MovieChat Forums > King Dinosaur (1955) Discussion > About the DVD from VCI...

About the DVD from VCI...


I recently bought VCI's double feature disc featuring KING D. and THE JUNGLE.

I was frankly surprised at the good quality of the transfers of both films. For KD especially, VCI seems to have exercised a degree of care in handling the film that Bert I. Gordon certainly never showed!

Even down to releasing it in its original widescreen format, which up till now I'd never seen (not that it helps much). And even some extras! Wow.

My question...the DVD case gives the running time as 59 mins. Other references say 63. I wasn't timing it, and it looked at one point as if something may be missing because the picture fades out momentarily and resumes in another scene, but then something told me this was the way it was shot. Any knowledge about this crucial issue...?

(BTW, the last few seconds of the film ARE missing -- where the music climaxes and it says THE END over the shot of the mushroom cloud. The VCI print just suddenly stops moments before this critical part of the movie -- telling you that at last it's over -- was to come on, then goes black, and the DVD ends. But that doesn't account for a difference of four minutes.)

reply

What a tragedy! I shall kill myself with regret.

Nothing is more beautiful than nothing.

reply

Use your trusty A-bomb.

reply

The one I keep in my thong.

Nothing is more beautiful than nothing.

reply

Another reason to keep the monkey away from the trigger.

reply

You're right! I just received mine in the mail today. Found it on the Amazon.com website for just $7.00 bucks (slightly used) when I was shopping for a "Phantom Planet" Wade Williams / Image version to upgrade & complement my Alpha Video copy. I agree that the picture & sound quality are really great and it does cut off at the end but the disk sure has a whole lotta bonus material on it for both features. All in all I think I'll keep it! :)

I remember shopping for DVDs back in 03 or 04 at the local Fry's and looking over a Retro Media copy of "King Dinosaur" but for some reason I didn't buy it. Maybe this version has the missing footage and doesn't cut out at the end. Hmmmm.....?

reply

I decided to dig out my old VHS of KD from some cheap outfit called Timeless Video Inc., to compare. That sequence that looked like something might have been missing is the same on the tape, which is vaguely how I always remembered the movie, so no difference there -- that's clearly the way the film was shot, or edited. (Maybe the film really should have been shot.) The "The End" sequence is intact on the tape and as noted is only a few seconds longer from where the DVD cuts off, so no biggie.

This really is an amazingly stupid, badly made and dull movie. (The way we love 'em!) I'm surprised that Bill Bryant and Douglas Henderson managed to have halfway decent careers despite their indentured servitude in this mess. The women more or less disappeared without a trace, however. I thought the brunette (Patti Gallagher) was cute. She at least seems to have done about three movies and a few TV shows in the 50s; Wanda Curtis, the unattractive and shrieking blond, apparently never appeared in anything other than this clunker. Quite a filmography! (And poor Doug Henderson ended up committing suicide. The curse of KING DINOSAUR?)

reply

You actually are not missing much at all, only a few seconds at the end.

The main reasons to get the VCI release are to have it in widescreen, and to have The Jungle as well, which is the better film.

-----
The Eyes of the City are Mine! Mother Pressman / Anguish (1987)

reply

Yes, as I said, the VCI disc stops only about 6 or 7 seconds too soon. There's nothing other than watching more of "THE END" over the A-bomb cloud. I suppose if I get nostalgic for the complete finish I can always watch the tape!

VCI always does well by their DVDs and I agree, this one is worth getting for the quality of the prints of both films as well as having KD letterboxed (which on the surface sounds ridiculous).

The Jungle certainly is "better", but compared to King Dinosaur that's a highly relative comparison and a very reserved compliment! It's still pretty pokey and dull, and we don't even see the monsters until the last five minutes. Good thing VCI didn't cut off that movie early!

Still, it's too bad the print of Kind Dinosaur used for the VCI DVD isn't absolutely, totally, 100% complete.

reply