lippert production, 'The Jungle' (1952), supposedly filmed in India, with a great Indian sound track, and some pre-Bollywood native dancing. Filmed in sepia, it's a better film.

The film begins with a narrator telling us about how a new planet has moved into our solar system (?!). There are many shots of what looks like Mount Wilson or Mount Palomar Observatory as they "discover" the planet (even though in reality you wouldn't need "the most powerful telescope in the world" to see a new planet right next to Earth). Yes, this is a kind of a silly sci-fi adventure movie that begins very seriously as if it was a docu-drama about space exploration. But the scientists in this movie are the kind that don't even carry a compass and don't have any idea how long the daily light cycles would be on this new planet ("it might spin faster than the Earth" says one big busted female scientist). Notice how the male scientists carry rifles and the female scientists carry pistols, and the men collect firewood while the women collect kindling. Good patronizing stuff, even if they do have a blonde chemist! I love how the outer space expeditions in these movies look more like they belong in a jungle movie than a sci-fi movie. These people aren't fazed at all by seeing normal earth wildlife on the strange new planet. Of course the strange new planet has an uncanny resemblance to Griffith Park.......And then there's the "strange island" that one of the woman just feels drawn to... gotta love how the women in these movies have strange urges like that which make them wander out into places they shouldn't go.The first really hilarious scene in the movie is when the two blonde scientists (yes there's a blond guy/girl and a brunette guy/girl) go off for a walk together. He stumbles on something and literally hurtles himself into a ditch where he has to battle a crocodile. It's the classic sex/death connection just like in the slasher films 20 years later... don't go off into the woods with your gal, never mind what planet you're on! The dialog in this movie is just painful at times. These are scientists who don't even speak English with good grammar. And the film's idea of good snappy dialog is to have the injured scientist say stuff like "I need some medicine" right before kissing his gal. Ugh.Bert I. Gordon movies are so great. This is his first movie and he's already up to his tricks. Just like how the spider roared like a lion in "Earth Versus the Spider", in this one we have a roaring snake! I guess Bert Gordon didn't think that a monster was scary if it didn't make noise. Maybe he's right, but it sure is goofy on screen! Logic shouldn't get in the way of the movie. Even though they have been attacked by snakes and giant insects, the leader scientist decides "we haven't run into anything we can't handle" and decides to split up the party so he can go investigate the island. Even though they already said that exploring the island was not supposed to be part of the expedition, they brought 2 rafts along in their spaceship.I guess I should expect to be disappointed but sadly when we finally do see "King Dinosaur" it turns out to be just an iguana photographed with rear projection. "It resembles the T-Rex of ancient Earth".... well not really but nice thought. Of course the hero's rifle jams up so they have to run into robot monster cave. Hilariously, after all the things that they have seen the hero says "nobody is going to believe this!" as if a planet comes into our solar system full of meercats and bears all the time but a giant iguana? Never! Of course a giant alligator shows up to distract the ignuana, just like in the old H.R. Haggard movies. From the way they battle, I don't think this movie received the blessings of any animal rights organizations. They don't run for it for some reason but then later they decide to run away when a gila monster attacks "King Dinosaur." In the meantime the action has caused him to take off his shirt and her skirt to get ripped up the side, allowing for some nice 50s light exploitation. The other couple has been called to the island by way of flare gun apparently so they can sit there and say "over here! go faster!" to the other two without doing anything to help them. And then the blonde scientist says the best line in the whole movie: "I brought the atom bomb. I think it's a good time to use it." I mean, smart scientists usually destroy alien species as soon as they encounter them.Next thing you know, we have a giant armadillo! Who knew it was a Tod Browning movie? (sorry, kind of an inside joke... watch "Dracula" really carefully and you'll see what I mean). There's even some bison and a woolly mammoth. Why the "dinosaur" doesn't just eat those instead of the tiny humans is another question better not asked.And then let's not forget the cryptic lines at the end of the movie. "Well, we've done it." "Yeah, brought civilization to Nova." ??? Was it supposed to be ironic? Who knows.I can't say the movie was supposed to be funny or that it was a good movie, but I enjoyed watching it.