KING DINOSAUR—–super-low-budget 1955 kiddie pacifier makes many laffs viewed for its bracing ineptitude.  A quartet of astronauts (in far-off 1960) journey to the planet Nova, which they find crawling with stock footage monsters, including the title titan, a magnified iguana.  Does that lizard crowd have an agent or what?  For the good of all, the earthlings blow up the planet with an A-bomb.  Starring William Bryant, Wanda Curtis, Douglas Henderson and Patti Gallegher.

Director Bert I. Gordon launched his interstellar career with this 63-minute affair, costing $15,000 and taking a full seven days to shoot. The care shows.  The narrator (Marvin Miller) at one point tells us that “Dr. Ralph Martin’s war service fortifies him with the experience of treating most diseases and fatalities that overtake man.”  This, the same Dr. Martin who declares “I brought the atom bomb;I think it’s a good time to use it.”  Bryant did a fair amount of work in small roles over a 38-year career.  Ms. Gallegher would go on to further distinction in the immortal Girl With An Itch.