THE LOST CONTINENT (1968)

[Xenorama ™]

Eric Porter ... Capt. Lansen
Hildegard Knef ... Eva Peters (as Hildegarde Neff)
Suzanna Leigh ... Unity Webster
Tony Beckley ... Harry Tyler
Nigel Stock ... Dr. Webster
Neil McCallum ... First Officer Hemmings
Ben Carruthers ... Ricaldi (as Benito Carruthers)
Jimmy Hanley ... Patrick, the bartender
James Cossins ... Nick, chief engineer
Dana Gillespie ... Sarah
Victor Maddern ... The mate
Reg Lye ... The Helmsman
Norman Eshley ... Jonathan, the prisoner
Michael Ripper ... Sea Lawyer

this is one weird Hammer movie. based on a book by Dennis Wheatley
(one of his books is seen being read in INFRA-MAN as well!) it's part
soap opera (mostly unpleasant people on a boat) and part monster
movie. the people actually turn out for the better at the end, so i
like it. Cossins, as the Chief, is the best of the lot.

some neat mechanical effects for the monsters as well, and it's a
pretty cool adventure overall.

[Shonokin]

Since Wheatley championed a lot of reprints of William Hope Hodgson I can't help but think that THE LOST CONTINENT was inspired by his Sargasso Sea mythos, which includes stories such as THE BOATS OF GLEN CARRIG, THE FINDING OF THE GRAIKEN and THE DERELICT.

It's funny that you mention Inframan because in a way I think THE LOST CONTINENT is to Hodgson what Inframan is to Japanese tokusatsu. Wheatley/Hammer took the basic Sargasso Sea motif and pushed it to 11 with the colony of Spanish warriors and the balloon/snow shoe transportation, etc. The giant monsters were already in Hodgson stories.

I think this is a great movie and would make a great double bill with MATANGO.

I would definitely recommend THE BOATS OF GLEN CARRIG to anyone who liked the ambience of THE LOST CONTINENT. Also if you'd rather dive into some Hodgson short stories, I'd highly recommend this book. It's cheap and has a really great cross section of his works. Several of his books are online at Gutenberg.org as well.

[RedKing]

This is an odd but quite good movie, one of the few adventure films Hammer made. I'd love to read Wheatley's novel. His books are ridiculously hard to find nowadays. I tracked down a copy of The Devil Rides Out a few years ago on ebay that was relatively cheap-5 bucks, the shipping was about the same since it came from britain. That was about the cheapest any of his books were going for too! Those big mechanical monsters in the movie are bizaare and cool, and the whole plot with a group of Spanish conquistodor descendents having their own society among the myriad shipwrecks is pretty inventive.

[Xenorama ™]

it's pretty interesting the left turn this movie takes from standard people on a boat stuff into genre monster lost civilization story. thank goodness!

[Shonokin]

Two great tastes that go great together! I need to pick this on someday.

[Hakaida]

Is this the Brit film that has a brunette with HUGE boobs in it?!? The ship becomes snagged in the Sargasso Sea (or somewhere similar) and the survivors spend the last half of the film walking around on the floating seaweed with balloons on their heads and funky makeshift water shoes??

I remember seeing it late one night , nodding off and on... until that lady's massive bazongas filled the screen! My barely teenaged heart skipped a beat, and I sat glued to the TV for the remained of this otherwise basically uninteresting film. Still, it gave me a whole new definition for the term 'boobtube.'

[hman]

Yeah, this is a special film. I wish I had the DVD of it; it has that wonderful late night atmosphere to it. The first time I remember it coming on was on TNT's 100% Weird, along with "Valley of Gwangi" and another movie that escapes me at the moment. The next time it came on, I taped it. Unfortunately, the VCR was on the wrong channel or something and it didn't record. I need to watch this baby again.

[Hakaida]

You can still buy the film on DVD which is included as part of a 2-disc double feature with the very weird flick "The Reptile." That is one eerie film, one that basically the Universal film "Cult of the Cobra" SHOULD have been. Freaky make-up and terrific gothic atmosphere, standard on most all Hammer films. I don't know if it's out of print, but I found it for a decent price through a search on Amazon. One of A's "new & used" vendors had it new a few bucks cheaper than Amazon's retail price.

I couldn't remember her character's name, but the big-boobed gal is Dana Gillespie. I recalled her name right away. She showcased her oiled up assets to their very best advantage in "The People That Time Forgot," the fairly lame follow-up to the much-superior "The Land That Time Forgot." Actually, her boobs aren't even all that big (likely a 'C' cup at best), but in her outfit they're lifted & squeezed together, like Elvira's bazooms - which give them the appearance of being at least a cup size larger. She is definitely easy on the eyes, regardless.

As for the film itself, the DVD boasts an additional 8 minutes of 'restored' footage clipped by censors prior to its original release. Don't get too excited, though. Unlike the tasty nude bits of Victoria Vetri added back into "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth," the additional footage here is mostly exposition and further back story on a couple of the female passengers whose histories are more sordid than the trimmed theatrical version would have lead us to believe. I found the film to be much more interesting than I remembered. However as a kid, I was most likely so bummed at the lack of cool monsters that the rest of the film fogged for me. It's pretty interesting stuff. As HMAN mentioned, this flick is perfect fodder for a late night view with a brew (or two).

[mosugoji]

I actually saw this at the drive in when it was first released back in the late 60's. I think it was during one of those cool dusk til dawn creature features.
I recently got the DVD of this and it's still a fun way to kill an hour and a half. The monsters remind me of the ones from At The Earth's Core in style and execution. I'm not sure if the same fx people did both.
Scaring my step brother with the lake weeds after we saw this was always alot of fun. I had him convinced it was killer sea weed like in the movie.