The Last Dinosaur (1977)

Directed by

Alex Grasshoff

Genre

fantasy film, monster film, children's film

Country

United States, Japan

Runtime

1h 46m

Rated

12

Rating

6.5 of 10 from 20 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A big game hunter leads an expedition to a hidden prehistoric world beneath the ice. They encounter a tyrannosaurus rex that they must fight to survive.

adventurousnostalgiccheesyfunfamily-friendlylow-budgetunintentionally funnyclassic monster-movie vibe

What happens

The Last Dinosaur (Japanese: 極底探険船ポーラーボーラ, Hepburn: Kyokutei Tankensen Pōrābōra; lit. 'Polar Probe Ship: Polar Borer') is a 1977 tokusatsu film co-directed by Alexander Grasshoff and Tsugunobu Kotani (billed as Tom Kotani). A Japanese-American co-production between Tsuburaya Productions and Rankin/Bass Productions, it was filmed at Tsuburaya Studios in Tokyo and on location in the Japanese Alps. The film was intended for a U.S. theatrical release, but failed to find a distributor and ended up as a television film, airing on ABC on February 11, 1977 in an edited 92-minute run time. The film was eventually picked up for overseas markets by Cinema International Corporation, where it was released in the unedited 106-minute version as a double feature in the U.K. with the edited version of Sorcerer (the latter considered a remake of The Wages of Fear). Toho also picked up distribution rights to The Last Dinosaur in Japan for a theatrical release utilizing the unedited 106-minute version in English with Japanese subtitles, and later the film debuted on Japanese television dubbed in Japanese. The film stars Richard Boone and Joan Van Ark. William Overgard wrote the screenplay. The score was composed, as was most of the music for all Rankin/Bass specials and series, by Maury Laws, while the title song "He's the Last Dinosaur", with lyrics by Jules Bass, was sung by Nancy Wilson, and arranged and conducted by Bernard Hoffer. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• Legend of Dinosaurs & Monster Birds (1977)
• The People That Time Forgot (1977)
• A Journey to the Center of the Earth (1977)
• The Crater Lake Monster (1977)
• The Rescuers (1977)
• Jurassic Park (1993)
• The Land Unknown (1957)
• Monsters, Inc. (2001)