One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Robert Stevenson |
Produced by | Bill Walsh |
Written by | Bill Walsh |
Based on | The Great Dinosaur Robbery by David Forrest |
Starring |
Peter Ustinov Helen Hayes Clive Revill Derek Nimmo |
Music by | Ron Goodwin |
Cinematography | Paul Beeson |
Edited by | Peter Boita |
Production
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Distributed by | Buena Vista Distribution |
Release date
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Running time
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100 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $5.5 million (North American rentals) |
One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing is a 1975 comedy film, which is set in the early 1920s, about the theft of a dinosaur skeleton from the Natural History Museum. The film was produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution Company. The title is a parody of the film title One of Our Aircraft Is Missing, in which both Peter Ustinov and Hugh Burden also appeared. The film was based on the 1970 novel The Great Dinosaur Robbery by David Forrest (pseudonym of David Eliades and Robert Forrest Webb).
Escaping from China with a microfilm of the formula for the mysterious "Lotus X", Lord Edward Southmere, a Queen's Messenger, is chased by a group of Chinese spies.
Back in London, Lord Southmere manages to escape from a chauffeur who is trying to kidnap him, and then runs into the Natural History Museum. Chinese spies follow him, so he hides the microfilm in the bones of one of the large dinosaur skeletons. He is relieved to meet his former nanny, Hettie, in the museum, and asks her to retrieve the microfilm. Southmere then faints and is captured by the Chinese, who tell Hettie and Emily (another nanny) that they are taking him to a doctor.
Hettie and Emily enlist other nannies to help them search. They hide in the mouth of the blue whale display until after closing time and then begin looking over the skeleton of an Apatosaurus (referred to in the film as a Brontosaurus, a synonym that was in popular use at the time). They are unsuccessful, and most have to return home to care for their children, but Hettie, Emily and their friend Susan remain to continue with the search. They are captured and taken to the spies' London headquarters, underneath a Chinese restaurant in Soho. The nannies are locked up in the 'dungeon', with Lord Southmere. Fortunately, the nannies are able to outwit their captors and escape.