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One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing

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One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing is a 1975 comedy film set in the early 1920s, about the theft of a dinosaur skeleton from the Natural History Museum. The film was produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution Company. The title is a parody of the film title One of Our Aircraft Is Missing, in which both Peter Ustinov and Hugh Burden also appeared. The film was based on the 1970 novel The Great Dinosaur Robbery by David Forrest (pseudonym of David Eliades and Robert Forrest Webb). It was the last work of producer and screenwriter Bill Walsh before his death on January 27, 1975, almost six months before the film's release.[2]

One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRobert Stevenson
Written byBill Walsh
Based onThe Great Dinosaur Robbery by David Forrest
Produced byBill Walsh
StarringPeter Ustinov
Helen Hayes
Clive Revill
Derek Nimmo
CinematographyPaul Beeson
Edited byPeter Boita
Music byRon Goodwin
Production
company
Distributed byBuena Vista Distribution
Release date
  • July 9, 1975 (1975-07-09)
Running time
100 minutes
CountriesUnited Kingdom
United States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$5.5 million (North American rentals)[1]

Plot

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Escaping from China with a microfilm of the formula for the mysterious "Lotus X", Lord Edward Southmere, a King's Messenger, is chased by a group of Chinese spies.

Back in London, Lord Southmere runs into the Natural History Museum and hides the microfilm in the bones of a large dinosaur skeleton. The spies decide to steal the dinosaur, so they can search it properly, and load the Brontosaurus skeleton on the back of their steam lorry. Some nannies steal the vehicle, which they drive through the foggy streets of London before being carried off to safety on a flat wagon at the back of a train.

The spies eventually find the microfilm at the museum inside the bones of another large dinosaur skeleton, and all misunderstanding is set aside, with good results for all.

Cast

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Source material

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The book on which the film was based, The Great Dinosaur Robbery, was aimed at an adult audience by its authors, Robert Forrest Webb and David Eliades, and was set in New York. The authors, both very experienced UK national journalists and best-selling authors, extensively researched material in New York and were greatly assisted by the American Museum of Natural History, and by the New York Police Department responsible for that area. The authors were disappointed that the humour of the film was aimed at a very much younger audience than that in the book, which had been published, in several languages, extremely successfully throughout Europe and also in Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S.

Production

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Filming

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The film was shot on location in England at Elstree Studios and Pinewood Studios. Additional filming took place at London Zoo, the Natural History Museum, and around Windsor and Holyport Green, Maidenhead.[3] While One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing was in production, Bresslaw and Sims also appeared in Carry On Behind, another film being made concurrently at Pinewood Studios.

Ustinov, Revill, and Bresslaw—all white actors—performed in yellowface makeup to portray Chinese characters in the film.[4][5]

Special effects

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The special photographic effects for One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing were handled by British special effects artist John Stears. The steam lorry used in the film was a mockup, with the mocked up boiler smaller than that on a real steam lorry.[6] The Diplodocus skeleton model featured in the film was later used in Star Wars (1977), in the opening scenes in the Tunisian desert.[7]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "All-time Film Rental Champs", Variety, 7 January 1976 p 46
  2. ^ Bill Walsh, 61, Movie Writer, Producer, Dies Los Angeles Times 28 Jan 1975: a19.
  3. ^ One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing - Filming Locations www.imdb.com
  4. ^ Wong, Eugene Franklin (1990). On Visual Media Racism: Asians in the American Motion Pictures. University of Denver. p. 206. The third film, produced by Disney's BuenaVista, One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1975), retained the practice of using white males in racist cosmetics in order to portray Asian males, particularly on the major role level. In addition, the Asian characters, in this case Chinese, were depicted as vicious and unscrupulous persons not above murder to achieve their demonic goals.
  5. ^ Ono, Kent A.; Pham, Vincent N. (2008). Asian Americans and the Media: Media and Minorities. Polity. ISBN 978-0745642741.
  6. ^ Coulls, Amthony (2020). Steam Lorries. Amberley. p. 58. ISBN 9781445698502.
  7. ^ Bell, Chris (7 December 2015). "Unions, eccentrics and alcohol: the Brits who built Star Wars". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 7 December 2015. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
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