This movie is still brilliant. It has a cracking start. Lord Southmere, desperate to preserve a secret formula, flees from the Chinese gang - in the Natural History Museum - among dinosaur skeletons. He takes refuge in a pram (donning a baby's bonnet), but this is not enough to fool the dastardly villains. But before they drag him away he has time to tell his old nanny (Helen Hayes) where the formula is hidden - somewhere on the diplodocus. She, Joan Sims and a gang of other nannies pursue the Chinese and eventually kidnap the dinosaur (now on the back of a steam powered truck). There is a great comedy chase through London and the English countryside. Great British character actors pop up to perform cameos (Joan Hickson, Derek Guyler, Geoffrey Pearson, Jane Lapotaire, Hugh Laurie). I agree with other commenters that the portrayal of the Chinese is just pantomimic (and a parody of Charlie Chan movies et al). Peter Ustinov was British, but not English: he was Russian, French and Ethiopian. (Peter Lorre, who played a Japanese detective, was Hungarian-Jewish. Other orientals have been played by Nils Asther (Swedish) and Warner Oland (Swedish).) Peter Ustinov is brilliant in this movie.
Review of One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing
