It doesn't sound like the sort of title Anchor Bay would have gone to another studio to get the DVD rights to, but then who knows? (Several Fox titles have been put out by Criterion, but I doubt TLW would be on their acquisition list -- though they did put out FIRST MAN INTO SPACE!) If you learn anything please post it. (I have the out-of-print pan & scan VHS version and an off-the-air letterbox from FMC.)
Like you, the lizards didn't fool me even as a kid -- I've always found it easy to spot models, phony animals, and so on. But many of the plot points were pretty good and believably handled. I enjoy it on a pure-entertainment level, and why not? The only thing I never could abide was Jill St. John's poodle, whose presence was pointless and silly and really stretched credulity.
This was the last film bearing a credit for Willis O'Brien, who of course did the landmark animation effects on the original 1925 THE LOST WORLD, and who was bitterly disappointed at Irwin Allen's cheapskate imitation. If you've never seen the '25 version, it's available on DVD in a restored edition -- be sure you get the right one, from Kino; crummy, edited, public-domain copies still abound. The effects are stunning for the time and hold up beautifully even today, after 82 years. Harry Houdini borrowed some of the dinosaur footage before the film was released and showed it to an assembly of paleontologists -- all of whom were taken in by it, thinking it film of actual dinosaurs. Even the NY Times was fooled. I doubt outtakes of the 1960 version would have a similar effect.
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