The Lost Continent (20th Century Fox, 1968). Lobby Card (11" X 14")
youtu.be/lmBsGmAVM3A Part 1
youtu.be/pKAxRxW3l9U Part 2
Starring Eric Porter, Hildegard Knef, Suzanna Leigh, Tony Beckley, Nigel Stock, Neil McCallum, Ben Carruthers, Victor Maddern, and Norman Eshley. Directed by Michael Carreras, and Leslie Norman.
The Lost Continent is a crazy-quilt of a film, with chunks of several unrelated plotlines sewn together willy nilly. Eric Porter plays Lansen, the captain of a tramp steamer who has agreed to deliver contraband dynamite for a hefty price. His passengers are a polyglot of the good, the bad and the worse. Shipwrecked on an mysterious isle in the Sargasso Sea, Lansen and party find themselves prisoners of a bizarre inbred colony still governed by the long-abandoned edicts of the Spanish Inquisition. The film is no more coherent than the original Dennis Wheatley novel Uncharted Seas, but that doesn't detract from its endearing wackiness. To their credit, the cast members of Lost Continent play the script straight, which merely adds to the kinky fun.
review
It would be exaggerating to call The Lost Continenht a very good film, but it's a strangely appealing one. This is especially true for those who are fans of science fiction films, especially of the "lost world" sub-genre. Aficionados may argue that Continent doesn't actually belong in that "lost world" category as, despite its title, the voyagers don't really discover a long-lost continent so much as encounter a strange civilization existing in the Sargasso Sea -- but that's splitting hairs. Continent has giant sea creatures, man-eating seaweed, people walking on snowshoes while being held aloft by balloons, and a group who still thinks the Spanish Inquisition is going on -- more than enough to satisfy any fan. Granted, it's totally ridiculous and immensely silly, and granted that the melodrama is piled on with a sledgehammer; yet that somehow adds to Continent's appeal. (For young male viewers, it also doesn't hurt that Continent features some very attractive women among its cast members.) The filmmakers have so much fun setting up this strange world and the exploring it that it's rather contagious -- so much so that most viewers won't mind the crudity of some of the special effects. Continent is a good picture to approach on a rainy day when the viewer has just popped some corn and feels like something that will make him feel like a wide-eyed 10-year-old again.
The Lost Continent (20th Century Fox, 1968). Lobby Card (11" X 14")
youtu.be/lmBsGmAVM3A Part 1
youtu.be/pKAxRxW3l9U Part 2
Starring Eric Porter, Hildegard Knef, Suzanna Leigh, Tony Beckley, Nigel Stock, Neil McCallum, Ben Carruthers, Victor Maddern, and Norman Eshley. Directed by Michael Carreras, and Leslie Norman.
The Lost Continent is a crazy-quilt of a film, with chunks of several unrelated plotlines sewn together willy nilly. Eric Porter plays Lansen, the captain of a tramp steamer who has agreed to deliver contraband dynamite for a hefty price. His passengers are a polyglot of the good, the bad and the worse. Shipwrecked on an mysterious isle in the Sargasso Sea, Lansen and party find themselves prisoners of a bizarre inbred colony still governed by the long-abandoned edicts of the Spanish Inquisition. The film is no more coherent than the original Dennis Wheatley novel Uncharted Seas, but that doesn't detract from its endearing wackiness. To their credit, the cast members of Lost Continent play the script straight, which merely adds to the kinky fun.
review
It would be exaggerating to call The Lost Continenht a very good film, but it's a strangely appealing one. This is especially true for those who are fans of science fiction films, especially of the "lost world" sub-genre. Aficionados may argue that Continent doesn't actually belong in that "lost world" category as, despite its title, the voyagers don't really discover a long-lost continent so much as encounter a strange civilization existing in the Sargasso Sea -- but that's splitting hairs. Continent has giant sea creatures, man-eating seaweed, people walking on snowshoes while being held aloft by balloons, and a group who still thinks the Spanish Inquisition is going on -- more than enough to satisfy any fan. Granted, it's totally ridiculous and immensely silly, and granted that the melodrama is piled on with a sledgehammer; yet that somehow adds to Continent's appeal. (For young male viewers, it also doesn't hurt that Continent features some very attractive women among its cast members.) The filmmakers have so much fun setting up this strange world and the exploring it that it's rather contagious -- so much so that most viewers won't mind the crudity of some of the special effects. Continent is a good picture to approach on a rainy day when the viewer has just popped some corn and feels like something that will make him feel like a wide-eyed 10-year-old again.