ONE OF OUR DINOSAURS IS MISSING
UK/US, 1975, 100 minutes, Colour.
Peter Ustinov, Helen Hayes, Clive Revell, Derek Nimmo, Joan Sims, Bernard Bresslaw, Natasha Pyne, Roy Kinnear, Joss Ackland, Deryck Guyler, Richard Pearson, Jon Pertwee, John Laurie.
Directed by Robert Stevenson.
One Of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing is a play on titles from the wartime British classic One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing.
However, this is Disney World, a fictitious world of aristocratic British and sinister Chinese. The plot of the film is quite complicated with a formula being smuggled out of China, its being hidden in dinosaur bones, dinosaur bones being abducted, teams of nannies coming to the rescue…
It is humorously written and definitely humorously performed with Peter Ustinov pantomiming the main Chinese spy and Helen Hayes leading the nannies who include Joan Sims and Natasha Pyne. There is a very entertaining supporting cast of British character actors with Derek Nimmo as Lord Southmere who smuggles the formula out in the first place.
The film was directed by Robert Stevenson, the British director who made a number of films in Britain (King Solomon’s Mines, Tom Brown’s Schooldays), who went to Hollywood and made films like Jane Eyre. From 1957 he was employed by Disney and made numerous films including Darby O’Gill? and the Little People, Kidnapped, The Absent Minded Professor, In Search of the Castaways, That Darned Cat, The Gnomemobile, Blackbeard’s Ghost, The Love Bug as well as the classic, Mary Poppins.
1. The film as a Disney thriller comedy? The typical Disney ingredients? The blend of thrills and comedy?
2. The humour and irony of the title? The drawings during the credit sequences? The nature of the humour? British and ironical? Use of music, colour. British locations?
3. The introduction of Lord Southmere and its humour? His flashbacks about China and the humorous adventures? Derek Nimmo and his style? The present in the light of the past and the T.V. ending?
4. Comment on the quality of the parody of the adventures of Lord Southmere? How much humorous situation? How much satire?
5. The overtones of Fu Manchu for the plot? The various villains? Hnup as chief villain? The sinister comedy of Wan? And the idiocy of Choy? their cover of the reluctant dragon? The Chinese style in Britain? The rivalry between Wan and Qao#9 How seriously should any of this have been taken?
6. Lord Southmere's imprisonment, his bump? Hiding the film in the dinosaur?
7. The atmosphere of the nannies and their overtones? The satire on Empire and nannies? The characteristics of Hettie and Emily and Susan? The resourcefulness of the nannies, for example their searching for the dinosaur? The children and their reacting against the nannies in helping the Chinese?
8. Comment on the set pieces and their humour, the sequences of the nannies in the park, the search for the dinosaurs, the stealing of the dinosaur and driving it throughout the English countryside, hiding the dinosaur?
9. The contribution of the minor characters, the children and their personalities, the superintendent, the American who wanted to buy a dinosaur, the museum attendant, Sir Geoffrey, the colonel, the Scots drinkers, the Home Secretary etc?
10. How well did the film build up to its climax? The grand fight with the nannies involved?
ll. The humour of finding out that soup was the real issue of the stealing of the microfilm?
12. Why do audiences enjoy these Disney films? The quality of the comedy, the performances of Peter Ustinov and Helen Hayes? All the popular ingredients and blend of realism and fantasy?
