Two Lost Worlds Starring James Arness And Laura Elliott (Kasey Rogers) Celebrates Its 75th Anniversary In 2025

 The film’s narrator tells us that it is 1830 and a new clipper ship, The Hamilton Queen, is sailing from Salem.   Aboard as the first mate is Kirk Hamilton, whose family has staked their wealth on the success or failure of this maiden voyage.   

We learn in a series of meetings (over several months of sailing) between Hamilton and Capt. Tallman — in the captain’s cabin — about the financial gamble Hamilton’s family is taking and the dangers that may lie ahead when they reach the New Hebrides, where pirates are known to be operating.

Their worst fears are realized when The Hamilton Queen is attacked by a pirate ship, The Phantom, in the area of the South Pacific that was foreshadowed.   During the battle, Hamilton sustains a sever leg wound and is moved to the captain’s cabin … The Hamilton Queen is able to out-run the pirate vessel, which is oddly flying an American flag.

Once safely out of reach of their attackers, Capt. Tallman examines Hamilton’s wounds and realizes that he needs immediate medical attention.   The two agree that he should be put ashore at Brisbane in Queensland, Australia while Tallman continues the voyage.  He will return to Brisbane on the voyage home to collect Hamilton and two crewmen, Salty and Nat Mercer, who will remain with Hamilton.

Local sheep grazier, Martin Shannon, expresses his concerns over the ship’s arrival in port and the community’s new visitor.   His contention is that his presence may prompt another round of pirate attacks, which have been a continuing problem over the years.   

Ten year-old Janice Jeffries, the daughter of the local magistrate, has no such concerns and lays claim to Hamilton as her future husband.   When Hamilton meets her older sister, Elaine, there is an immediate attraction, which creates friction between her fiancé, Shannon and this America interloper.

Hamilton’s wounds heal nicely, so much so that on an evening when the locals hold a gathering and dance celebration, he tells Elaine that he wants her to go with him back to America.  She politely defers, saying that she can’t leave her family.

Later that same night, The Phantom arrives and raiders are put ashore.   Shannon’s “station” comes under attack, Elaine’s father is killed and many of the local’s have their homes set ablaze.   Elaine and her friend, Nancy Holden, are both kidnapped by the pirate raiders and her sister, Janice, is also missing.

Hamilton and Shannon, along with other members of the community, take a local sloop and go in pursuit of The Phantom.   Abroad, hiding in a large chest, is Janice … too late to turn back, she must remain on board.

They are able to slowly overtake the pirates and a sea battle ensues, with both ships catching fire and eventually sinking.   During the confusion, Hamilton, a local by the name of John Hartley, Janice, Elaine and Nancy, plus a badly wounded Shannon are able to make it to a lifeboat.   They find themselves alone at sea the next day.

For two days they drift until they spot a volcanic island and are able to make it ashore.   The next morning, Hamilton returns to the lifeboat and finds, during their haste, the craft was not properly secured and has been destroyed on the rocks by the pounding surf.  They are now marooned.

Their situation is desperate.  No supplies and perhaps a mortally wounded Shannon, they see — way off in the distance — what appears to be lush greenery, which means water and perhaps a food source.   The six begin their perilous journey across the rugged island landscape when they come across a battle between two “extinct” species of dinosaurs — these prehistoric beasts should have died out 60 million years ago!!

Surviving the extremely close encounter with these creatures, the group manages to make it to the jungle area of the island where they find fruit and water.  Things are looking up.
Meanwhile, The Hamilton Queen has made port and Capt. Tallman has learned of the events that transpired in the two months that elapsed since his last visit.  He immediately sets sail to look for possible survivors.

Hamilton and company have managed to survive two weeks in the green belt area of the island, even constructing a crude raft in hopes of escaping this “lost world” where time has seemingly stopped and dinosaurs rule.  The smoking volcano begins to erupt and Nancy, during the chaos, is separated from the others and is consumed by a lava flow.

The next day, the remaining castaways have managed to survive the fiery eruption, which has started to subside.  Hamilton checks on Shannon and tells him that he will begin rebuilding the raft, but moments later Shannon succumbs to his injuries, leaving just the four castaways to continue on.

Nearby, Capt. Tillman and The Hamilton Queen sail close to island, but surmise that no one could have survived.   Just as they are about to depart from the area, Hamilton, Elaine and Janice are spotted on the beach, while Hartley furiously waves an oar with a rag of sail attached at the distant ship.  Tillman rescues the castaways.

    Production Credits

Director: Norman Dawn, Assistant Director: Al Westen, Producer: Boris Petroff, Associate Producer: Sylvan Covey, Writer: Tom Hubbard, Story: Boris Petroff, Story Adaptation: Phyllis Parker, Narration Written By: Bill Shaw, Cinematography: Harry Neumann, Editor: Fred R. Feitshans Jr., Sound: Fred Hynes, Art Director: Charles D. Hall, Production Supervisor: Clarence Eurist, Makeup: Harry Ross, Music Composer: Alex Alexander, Music Director: Michael Terr, Special Effects: Jack R. Glass, Sound Effects: John D. Hall, Hair Styles: Carmen Dirigo, Wardrobe: Kitty Mager, Harry Blackledge, Script Supervisor: Lee Frederic

Phantom of the Sea ... Pirate Drama

We first hear of Two Lost Worlds in a small blurb in Edwin Schallert’s “Drama” column in the Los Angeles Times on Feb. 8, 1950.   He writes, “Boris Petroff, who will produce ‘Phantom of the Sea’ at Hal Roach studio starting Feb. 14 with Norman Dawn as director, has borrowed Laura Elliot from Paramount for the feminine lead.   Petroff and Dawn were responsible for ‘Arctic Fury,’ already released.”

Laura Elliot is what was referred to as a “Golden Circle” girl at Paramount.  She would later comment about this period, saying that the studio made it very confusing, one day they’d make her a blonde and the following week it would be a new look.

She was born Josie Imogene Rogers in Moorehead, Missouri in 1925 to Eben and Ina Mae Rogers. When she was three the family moved to Burbank and she became quite the accordion player by the time she was a teenager.  

Rogers dropped the Josie, went by Imogene Rogers and began modeling in 1943 while attending Burbank High School.   She graduated to the piano during this time and by January of 1944 she had the part of “Katherine the Shrew” in the Burbank High School production of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.

In April of 1948, Imogene is signed to a contract by Paramount, who promptly changes her name to Laura Elliot (one “t”), and announces that she will be making her screen debut in director William C. Thomas’ Special Agent … her co-stars will be William Eythe and George Reeves.

Throughout 1949 she alternates between small parts in films like Top O’ the Morning, Chicago Deadline and Union Station and doing cheesecake/pin-up photos, which are distributed nationally by the various wire services.  

Loaned-out to Hal Roach for Boris Petroff’s production of Phantom of the Sea, what could this mean for her career?   By mid-February her fellow cast members include Jim Arness, Bill Kennedy, Gloria Petroff, Jane Harlan, Fred Kohler, Jr. and Tom Hubbard.  One month later there is a one-paragraph note in the Valley Times, “Boris Petroff has signed Irving W. Clark to write the score of ‘Phantom of the Sea,’ pirate drama he made at Hal Roach Studios, with Burbank’s Laura Elliot and Jim Arness heading the cast.”

Sounds like this pirate drama is in post-production, especially with the past tense of “he made at Hal Roach Studios.”

Phantom of the Sea becomes Two Lost Worlds 

So what did starring in Phantom of the Sea mean for Laura Elliot’s career?  Perhaps four or five weeks of work on a production that must have seemed very chaotic at the time and then on to other films like Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train (in a key role as Miriam), Silver City, Jamaica Run, some episodic television and then in 1956/57 she drops the studio-assigned name and reemerges as Kasey Rogers and makes a name for herself as Julie Anderson on Peyton Place in the mid-60s.

After the bit about having Clark score the film that’s the last we hear of Phantom of the Seas … pirate drama!   For the past 75 years the sci-fi community would speculate and write about the filmmaking origins of Two Lost Worlds, with one common thread saying that Petroff’s pirate drama was reworked into a castaway thriller featuring dinosaurs from Hal Roach’s 1940 film, One Million B.C.  

That’s partly true, but it gets better and probably the best detective work on how Phantom of the Seas became Two Lost Worlds is by Janne Wass, writing for scifist.net on April 16, 2020.   Wass’ contention is that Roach and Petroff had planned it from the beginning using footage, not only from One Million B.C., but from director Richard Wallace’s 1940 film, Captain Caution (also a Hal Roach Studios production) and the 1939 Hal Roach directed Australian-themed adventure, Captain Fury. 

All agree that footage from these three films were spliced together for the final release of Two Lost Worlds, but Wass’ analysis is that the dinosaur segment was planned from the beginning, which is bolstered not only by the exhaustive detective work, but with a newly-minted interview session with cast member Gloria Petroff (ten at the time of the film production and 80 at the time of the Wass one-on-one).   She was the daughter of Boris Petroff.

Wass also cites Bill Kennedy’s interview in Tom and Jim Goldrup’s 2017 book, “The Encyclopedia of Feature Player’s of Hollywood, Volume 2,” in which he states that the plan from the beginning was to cut and edit “four films” together.   Kennedy adds that the exploration of the dinosaur island was shot in one day at Red Rock Canyon State Park in Cantil, California.

Captain Caution footage is used for the various sailing scenes of “The Hamilton Queen,” the ship that James Arness travels on.   Indeed, when Two Lost Worlds opens with this impressive sailing footage one has the immediate sense that this is going to be a quality production (Roy Seawright handled the miniatures with the cinematography by Frank Young in 1940).   

The ship footage is blended with Hal Roach Studio sets of Arness at the helm of the ship and several interior sequences in Captain Tallman’s cabin, both before and after the pirate ship encounter.  The battle with the pirate ship — when Arness is injured — is also a Hal Roach Studio set.

The Captain Fury footage was used for the long shots of kangaroos running on rolling hills and other establishing shots of Australia, where Arness is left to recuperate from his leg wound. 

And of course, One Million B.C., which provides the climatic dinosaur encounter and the volcano eruption.   The production values of these three timeless films were all wrapped-up into one cinematic classic, Two Lost Worlds. 

On Sept. 8, 1950, the Los Angeles Evening Citizen News has a simple one-paragraph notice, “Eagle Lion will distribute ‘Two Lost Worlds,’ produced by Boris Petroff, with Sylvan Covey as associate producer.”   Unless you were involved with the production you’d never make the connection between Phantom of the Sea, pirate drama, and Two Lost Worlds.

Most sources report that Two Lost Worlds was a 1951 release.   This isn’t the case, as Eagle Lion Films opened it as the lower half of a double bill at both the Orpheum and Hawaii Theatres in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Nov. 28, 1950.   The companion feature was Southside 1-1000.

 It widened out in January, but always as the second feature.   The most popular combination was Prehistoric Women and Two Lost Worlds.