The Lost Continent (1968)

The Age of Commercialism

Absolutely amazing

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Blistering performances.

I was so pleased to find this ratings list after I Google the Lost Continent. I had just been email my (Film Student) son to tell him I'd caught it on the Horror Channel and I thought it was a contender for the worst (British) movie ever made. This site has made me see there is a camp, crazy, delectable madness about it that I have bypassed at my peril.I shall watch it again with my son when he is home.I was also v pleased to find there are several cuts as I remember a scene with Dana Gillespie that wasn't in the version I saw on TV recently - in fact, I couldn't find her at all. Thanks for all your reviews.

Michael Carreras directed this most bizarre science fiction/adventure tale on the high seas, where a disparate group of people(played by Eric Porter, Hildegard Knef, Tony Beckley, Susanna Leigh, Nigel Stock, among others) set sail on an old liner that has an illegal cargo of explosives that wanders into uncharted seas after a fierce storm. They then come upon a lost continent filled with prehistoric monsters and descendants of Spanish shipwreck survivors who have become a murderous cult! How can the survivors defeat this cult, and find their way home? Plot is unoriginal, but the style and approach is so rooted to its time(the swinging sixties, complete with lounge music title song!) and strange imagery(the people supported by balloons strapped to their waists) that it remains a fascinating failure. Dana Gillespie costars.

The principal quality of the movies of Edward D. Wood Jr. was that he had far-reaching ideas, but no ability to write them down, explain them or put them on film. That's how this film works.For instance, in the first part of the film, where we meet the motley groups of passengers, we learn some of their secrets and intrigues. In a well-done picture these would have paid off in the conclusion. The idea of these worn-out, ruined people with their regrets, coming together to become heroes at the climax, would have been great. They do have a bit of heroism halfway through (during the lifeboat sequence) but in the conclusion, their personalities seem to disappear and it's all generic action. All that preparation, no payoff.And the bad guys - the religious fanatics, made pretty ridiculous to avoid angering any present-day religions - didn't make much sense. If they went around killing anybody who violated Vatican...er, the fanatic's morality, there wouldn't be a lot of people left to do all the work. And are we to believe that our crew is the only 20th century ship to be caught by the Lost Continent? To me, this is Britain's Ed Wood film (although British readers could probably come up with better examples).It is probably the best "bad" film Hammer ever made, still watchable no matter how ridiculous it gets. In fact, recent TV series like "The Lost World" and the Xena-Hercules shows aren't any less ridiculous. A producer and director of genius could remake this film as a TV series, improving it tremendously with just a little bit more thought. I'm thinking of Gene Roddenberry's "The Fantastic Journey" short-run TV series as a model.

The lost continent is perhaps one of the most unusual movies I have ever seen. It begins with the captain giving a farewell speech, and the camera makes a dolly shot we see this bizarre people dress as Spanish conquistadors in a foggy atmosphere then we fade to the past introducing the characters each showing hardly no respect for one another even the ships crew don't trust the captain. We have a captain that is smuggling explosives, a doctor escaping from the past, a daughter that wants to see her father dead and a variety of characters that don't know what there in for. Through the film we see a dramatic change of the character but we never see the captain change. Going from deception to murderer, the movie takes a totally different turn. After the boat is in the middle of a tropical storm the captain and some of the crew escape in a small life boat then they confront sharks, hunger, and even them selves. Somehow they manage to find the cruise intact but they are trapped in a strange weed looking island, and then the fun really begins, giant monsters, killer weed, and Spanish conquistadors are the order of the lost continent. This film is not one of HAMMERS best but is sure one of the must bizarre and entertaining movies. In a Saturday night order a pizza and a couple of beers and you on for a good time.