Movies Time Forgot

The article “They Walked the Earth Before ‘Jurassic Park,’ ” by Chris Willman (June 6), was interesting but incomplete.

Movies missing from Willman’s list include the 1954 Czechoslovakian epic “Journey to the Beginning of Time”; the 1956 low-budget “The Beast of Hollow Mountain”; “The People That Time Forgot,” the 1977 sequel to “The Land That Time Forgot,” and the 1977 stop-motion “Planet of the Dinosaurs.” There are probably others, but why belabor the point?

To my mind, most dinosaur movies end tragically with the giant saurians getting machine-gunned, harpooned, nuked or blown up by a volcano. Call me a sentimental misanthrope, but my ending for the perfect dinosaur movie would be the last human on Earth digesting nicely in the belly of a 50-foot T. rex .

DAVID A. LATHRAP

La Mesa

*

Willman’s list of movies that featured dinosaurs was pretty thorough, at least the cheapies. Still, one title was omitted. I wouldn’t even pick this nit, except for the fact that it was one of the better pictures.

In 1957, Irwin Allen directed “The Animal World,” part of a trilogy on evolution that he made before turning his attention to big-budget, star-laden disaster films.

“The Animal World” began with a 12-minute sequence on dinosaurs that brought the documentary up to the birds, bees and mammals. But since the entire film was only 82 minutes, the studio just booked it as bottom-half-of-the-bill filler, so it never really found an audience.

Even schools wouldn’t recommend it to students, as the treatment was judged too sophisticated (the mating ritual and copulation of sow bugs, for instance). The animals’ sex lives are handled so tongue-in-cheek, it’s a hoot!

HAROLD FAIRBANKS

Hollywood

*

Gwangi of “The Valley of Gwangi” was not a Tyrannosaurus rex but an allosaurus, a smaller theropod.

As for the Tyrannosaurus rex in “Jurassic Park,” as I recall they were all females, so that would make the T. rex a She-rex .

JENNIFER L. BARBER

Goleta