ONE OF OUR DINOSAURS IS MISSING (1975) **1/2 Remember when Walt Disney studios used to regularly produce wholesome and entertaining films? Remember when it was wholesome and socially acceptable to make films in which all Chinese people, for example, were depicted as moronic imbecilic idiots? Seems like a long time ago...Peter Ustinov is frequently hysterical, doing for the Chinese what Peter Sellers did for the French. Helen Hayes leads a crack squad of nannies in their battle with Chinese intelligence kung fu enthusiasts, the ultimate showdown can only take place in a Chinese restaurant in London with French waiters. Other spectaculars include leisurely car chases in which a coal-driven lorry loaded with a 60 foot Brontosaurus, head bobbing ahead and tail wagging behind, seek to elude special agents, hunters, bobbies with whistles by bicycle, lambs...all to the musical accompaniment of standard British orchestral arrangements of Chinese music. Ah, when two cultures collide as defined by one, lot of humour in that. Roy Kinnear must never be forgotten, here as a Scotland Yard detective with a constipatedly sullen smile taking the issues one at a time. Second to last of Robert Stevenson's brilliant run of children's films.
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