This is a loveable and old movie from back from 1975. OK I’m going to take that back and start over. This loveable and fresh movie from 1975 (yes, its younger than me and I just used the word ‘old’) so I will move swiftly on. This was a British Disney movie with lots of British actors in it, filmed at Pinewood Studies and Elstree Studios, it was also on location at London Zoo, the Natural History Museum and locally to me Windsor, Holyport Green & Maidenhead, which makes me love this movie even more. This was back in the days where they didn’t tell us how much it cost to make so I don’t have that information on the costs involved but I can tell you that it did gross $5.5m which if you look at other movies made at the time costing around a $1m I would assume this would not of cost that but that he pure speculation. It starred Peter Ustinov, Helen Hayes, Clive Revill & Derek Nimmo. You know what the whole cast here would be special to me so you hang on here as I go off and do some digging. It will one line for you but probably 10 minutes for me. OK I am going to give you a practically full cast list here and the blasted thing won’t let me cut and paste so here goes the long way… Derek Nimmo, Hugh Burden, Bernard Bresslaw, Helen Hayes, Joan Sims, Deryck Guyler, Peter Ustinov, Clive Revill, Molly Weir, Andrew Dove, Max Harris, Max Wall, Natasha Pyne, Joss Ackland, Arthur Howard, Roy Kinnear, Leonard Trolley, Joe Ritchie, Percy Herbert, Joan Hickson, John Laurie, Angus Lennie, Jon Pertwee, Kathleen Byron, Lucy Griffiths, Aimée Delamain, John Bardon, Jane Lapotaire, Richard Pearson, Michael Elwyn, Anthony Sharp, Wensley Pithey, Frank Williams, Peter Madden, Erik Chitty & Amanda Barrie. You had better appreciate that and more importantly recognise some of those names.
I will move onto the cast now and then try not to ignore certain elements of the movie. Lord Southmere goes off to China and steals a microfilm containing the Lotus X and many Chinese spies gives chase. He escapes to London and goes to the Natural History Museum which is cleaning the Brontosaurus which allows him to sneak in and stash the microfilm on the dinosaur. He is captured by the Chinese but manages to get word to his former nanny that the microfilm is there and asks her to retrieve it while he is no doubt taken off for torturing to reveal the films location. Having spent days searching the dinosaur and desperate to stay ahead of the Chinese spies the nanny’s recruit many more to search and then steal the entire dinosaur on the back of truck to prevent the spies from retrieving it. The hunt is on and the dinosaur is on the back of a truck being driven around the foggy streets of London and beyond. Will the Nanny’s find the microfilm, will they rescue Lord Southmere and defeat the Chinese Spies? Well who knows unless you’ve seen this movie already.
OK I will grasp the elephant in the room instantly as currently many different shows are being removed from showing due to claims they are racist. Some of which is when white comedians or actors have portrayed Black and Asian characters and I am not saying this was right or wrong. Back in the seventy’s life was different and if you couldn’t get certain actors then you got other actors and made them look the way you wanted them to. Now I have heard white voices telling me this is completely wrong and should never of happened and I can understand that and I have also heard Asian voices saying it was ok as it was comedy and it wasn’t poking fun at those people for being that type of person but for the characters they portrayed. So as a reviewer I am going to tell you have middle aged white men playing middle aged oriental men in this movie. If you are offended by that please do not watch it. This does not change my score for the movie and it also does not mean I condone it either and I will explain why I have given this movie a 74% score. The answer to that is fairly easy it’s a fun movie it doesn’t take itself or others seriously. It pokes fun at everyone from the bungling spies chasing the film to the British stiff upper lip spy that can go to China steal a secret formula only to return to be scalded and told off by an elderly Nanny that still holds a fear and control over him. The movie as a whole is stupid the point of it and the drama that ensues is equally unbelievable as this head of a Brontosaurus keeps appearing out of the fog. The scores are not as close as others with an IMDb score of 6/10 and Rotten Tomatoes a bit closer with 69%. Why I love this movie is because it reminds me of being a child and possibly one of my youngest memories as I would of assumed the only access I had to this movie would have been on TV so it would have been a year or two before it appeared on there and I would have been a toddler back then. Repeats were always moaned about but this wouldn’t have been a repeat for me and I loved the stupid humour of it and its one of the movies that my wife loved as a kid as well. It would be a movie I would be happy to share with my children and I would suggest you do the same if you can get over the first point I made.
And just as another little bit of pointless trivia do you know what happened to the Dinosaur that was stolen in this movie? It was used in another movie called Star Wars, yes remember the bones buried in the sand when R2 & C3 land and climb out of the escape pod. Well yes that was this dino that was spotted and used in another movie!
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