Dinosaurus!

_**The “Jurassic Park” of its day**_ While using explosives to build a harbor on a Caribbean island, a construction crew unearths a frozen tyrannosaurus, a brontosaurus and a caveman. They’re eventually regenerated during a storm and naturally terrorize the islanders. Ward Ramsey plays the constr ... uction boss and Kristina Hanson his girlfriend. Fred Engelberg is on hand as the abusive island authority. "Dinosaurus!" (1960) is a ‘B’ creature feature with a 50’s residue (being shot in 1959), but it was the “Jurassic Park” of its day, featuring stop-motion & miniature F/X mixed with puppets for close-ups. The story is simple, but it’s compelling entertainment; including a couple of laugh-out-loud moments with the Neanderthal (Gregg Martell). Kristina Hanson is fetching, especially in her one-piece bathing suit in the opening, but more shoulda been done with her than prancing around in a long dress (I’m thinking in terms of Beth Rogan in “Mysterious Island,” which was released the next year). A shot of the Tyrannosaurus was used six years later for the episode of Gilligan’s Island where Gilligan dreamed that the castaways were living in prehistoric times. The film runs 1 hour, 23 minutes and was shot at St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. GRADE: B read more