The Lost Continent

Rating:
Summary: Excellent for its time (1951)
Review: Considering the time in which this movie was made (1951) and considering the limitations on budget, actors, special effects, etc., this film is probably one of the best science fiction films per cost that has ever been made.

Rating:
Summary: The Music
Review: I found an old memo I wrote which was to remind me that "Seascape" was music in "The Lost Continent" and my note tells me it was possibly performed by the Michelle Le Grand Orchestra.
Can anyone help me to find this music?

Rating:
Summary: The Music
Review: I found an old memo I wrote which was to remind me that "Seascape" was music in "The Lost Continent" and my note tells me it was possibly performed by the Michelle Le Grand Orchestra.
Can anyone help me to find this music?

Rating:
Summary: The Best SciFi movie I ever saw as a kid !
Review: I grew up during the formative years of SciFi and all the mellodramatic garbage that we were forced to digest, but this and "Rocketship XM" were the best of the growing medium. As a "pre-Boomer" we didn't have an awful lot to see on Saturday afternoons, and many of the movies we COULD see were denied us by the Catholic Legion of Decency. So, many of us were destined to grow our teeth on second rate genre movies. In 1950 and 1951 these two movies kept me awake many nights thinking about monsters and the post-atomic age we were going to live in -- a lot of meat to digest for a boy of 7 and 8 years of age. "The Lost Continent" is a clasic for me, because it helped me form a wedge in my thinking about the abstract world of science fiction. I respect the effort that this low-budget movie achieved, and the results are terrific for the $.29 that were spent on special effects. Besides, this is one of the few films where we '50s children had a glimpse of a Beaverless pre-Ward Cleaver in the accomplished actor Hugh Beaumont. It's worth the price of the CD just to see him act without Wally and The Beav. I always will like this film -- as much of my childhood as Wonder Bread and Richard Nixon.

Rating:
Summary: The Best SciFi movie I ever saw as a kid !
Review: I grew up during the formative years of SciFi and all the mellodramatic garbage that we were forced to digest, but this and "Rocketship XM" were the best of the growing medium. As a "pre-Boomer" we didn't have an awful lot to see on Saturday afternoons, and many of the movies we COULD see were denied us by the Catholic Legion of Decency. So, many of us were destined to grow our teeth on second rate genre movies. In 1950 and 1951 these two movies kept me awake many nights thinking about monsters and the post-atomic age we were going to live in -- a lot of meat to digest for a boy of 7 and 8 years of age. "The Lost Continent" is a clasic for me, because it helped me form a wedge in my thinking about the abstract world of science fiction. I respect the effort that this low-budget movie achieved, and the results are terrific for the $.29 that were spent on special effects. Besides, this is one of the few films where we '50s children had a glimpse of a Beaverless pre-Ward Cleaver in the accomplished actor Hugh Beaumont. It's worth the price of the CD just to see him act without Wally and The Beav. I always will like this film -- as much of my childhood as Wonder Bread and Richard Nixon.

Rating:
Summary: Good Fun
Review: I have the video version of this film. The dialogue is suprisingly well written for a low budget movie, though attitudes toward women are old fashioned. Does anyone know if the scene with Sid Melton, after he is attacked by the triceratops, is in the DVD version? It was stupidly dropped from my video version which is in otherwise excellent shape. I don't want to purchase the DVD version if that scene is still missing.

Rating:
Summary: CLASSIC FUN
Review: I loved this film as a child, and I still enjoy it. The film used to air on the old WNEW in New York City back in the early and mid 1960s. Of course, I don't know how much of the enjoyment of the movie comes from the nostalgia. One thing I noticed is that it's a major cigarette add. The dialogue is very clever abeit politically incorrect in many ways. "What, and have some wife tell him what dames he should or shouldn't go out with? Not, Joe." According to one of your reviewers, the Sid Melton scene toward the end is cut half way through. It is also cut on a differently packaged copy which I purchased some years ago. That's unfortunate, as the scene is very moving. It shows a lack of responsibility on the part of the releasing companies.

Rating:
Summary: Above-average Image DVD of crude, enjoyable dinosaur flick
Review: Not the greatest Sid Melton science fiction movie (that would be The Atomic Submarine), Lost Continent is still lots of cheesy fun, one of those "cross-genre" flicks that should appeal to pretty much any B-movie fan. You get SF, war movie, and jungle adventure cliches neatly combined with some of the most pitiful stop-motion dinosaurs ever. The quintessential B-cast includes Cesar Romero (TV's Joker, Week-end in Havana, Captain from Castile), John Hoyt (When Worlds Collide, Attack of the Puppet People), Whit Bissell (Teenage Werewolf & Frankenstein, Time Tunnel), Hugh Beaumont (Ward Cleaver, Michael Shayne), Chick Chandler (Music Man, Blondie), and Sid Melton (Make Room for Daddy, Green Acres), with Acquanetta (Captive Wild Woman, Tarzan & the Leopard Woman) and second-billed Hillary Brooke (Ministry of Fear, Invaders from Mars) in cameos. To the movie's credit, the plot moves at a brisk pace (except during the seemingly interminable 'climbing scenes'), Romero and Chandler execute some great flyboy banter, and the earthquake stock footage from One Million B.C. is actually pretty well integrated into the movie, particularly during the surprisingly exciting (if rather implausible) climax. The script by Richard Landau (Girl in Black Stockings, TV's Wild Wild West) and direction by veteran PRC schlockmeister Sam Newfield (Nabonga, White Pongo, Flying Serpent) are also slightly above-average for this type of thing. Unfortunately, when we eventually encounter the extremely lame stop-motion brontosaurus, pterodactyl, and triceratops (and one live lizard for laughs), any semblance of credibility generated up to that point is completely destroyed, leaving the movie dangling on the edge of "so-bad-it's-good" rather than "really-not-half-bad". Still a great Saturday-afternoon time-waster for the low-budget cinema set. Serious stop-motion fans beware.
Image upgrades their typical DVD package a bit with this release (perhaps feeling the heat from Anchor Bay?). The disc comes in the superior 'keep case' box and the main menu is animated (not that I really care that much). Twelve chapter stops, five trailers in an Easter egg, and a very good-to-excellent if rather scratchy LC trailer are the usual extras, plus you get informative Tom Weaver liner notes, and an isolated music and effects track so you can listen to Paul Dunlap's rousing score minus the wisecracks. Source print quality is generally excellent with terrific grayscale, brightness, contrast, sharpness, and detail. There is some light speckling and blemishing (some sporadic horizontal 'banding' toward the beginning of the movie), but otherwise there is no major damage. The plateau scenes are tinted green as in the original release. While I commend Image for presenting the movie in its original format, these scenes are not as easy on the eyes as the crisp B&W of the rest of the movie. The only sour note in the whole shebang is the extremely hyperbolic commentary ("beautifully crafted," "excellent production values") by Wade Williams on the box. Pity the fool who purchases based on his glowing review. Overall a step up from Image's usual offerings and as close to a definitive release as this film is likely to see. Three stars for the movie, 4 or 5 for the DVD. Cheese-lovers, go for it.

Rating:
Summary: CLASSIC FUN
Review: Primitive but effective sci-fi/dinosaur movie. An experimental rocket (as if in 1951 it could be any other kind) gets lost somewhere over the ocean, and the military hones in on a remote island. Major Joe Nolan (Cesar Romero) is ordered to guide a search party of scientist types to retrieve the critical scientific data in the missing rocket. The simple, fast paced story holds the viewers' attention. There are a few tiresome interludes while Nolan argues with Rostov (John Hoyt) to get on the "right" political side. Evidently in 1951 it was smart for moviemakers to be openly anti-communist. The expedition finds the rocket on a great plateau of a tropical island. A primitive jungle covers the plateau, tinted in green (an unusual visual gimmick in a B&W film), and inhabited by antisocial, stop motion animated dinosaurs. This Grade B movie is fun for 11 year olds of all ages. The anti-communist moralizing of the script makes the film a curious relic of a bygone era. Lovable Sid Melton's comedy relief provides chuckles in distress. Until the triceratops attacks, but we won't go there in this review. Cesar Romero is curiously cast as a career military type. Hugh Beaumont (you know, Wally and the Beaver's dad) is one of the scientists. The special effects are almost as primitive as the dinosaurs, but serve the purpose. Bottom line, this is a basic sci-fi/dinosaur adventure film that doesn't pretend to be more than it is. Take it for what it's worth, and enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: Lost in the Fifties
Review: Primitive but effective sci-fi/dinosaur movie. An experimental rocket (as if in 1951 it could be any other kind) gets lost somewhere over the ocean, and the military hones in on a remote island. Major Joe Nolan (Cesar Romero) is ordered to guide a search party of scientist types to retrieve the critical scientific data in the missing rocket. The simple, fast paced story holds the viewers' attention. There are a few tiresome interludes while Nolan argues with Rostov (John Hoyt) to get on the "right" political side. Evidently in 1951 it was smart for moviemakers to be openly anti-communist. The expedition finds the rocket on a great plateau of a tropical island. A primitive jungle covers the plateau, tinted in green (an unusual visual gimmick in a B&W film), and inhabited by antisocial, stop motion animated dinosaurs. This Grade B movie is fun for 11 year olds of all ages. The anti-communist moralizing of the script makes the film a curious relic of a bygone era. Lovable Sid Melton's comedy relief provides chuckles in distress. Until the triceratops attacks, but we won't go there in this review. Cesar Romero is curiously cast as a career military type. Hugh Beaumont (you know, Wally and the Beaver's dad) is one of the scientists. The special effects are almost as primitive as the dinosaurs, but serve the purpose. Bottom line, this is a basic sci-fi/dinosaur adventure film that doesn't pretend to be more than it is. Take it for what it's worth, and enjoy it.