THE LAST DINOSAUR was a Japanese/American co-production funded mainly by Rankin/Bass, the makers of those delightful stop motion Christmas specials that have become so much a part of American culture. The film was released theatrically in Japan, but came straight to television here in the States. Richard Boone plays super-industrialist/great white hunter Masten Thrust, who's company has been drilling for oil in the Arctic. They've recently stumbled onto a volcanic crater that still houses prehistoric life, including the hungry Tyrannosaurus who lords over this lost world. Would-be generic adventure story somewhat undercut by the 70's need to be "relevant." The Last Dinosaur of the title isn't the strangely stealthy carnosaur, but Boone's macho hunter who no longer has a place in the "civilized" world. The film was broadcast endlessly through-out the 80's. The star dinosaur costume was re-used as the main villain of an exceptionally bizarre Japanese kiddie show (in which intelligent, talking man-in-suit dinosaurs from the center of the Earth menaced animated human beings in miniature cities) which was later imported to us in feature form as the video oddity ATTACK OF THE SUPERMONSTERS. Rankin/Bass also sponsored THE BERMUDA DEPTHS (a ghost story with a giant turtle) and THE IVORY APE (about a killer albino gorilla on the loose) with Japanese talent and American actors.
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