One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing

One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing is a 1975 British 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. The film was based on the 1970 novel The Great Dinosaur Robbery by David Forrest (pseudonym of David Eliades and Robert Forrest Webb).

Plot[]

Escaping from China with a microfilm of the formula for the mysterious "Lotus X", Lord 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 as a Brontosaurus). 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.

Meanwhile, the spies have decided to steal the dinosaur, so they can search it properly. That night, they trick their way into the museum. The three nannies follow on a motorbike and sidecar and watch from the shadows. After the Chinese load the Apatosaurus skeleton on the back of their steam lorry, the nannies steal the vehicle. The spies give chase through the foggy streets of London in their charabanc and a Daimler limousine, but the nannies drive into a railway goods yard, onto a flat wagon at the back of a train, and are carried off to safety.

The nannies fail to find the microfilm on the skeleton. Meanwhile, back in London, Hettie's two young charges, Lord Castlebury and his younger brother, Truscott, have been captured by the spies. They are taken to the museum and the chief spy retrieves the microfilm from the other large dinosaur, a Diplodocus skeleton. The two boys are allowed home and tell Nanny Hettie the news.

Realizing that Lord Southmere is now in danger, Hettie organizes a rescue. Hettie and her team of nannies invade the Chinese restaurant base and battle with the spies over Lord Southmere. Meanwhile, Emily and Susan return with the Apatosaurus and the lorry and bring the fight sequence to a shattering conclusion. Everything ends well and the secret of the mysterious "Lotus X" is finally revealed.

Cast[]

Derek Nimmo as Lord Southmere
Hugh Burden as Haines
Bernard Bresslaw as Fan Choy
Helen Hayes as Hettie
Joan Sims as Emily
Deryck Guyler as Harris
Peter Ustinov as Hnup Wan
Clive Revill as Quon
Molly Weir as Scots nanny
Andrew Dove as Lord Castleberry
Max Harris as Truscott
Max Wall as Juggler
Natasha Pyne as Susan
Joss Ackland as B.J. Spence
Arthur Howard as Thumley
Roy Kinnear as Superintendent Grubbs
Leonard Trolley as Inspector Eppers
Joe Ritchie as Cabbie
Percy Herbert as Mr. Gibbons
Joan Hickson as Mrs. Gibbons
John Laurie as Jock
Angus Lennie as Hamish
Jon Pertwee as Colonel
Kathleen Byron as Colonel's wife
Lucy Griffiths as Amelia
Aimée Delamain as Millicent
John Bardon as Bookmaker
Jane Lapotaire as Miss Prescott
Richard Pearson as Sir Geoffrey
Michael Elwyn as Haycock
Anthony Sharp as Home Secretary
Wensley Pithey as Bromley
Frank Williams as Dr. Freemo
Peter Madden as Sanders
Erik Chitty as Museum guard
Amanda Barrie as Mrs. B.J. Spence

Production Credits[]

Directed by Robert Stevenson
Produced by Bill Walsh
Written by Bill Walsh
Music by Ron Goodwin
Cinematography: Paul Beeson
Editing by Peter Boita
Release date: July 9, 1975
Running time: 100 minutes

About the book[]

The book from which the film was taken, The Great Dinosaur Robbery, was aimed at an adult audience by its authors, Robert Forrest Webb and David Eliades, and was set in New York. The authors, both very experienced UK national journalists and best-selling authors, extensively researched material in New York and were greatly assisted by the Natural History Museum, which is situated alongside Central Park, and by the New York Police Department responsible for that area. The authors were disappointed that the humor of the film was aimed at a very much younger audience than that in the book, which had been published, in several languages, extremely successfully throughout Europe, and also in Australia, New Zealand and the USA.

Trivia[]

The Diplodocus skeleton model was later used in Star Wars: A New Hope, in the opening scenes in the Tunisian desert on Tatooine.
Whilst this film was in production, Bernard Bresslaw and Joan Sims also appeared in Carry On Behind, another film being made at Pinewood Studios alongside it.