a question mark. Production Parts of the film were shot on location. Some location shooting took place on the Island of St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The dinosaurs were filmed using the technique of stop-motion animation as well as puppets for close-ups. During special-effects work on this picture, the crew used their Brontosaurus model and miniature jungle set to film a shot for an episode of TV's The Twilight Zone (1959) called "The Odyssey of Flight 33". A shot of the Tyrannosaurus was also borrowed for "The Secret of Gilligan's Island", a third-season episode of Gilligan's Island in which Gilligan dreams the castaways are all cave dwellers living on the island in the Stone Age. The roars and growls of the Tyrannosaurus were used numerous times for creatures in The Outer Limits (1963 TV series) in episodes such as The Invisibles, and can also be heard from various other film monsters. The toy dinosaurs Julio shows everyone at the cantina were Brontosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex plastic figures made by Marx Toys. The leading role was intended for Steve McQueen, who starred in The Blob two years earlier, also produced by Harris and directed by Yeaworth. McQueen passed on the film to make The Magnificent Seven instead. Release The film had its premiere on June 24, 1960, at the Joy Theater in New Orleans and then opened in Cincinnati, Ohio; Hartford, Connecticut; Providence, Rhode Island; Springfield and Worcester, Massachusetts; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Baton Rouge and Shreveport, Louisiana. Reception and legacy Howard Thompson of The New York Times wrote, "If ever there was a tired, synthetic, plodding sample of movie junk, it's this 'epic' about two prehistoric animals hauled from an underwater deep-freeze by some island engineers." The film was adapted into a comic book of the same name. It was parodied by RiffTrax on August 28, 2014. See also List of stop motion films List of American films of 1960 References External links RiffTrax treatment on official YouTube channel 1960 animated films 1960 films American fantasy films 1960s English-language films 1960s fantasy films Films about dinosaurs Puppet films Films using stop-motion animation Films set in the Caribbean Films shot in the United States Virgin Islands Universal Pictures films Films adapted into comics Films scored by Ronald Stein Resurrection in film Films about cavemen Films directed by Irvin Yeaworth 1960s American films