THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT 1974
Doug McClure, Susan Penhaglion, John McEnery
A German sub led by Captain Von Shoernvorts (McEnery) routinely sinks American cargo vessels. The few survivors, led by Bowen Tyler (McClure), manage to board the sub and gain control of it only to end up lost somewhere in the South Atlantic. They stumble upon a lost continent filled with various dinosaurs and cavemen. The two factions, German and American, must work together to make it off the island of Caprona alive.
A co-pro between Amicus and AIP, LAND is quite an exciting adventure film that still holds up. Some of the effects are uneven but so what. The sets are gorgeous especially the first shot of the interior of the island when the sub ascends from the narrow underwater tunnel. Also the miniature work is great and director Kevin Conner pulls off a very exciting finale which puts the fine score to good use.
McClure is fine and plays the role quite natural. I have read that some fans criticize his performance. I don't see why. Although McClure was not the first hired to play the role. Stuart Whitman was initially hired to play Tyler, but the producer did not like him and ordered that Whitman be paid off not to appear in the movie (supposedly, Whitman never did get his full compensation). McClure was going through a divorce at the time, and he, himself did not want to be in the movie and had occasional tantrums during the filming.
McEnery, who plays the German leader, eventually befriends Tyler and his band. This doesn't sit well with Dietz, the second in command who only wants to return to Germany with the Americans as his prisoners. McEnery's voice is dubbed here by Anton Diffring.
The group also rescue a friendly caveman who helps them out in a couple hairy situations. Although this is essentially a kiddie matinee, there are a number of moderately violent scenes involving men being impaled on spears or stone axes.
The film was one of the biggest successes in Britain for the year and another Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptation was announced. There would be three more films although Amicus would handle three of them, however to a lesser extent in the third film.
Director Conner and producer John Dark would also shoot AT THE EARTH'S CORE (with Peter Cushing and Caroline Munro) in '76, THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT (with Patrick Wayne, Sarah Douglas, Dana Gillespie) in '77 and WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS in '78.
Again, there's lots to recommend here. It's a very colorful movie with lots of action, a good score and some decent effects work from Hammer's chief rival at the time. I saw this for the first time around 1980. I saw both this and PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT back to back on SHOCK THEATER. It was great to finally see this film remastered and complete without commercial interruption when MGM released it a couple of years ago.
