Cinema
Nice change
Kenneth Robinson
One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing Director: Robert Stevenson Stars: Peter Ustinov, Helen Hayes, Derek Nimmo, Joan Sims 'U' Odeon, St. Martin's Lane (94 mins) It's a pleasure sometimes to turn from movie appreciation to the fun of going to the pictures, which is still something, thank heavens, we are invited to do. I was a little disconcerted when I went to the Odeon, in St. Martin's Lane, to find not only a Mickey Mouse on the door of the Gents, but also some other Disneyesque details inside. But do try to forget this picture is by Disney, a name now synonymous with the BBC on Bank Holidays. And forget the title, which suggests those turgid epics bringing prehistoric creatures to life. Forget all this and just go to have a good time. If you don't enjoy the film, there is something seriously wrong with you. I gave way to some unseemly bursts of laughter, largely because of Peter Ustinov's performance as an Oriental type who can never manage to be sinister when faced by a British nanny. And there is more than one nanny. A whole troupe of them is employed in fighting a Chinese gang, using more underhand methods than Kung Fu.
It is all much nearer to Ealing comedy than Disney. There are some marvellous chases through London streets, heavily papered with posters of the 1920s, reminding us of the Bisto Kids and the prevention, with Bovril, of that sinking feeling. There are good performances from Derek Nimmo, Joan Sims, Helen Hayes and Derek Guyler. But it is Peter Ustinov's film. He does not, in fact, have even one memorable line. The brilliance is in the interpretation. I'm afraid it's one of those let's-laugh-at-thesilly foreigners' portrayals. But that, you'll admit, makes a nice change.
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