This land is your land this land is … dino’s land?! Commander Alan Roberts is just your average US Navy commander taking his small helicopter crew on an exploratory mission into Antarctica to study oddly warm waters for the region. Pilot and geophysicist Lt. Jack Carmen is at the helm … or yoke … or whatever they use to fly a helicopter along with trusty machinist Steve Miller (the machinist one, not the musician one). Margaret Hathaway is the intrepid reporter along for the ride and hoping to get the story of her life. Ask and you shall receive Maragaret! Because your helicopter takes an unplanned trip to an unknown land right there in Antarctica that’s full of prehistoric dinosaurs, tropical plants, and a mad scientist named Hunter (not the Fred Dryer one) who hasn’t seen people in a really, really long time. Tonight, on MeTV - The Sven Squad – Gwengoolie, Nostalgiaferatoo and IMP aka Ignatius Malvolio Prankenstein along with The Man In The Hat himself – Svengoolie – are premiering 1957’s “The Land Unknown” on House of Svengoolie.

It’s 1957 and Commander Alan Roberts (Jock Mahoney – who sure doesn’t skip arm day at the gym) is working on exploring Antarctica with his US Navy team trying to find the cause of the unusually warm waters there. Pilot and geophysicist Lt. Jack Carmen (William Reynolds) flies the team in, who also including machinist Steve Miller (Phil Harvey) and Oceanic Press reporter Margaret Hathaway (Shirley Patterson). After a kind of excessive amount of naval stock footage, mixed with an excessive amount of Antarctica stock footage, our team crashes into the subterranean expanse with some originally shot footage (finally!) They discover an ancient territory that is teeming with prehistoric life including all kinds of dinosaurs that walk (thanks to those stunt guys in suits), fly (puppets for the win!) and swim. Not to mention exotic plants and a scientist named Dr. Carl Hunter (Henry Brandon) who on the plus side has forged a way to live in this land unknown for years now. On the downside, having not seen people in so long, Hunter is particularly excited to see Margaret Hathaway and have her stay with him and start a brand-new colony of humans living dinosaur-style. Hathaway tries to run away, but Hunter has other plans. Luckily for Hathaway the actor portraying Roberts played Tarzan multiple times in other films and has his own other plans for Hathaway. Like getting her and the crew away from the dinosaurs and Hunter.

This 1957 film was produced by Universal Pictures and distributed by Universal Pictures. This film was directed by Virgil Vogel (alliteration wins!) and written by László Görög (can I please buy an umlaut and solve the puzzle?), William N. Robson and Charles Palmer. “This Island Earth” was slated to be a big budget film but Universal’s plans changed and enter the guys in dinosaur suits and real-life monitor lizards.

Tonight, Nosti welcomes real life paleontologist Profession Paul Sereno to Nosti’s Nook for a talk about how accurate this movie is. Nosti has slightly different expectations than Professor Sereno. IMP brings a haunted humidifier to the dungeon in honor of “The Land Unknown” and has some unintended consequences for Gwengoolie and Nostalgiaferatoo. And Gwengoolie’s alter ego Celia Stough is hawking trips to The Land Unknown Resort for all you dinosaur enthusiast travelers.

“The Land Unknown” starts at 8 pm Eastern/Pacific time, 7 pm Central on MeTV. You can join in the live chat during the show on Bluesky, or the live Tweeting on Twitter/X - just be sure to include the hashtag #svengoolie and #houseofsvengoolie on your posts on either one. Our Chicago area audience can enjoy another watch of Lon Chaney Jr. in 1941’s “Man Made Monster” with Sven at 11:00 a.m. Central on WCIU the U.

Please remember that next week, Svengoolie is back with 1963’s “The Raven” at 8 pm Eastern/Pacific time, 7 pm Central. More Vincent Price anyone? House of Svengoolie will see you on Saturday September 26 for 1990’s “Night Of The Living Dead” (the one with Tony Todd).

But for now, get to know “The Land Unknown” on House of Svengoolie right here on MeTV!