The Lost Continent/The Reptile

Rating:
Summary: Psychedelic blast from the past
Review: I first stayed up to watch the Lost Continent when I was a kid. Always a fan of Hammer films, The Lost Continent is probably my favourite of all. Repeated viewings since have done nothing to diminish the film, if anything they have enhanced it. It is difficult to put this film into any single genre, it probably falls under a combination of action/fantasy/horror/sci fi.
It is based on the Dennis Wheatley novel Uncharted Seas, although there are substantial and necessary plot revisions in the film.
The story is set on a rust bucket tramp steamer - the SS Corita, carrying an illegal cargo of high explosive, a dubious collection of passengers, and helmed by a moody, sarcastic captain - a typically strong performance from Eric Porter. Supported by a solid cast, this really makes the film tick.
Among the passengers, Hildegard Knef is convincing as the wife of an exiled dictator, whom she is fleeing from. Tony Beckley plays the drunken playboy Basil. Nigel Stock plays a doctor fleeing from his dubious past, with his daughter in tow. Benito Carruthers plays a thug, sent after Knef's character. Among the crew is Neil McCallum as the pious Chief Engineer, Reg Lye as the helmsman, and Hammer regular Michael Ripper as the crew's barrackroom lawyer. The first half of the film sees the interaction of passengers and crew, the ship get damaged during a hurricane, a mutiny, and the abandoning of the ship. Later some of the crew and passengers return to the ship and this sees the second half of the film where they encounter man eating seaweed, a graveyard of ships, gigantic crustaceans and celapods, and the survivors of the previous shipwrecks, ruled over by the Spanish Inquisition.

The dvd release has 8 mins of unrealeased footage which enhances and fleshes out the film nicely, making it a more complete viewing experience.
Despite its age, the film creates a truly original and imaginative fantasy setting, with its yellow skies, swirling mists, and oceans of voracious seaweed. Hammer imported the top SFX guys from Disney for this, one of their most expensive films, to give it its unique and original look. Enhancing this is the superb psychedelic musical score of Gerard Schurmann, coupled with the great title track, performed by The Peddlers.
For sheer movie originality and escapism, this one hits the spot. Sit back and let it take you away to a vivid and frightening world of imagination, with one of the most original movie scores ever, to accompany you on the way. Simply superb.

The Reptile is one of Hammer's lesser known outings and is set in the English countryside. A series of mysterious and unpleasant deaths happen around a mansion, inhabited a Doctor of Theology and his mysterious daughter.
Noel Willman is the academic and his daughter is played by none other than Jacqueline Pearce who played Servalan in Blake's 7. Hammer regular, Michael Ripper appears as one of the locals, as does John Laurie, known to millions as Private Fraser from Dad's Army.
Not quite in the league of The Lost Continent, The Reptile is, nonetheless, a very watchable and suspense filled film. Plays a great supporting role to The Lost Continent.

Rating:
Summary: Twice the Hammer, half the fun
Review: Such a deal Anchor Bay has for you! When I saw these two Hammer films released together costing less than the individual releases, I jumped all over it. Maybe a bit hasty, but I am glad I didn't opt for buying these separately. There are two discs in the set, each containing their respective films.

The first film, The Lost Continent (1968) is quite the horror show, and I don't mean that in a good way. A handful of people elect to take a less than luxury cruise aboard a pretty trampy steamer. Little do they know the captain is also hauling highly volatile explosive call Phos B that detonates when it comes in contact with water. Geez...maybe a leaky cargo ship isn't the best mode of transportation. Apparently only the captain is aware of this particular cargo, but the crew finds out soon enough when a breached hull starts flooding the compartment where a ton (literally) of the stuff is being kept. Good thing it's being stored in sealed, metal containers. Anyway, the ship has to travel outside the usual shipping lanes, as carrying this stuff improperly is highly illegal, and the captain is anxious to avoid such entanglements. The plot starts to deviate here, as a hurricane is coming, and the ship gets caught in some crazy seaweed. There is plenty of talk about how "We go where the weed takes us" which made me laugh as I kept thinking they where speaking of the illegal substance, and not seaweed. The seaweed turns out to house a giant HR Pufnstuf reject that has all kinds of ouchy tentacles and a voracious appetite. And that's not all...within this Sargasso sea are numerous sea faring ships, most derelict, but one is a Spanish Galleon, ruled by a doofus who calls himself 'El Supremo' which made me hungry for Taco Bell. I'm not kidding...there were conquistadors, inquisitors, and more. Supposedly they've been stuck here for a long time, and have adhered to the old ways of torture and fervent religious ideals. As you can imagine, the two groups clash, and the highly volatile explosives come into play. This film was just one great, big mish mash of vague plot threads, underdeveloped characters, lame direction, hokey effects, and annoying dialogue.

The Reptile (1966) is the much better of the two films here, but isn't really considered to be one of Hammer's finer releases, but, I gotta tell you, after The Lost Continent, this movie seemed nothing short of a minor masterpiece. The story involves a man and wife inheriting a cottage from a recently deceased relative who died of mysterious causes. Turns out, he wasn't the only one in this town to die the way he did, and the young couple soon become involved with a well to do neighbor and his daughter who harbor a nasty secret. Seems the well to do man is something of a doctor, who traveled the world studying ancient religious practices. One religious sect that dealt with snakes and such didn't care for their secrets being exposed to the world, so they cursed the doctor and his daughter. What was the extent of the curse? It's pretty easy to figure out, and I felt a bit too much time was spent with the various characters being kept `in the dark' about what was going on... The sets, locations, costumes all had a suitable gothic feel to them, and the actors all seemed very competent. The direction was good, taking time to develop the plot, but I think more should have been revealed earlier, not relying on such a big hunk of exposition near the end to let the viewer in on the big mystery.

As I said before, you get a real value here, if you are interested in either one of these movies as Anchor Bay seems to be following other studios in releasing some of the more dubious Hammer release in a double feature format. The cost of this one set is equal to the individual releases, so it's a two for one bargain. Special features are available for each film, with The Lost Continent featuring trailers and TV spots, a wide screen picture, a Hammer featurette, and a mini movie poster card. The Reptile features include movie and TV spots, a Hammer featurette called Vamps and a mini movie poster card that highlights this film along with Rasputin - The Mad Monk (1966), which led me to believe maybe these two films were originally released as a double feature, but I may be wrong. I've given this set three stars, but the breakdown is actually two stars for The Lost Continent and four stars for The Reptile, thusly splitting the difference for the dual release.

Cookieman108

Rating:
Summary: Twice the Hammer, half the fun
Review: Such a deal Anchor Bay has for you! When I saw these two Hammer films released together costing less than the individual releases, I jumped all over it. Maybe a bit hasty, but I am glad I didn't opt for buying these separately. There are two discs in the set, each containing their respective films.

The first film, The Lost Continent (1968) is quite the horror show, and I don't mean that in a good way. A handful of people elect to take a less than luxury cruise aboard a pretty trampy steamer. Little do they know the captain is also hauling highly volatile explosive call Phos B that detonates when it comes in contact with water. Geez...maybe a leaky cargo ship isn't the best mode of transportation. Apparently only the captain is aware of this particular cargo, but the crew finds out soon enough when a breached hull starts flooding the compartment where a ton (literally) of the stuff is being kept. Good thing it's being stored in sealed, metal containers. Anyway, the ship has to travel outside the usual shipping lanes, as carrying this stuff improperly is highly illegal, and the captain is anxious to avoid such entanglements. The plot starts to deviate here, as a hurricane is coming, and the ship gets caught in some crazy seaweed. There is plenty of talk about how "We go where the weed takes us" which made me laugh as I kept thinking they where speaking of the illegal substance, and not seaweed. The seaweed turns out to house a giant HR Pufnstuf reject that has all kinds of ouchy tentacles and a voracious appetite. And that's not all...within this Sargasso sea are numerous sea faring ships, most derelict, but one is a Spanish Galleon, ruled by a doofus who calls himself 'El Supremo' which made me hungry for Taco Bell. I'm not kidding...there were conquistadors, inquisitors, and more. Supposedly they've been stuck here for a long time, and have adhered to the old ways of torture and fervent religious ideals. As you can imagine, the two groups clash, and the highly volatile explosives come into play. This film was just one great, big mish mash of vague plot threads, underdeveloped characters, lame direction, hokey effects, and annoying dialogue.

The Reptile (1966) is the much better of the two films here, but isn't really considered to be one of Hammer's finer releases, but, I gotta tell you, after The Lost Continent, this movie seemed nothing short of a minor masterpiece. The story involves a man and wife inheriting a cottage from a recently deceased relative who died of mysterious causes. Turns out, he wasn't the only one in this town to die the way he did, and the young couple soon become involved with a well to do neighbor and his daughter who harbor a nasty secret. Seems the well to do man is something of a doctor, who traveled the world studying ancient religious practices. One religious sect that dealt with snakes and such didn't care for their secrets being exposed to the world, so they cursed the doctor and his daughter. What was the extent of the curse? It's pretty easy to figure out, and I felt a bit too much time was spent with the various characters being kept 'in the dark' about what was going on... The sets, locations, costumes all had a suitable gothic feel to them, and the actors all seemed very competent. The direction was good, taking time to develop the plot, but I think more should have been revealed earlier, not relying on such a big hunk of exposition near the end to let the viewer in on the big mystery.

As I said before, you get a real value here, if you are interested in either one of these movies as Anchor Bay seems to be following other studios in releasing some of the more dubious Hammer release in a double feature format. The cost of this one set is equal to the individual releases, so it's a two for one bargain. Special features are available for each film, with The Lost Continent featuring trailers and TV spots, a wide screen picture, a Hammer featurette, and a mini movie poster card. The Reptile features include movie and TV spots, a Hammer featurette called Vamps and a mini movie poster card that highlights this film along with Rasputin - The Mad Monk (1966), which led me to believe maybe these two films were originally released as a double feature, but I may be wrong. I've given this set three stars, but the breakdown is actually two stars for The Lost Continent and four stars for The Reptile, thusly splitting the difference for the dual release.

Cookieman108