A team is briefed about an oasis in the Antarctic that they are to investigate. The military team is going to be accompanied by a female reporter, Margaret ‘Maggie’ Hathaway (actor Shirley Patterson). The Commander, Alan Roberts (actor Jock Mahoney) tells her they leave in two months.
An icebreaker takes them into the Antarctic and then Roberts, Hathaway and machinist Steve Miller (actor Phil Harvey) are flown by helicopter X-3 by pilot Lt. Jack Carmen (actor William Reynolds) to find their destination and then receive a warning of a storm coming and are advised to return. The pilot searches for a break in the weather to get there. Alas, they are hit by a passing giant flying creature, lose their aerial and take a serious dip, which carries them 3,000 feet below sea level, and they suspect an extinct volcano. They land in tropical misty territory so you can’t see much. They have enough food supplies for six weeks but the icebreaker won’t be staying longer than a month.
They find they have to avoid fighting lizards and a biped Tyrannosaurus. They decide it’s safer to stay in the helicopter and go and get their supplies, although they find that some of the tins have been opened. Maggie is abducted by a bearded man but the others locate them. The man is from a 4-man aircraft expedition from 10 years ago and he is Dr. Carl Hunter (actor Henry Brandon). He offers parts of his downed aircraft to repair the helicopter as long as Maggie stays. They refuse that but keep the parts. Maggie thinks she should stay to save the others, but they don’t like that. She leaves them and, in the dinghy, the Elasmosaurus approaches and she faints. Hunter rescues her and is, in turn, attacked by Miller, who manages to win. Miller wants to know where the lost plane is. With all three men present, Hunter gives them a map to find it and Roberts talks sense to Hunter. While Maggie tends to the injured Hunter, the three men find the plane parts and a necessary strut to repair the helicopter. The rest should be considered spoiler.
Effects-wise, this land was made on a sound stage. It looks reasonably effective but is no ‘Lost World’ (1960). The ‘manned’ Tyrannosaurus looks less effective the more you see it. The Elasmosaurus in the water could have done with a bit more refinement but more effective than the Tyrannosaurus. The two fighting monitor lizards are literally just that. You do have to wonder how much was learnt for the later ‘The Lost World’.
Considering the film was made on a limited budget, it’s not entirely ineffectual. Had the studio’s ‘This Island, Earth’ done better, this one might have fared better too.
What does throw things a bit is all the distances being noted. I mean, 3,000 feet down is a long way to drop, let alone fly out of. In those days, with little chance of anyone seeing the film more than a couple of times, studios didn’t really worry about what it meant. You see examples of this across many films and even TV shows on both sides of the pond. They really just wanted to establish in the viewers’ minds that it was deep.
At least ‘The Land Unknown’ is watchable for a low budget film from a major Hollywood studio.
GF Willmetts
October 2026
(public domain. 78 minute black and white film)
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