Customer Reviews

Lost Continent [VHS]

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Often referred to as, *The Love Boat On Acid*, this film is definitely a trip! It would be just my luck to book passage on a ship like this....Passengers that are on the run from various illegal acts, a crew that would rather take it's chances in a lifeboat, a Captain that oozes sarcasm and a trip straight to a lost continent; complete with man-eating seaweed, mutated crustaceans and the Spanish Inquisition! This film is *B* entertainment, pure and simple. This is easily one of my favortie Hammer films, I love the look and feel of this film, the sea monsters, the wild array of passengers and the opening theme to this film will definitely have you singing along for days. If you've watched your way through Hammer's Frankenstein, Dracula and Mummy series of films, then why not sit back and enjoy this sci-fi/fantasy/horror film? I guarantee you, this will be a film you'll never forget and if you think I'm kidding, just listen to that opening theme....*You have discovered the Lost Con-tin-ent!*.

The first half of this movie is straight adventure-at-sea: the seedy captain of an old rust-bucket illegally carries a cargo of high explosives; his motley crew are a mutinous lot; the passengers are all on the run from the law or their sins; and incompetence causes the ship to almost founder in a typhoon. But instead of sinking it becomes lost in the Sargasso Sea, trapped by entangling seaweed.

The second half is pure fantasy, with sea monsters, carnivorous kelp, a lost civilization living on derelict ships, descendants of the Spanish Inquisition still practicing their medieval profession, and a rebellion brewing among the slaves. In short, a swashbuckling saga of the bizarre kind, done up in the usual Hammer style, making low-budget movies look lavish on the screen.

I saw this movie at the old Paulo Drive-In in 1968. The drive-in has been gone now for about 20 years but I still remember it and some parts of this movie quite well. I remember the green-eyed monster with its obscene maw, and the big-breasted girl Sarah (Dana Gillespie) walking on the kelp bed with two big balloons on a harness supporting the weight of her very own two big balloons! And, of course, I remember Hildegarde Knef, still very lovely at the age of 43 when this movie was made. And apparently she's still active in films today, at the grand old age of 75! And probably still lovely, too! But evidently Dana Gillespie and her big balloons retired from the industry in 1990, the year of her last movie role.

So I was glad to see this movie again, on DVD, to refresh my memory, and with extra "adult" footage that it didn't have when I first saw it. Don't buy this DVD thinking that you're going to see any "adult" scenes, though! You're not! There's no nudity at all here and the sex is suggested, not shown. Unfortunately, also, the image quality is not the best. Many scenes are dark and murky. But the image is still sharp enough and the sound is good. Bonus features are the standard chapter index, trailer, TV spots, and Hammer films promo. Not bad, but only a Hammer film fan would love it. A little pricey, too, for what it offers.

This was my first exposure to a Hammer film. I was 6 or 7 years old and I saw it on late-night TV. I was completely freaked out and mesmerized at the same time. What began as a group of travelers trying to escape various people or scandals, soon ends up as a struggle to survive a hurricane and then some of the strangest sea beasties and people you will ever see!

You get a little bit of everything with this film......lust, sexual favors/bribes, shark attacks, attacking seaweed, battling scorpions, crabs and a community of people descended from escapees of the Spanish Inquisition! Now, does that sound like fun or what?!

Granted, you aren't going to get an award-winning film, here, but you will definitely be entertained, if you're capable of sitting back and simply enjoying a film without the need for anything to make sense. I've heard this film described as, 'The Love Boat On Acid' and that isn't too far-fetched, but it certainly doesn't mean you can't have fun with this on. Give it a try!

Buy this video. Don't watch it at first, stay up for five days straight first then, at about 3 or 4 am, when everyone else is asleep, drink about a gallon of sugar water and spin around in a chair for ten minutes, then pop it in. Pretend you're 8 years old again and you've stayed up all night just to watch it. By the time you get to the part where the conquistadors with the balloon shoes walk across the ocean you should be just about ready to lose your mind. What the hell is this thing! Who made it and why? These and other questions will go unanswered. This is one weird movie.

So I give up already. Where is the lost continent?

Is it somewhere hidden in the Sargasso Sea under all that man-eating seaweed? Does it have to do with that floating Spanish galleon where characters still dress as if they have been lost in time for centuries, ruled by a spoiled little child -- the El Supremo, as one character calls him?

That said, I have to admit that this little film from Hammer is one of my guilty pleasures. It is undeniably my favorite adventure from the vaults of Hammer, starring a cast that succeeds in making us forget the unreal monsters and the fact that the shark fin sailing through the water is less than believable. What makes this film work are the stalwart efforts of the aforementioned cast, headed by pock-faced Eric Porter as a convincing captain of a tramp freighter lost not near a lost continent but caught in seaweed and facing a crew of throwbacks to the pirate area. Also making the plot almost acceptable are Suzanna Leigh, who has a bone or two to pick with her father, Hildegard Knef, who still looks pretty good considering it has been a few years since she played opposite Gregory Peck in THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO, and Tony Beckley, who reforms from a useless drunk into a guilt-ridden hero. Also on hand is one of the greatest supporting actors ever to grace a Hammer production -- Michael Ripper.

Others worth mentioning are Benito Carruthers as the agent chasing after Hildegard Knef who made off with negotiable bonds from a dictator but who is not above accepting sexual favors from her as a bribe. Also a person not to be ignored in the film is Dana Gillespie, who plays two noteworthy roles in the film -- that is, if one counts her considerable frontal attributes as characters. As a runaway from the El Supremo dictator who must travel across the threatening seaweed held up by two balloons -- no, it's not what you are thinking -- I mean real balloons-- and ends up being romanced by the Tony Beckley character. Lucky Tony. He spurns the beautiful Suzanna Leigh, who prefers him as a drunk, only to fall into the arms -- I said "arms" -- of the statuesque Ms. Gillespie. I understand that she was being groomed to be a rock singer -- not that anyone who sees this film is going to care. For those Russ Meyer types who are curious, she also appears in MAHLER and THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT.

Even Porter, after making some acidic comments about her relationship with her son, ends up with Ms. Neff. As I said, she still looks pretty good, even in shorts, so he is hardly a loser in the film. After THE FORSYTHE SAGA on TV, he deserves some compensation as a good guy with ulterior motives for carrying a dangerous cargo and even more dangerous passengers on his rust bucket of a freighter. He later shows up in the Hammer horror film called HANDS OF THE RIPPER, but somehow his role in that film fails to match his performance in this adventure.

Neil McCallum as his second-in-command looks weird with blond hair. Why did he decide to look like a bleached towhead for this role? Does it serve some aesthetic purpose that is lost on me? As it turns out, he is drop-kicked out of the story early, preferring to abandon ship with some of the unruly crew who fear the Phosbo-B cargo and, therefore, missing out on the opportunity to meet the time-lost
characters in the Sargasso Sea as well as the visible charms of Ms. Gillespie.

Sargasso Sea. Okay. That brings me back to my original question. Why is this adventure with strong characters called THE LOST CONTINENT? It is nothing like the original Cesar Romero film of the early fifties with the same title, a film resembling not a little Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic THE LOST WORLD. The basis for this film is the Dennis Wheatley novel UNCHARTED SEAS. That title makes more sense, but maybe it is not a compelling one. Why not THE LOST SARGASSO SEA? Why THE LOST CONTINENT?

By the way, the title song with its organ-music lead-in is really quite good. Too bad it wasn't used more throughout the film. We hear quiet strains of the theme occasionally, but the vocal is not repeated.

Another question: what do the prehistoric creatures -- apparently machine-driven paper-mache types -- have to do with the ship-load of throwbacks? Why do they still exist in the Sargasso Sea? I like monsters as much as the next over-grown kid, and I would prefer these unreal things to CGI or the blown-up iguanas used in the 1960 THE LOST WORLD, but how are they to be explained? Maybe we shouldn't care.

When I first saw this film in a drive-in in the last sixties, it was paired with the big-budgeted sequel to PLANET OF THE APES titled BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES. I went to see this double-bill twice, and it sure wasn't to see BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES a second time. Okay. You got me.

It was to see Dana Gillespie again.

Rent or buy this DVD if you have the chance. Unless you are a stickler for CGI monsters as found in the JURASSIC PARK series, you won't be disappointed.

Coming out in 1968 around the time many of the famous disappearances were taking place over the Bermuda Triangle Hammer Studios latched onto a similiar type of theme when they adapted the novel by Dennis Wheatley called "Unchartered Seas", into one of their more unusual productions. Not boasting the usual array of Hammer talent with the exception of veteran character actor Michael Ripper, the studio in fact created in my belief a most unique story and setting for their latest effort that is rich in atmosphere and mystery. "The Lost Continent", certainly can't compare with some of Hammer's classic efforts like "Horror of Dracula", or "The Curse of Frankenstein", as far as quality or acting expertise are concerned, but it is another of those efforts that needs to be viewed on its own merits. Weird it might be considered by some but it manages to build up quite a level of suspense in its first hour where it is largely an adventure at sea and then rather dramatically when it turns into a science fiction saga complete with man eating sea weed, clawed monsters, eerie ship graveyards, and a strange lost civilisation that is a relic of the time of the Spanish Inquisition.

The action of "The Lost Continent", begins with a rusty, decrepit old steamer evading a coast guard customs vessel as it steams out to sea commanded by Capt. Lansen. The captain has his own special reasons for not wanting the coast guard to inspect his cargo. He is carrying a special shipment of illegal highly explosive material in drums that will detinate if they come into contact with water. Aboard the steamer is also a motley group of individuals who are all attempting to get away from something on the mainland and can't risk booking passage on an ordinary passenger vessel. Their reasons for travelling on this vessel are many and varied and range from escaping ruthless lovers, to fleeing blame for botched operations. Despite hurricane warnings Cpt. Lansen refuses to turn back and very soon the vessel is damaged in the storm and develops a leak which threatens to blow up the whole vessel as the water rises in the ships hull dangerously close to the explosive cargo. After the crew mutiny and take off in one of the lifeboats the captain decides to abandon ship and the tattered group have to survive a storm at sea, marauding sharks, and thirst under the blazing sun before they find their own ship again after a few days. After reboarding the vessel however a strange carnivourous seaweed envelopes the ship. deadly by nature it feeds on any unfortunate humans it comes into contain with and begins dragging the vessel away in the opposite direction. The group eventually find themselves in uncharted waters where the vessel is lodged in a strange ships graveyard. However this strange place also harbours not only man eating sea weed and terrifying crab monsters, but also other survivors some of which are the descendants of the original occupants of the galleon's stuck in the sea weed . One group are the decendants of Spanish Conquistadores who are ruled by a young boy titled "El Supremo", and who stage bloody reprisals against anyone invading their world. Members of the party are captured by the Spanish and before being sacrificed to El Supremo the men stage a breakout that sees the main gathering place of the Spanish "Court" go up in flames with El Supremo killed by one of his group who was actually directing things in this world. The survivors of both groups make it back to the vessel where a funeral is held for El Supremo just as the killer sea weed releases the vessel which then resumes its journey to safety.

Certainly one of Hammer's more unusual efforts from their golden period of the 1960's, "The Lost Continent", has I feel much of interest to offer the viewer. Looking critically at the special effects employed in the film certainly some of the giant crab monsters and in particular the octopus that the group encounter once they reach the outskirts of the lost continent are highly amateurish and not up to Hammer's usual standards. However monsters were never that studios speciality having of course built their fine horror reputation on characters like Dracula, Frankenstein and The Mummy. What is the standout here however is the aggressive man eating sea weed that is responsible for trapping the ship in the first place. All aggressive tentacles, and slippery multi coloured growth that billows out smoke, it is highly intriguing and really creates an impressive horror look and feel to the second half of the story. "The Lost Continent", boasts a fine international cast that do well with what are basically fairly unlikeable characters. Eric Porter does a sterling job as the shady Capt. Lansen who is responsible for the debacle because of his greed in wanting just one last big paycheck before he retires regardless of the danger. German actress Hildegard Knef also does well with the slim material available to her in the role of runaway Eva Peters who is being pursued by an agent of her former South American dictator lover. The supporting characters are just as colourful with the standouts being Nigel Stock as the morally corrupt Dr. Webster who meets a grizzly end courtesy of a shark, Suzanna Leigh as his wayward mantrap daughter Unity and Jimmy Hanley as the jolly "seen it all before", bartender Patrick. Hammer Veteran Michael Ripper complete with brutal facial scar also makes his mark in a small but pivotal supporting role as a member of the crew who decide to mutiny rather than risk their lives transporting Capt. Lansen's explosive cargo. The switch from adventure yarn to outright science fiction is well handled and the two sections of the film have very different looks to them which are illustrated in the vivid colour usage in both parts of the story. The first half has the natural hues of an adventure at sea while the last half, taking place in the never never land of the Sargasso sea has a spectacular red, gold and orange look to compliment all the surreal things that take place there. The look of this second half of "The Lost Continent", is what stays in the mind with the ship graveyard with the wrecks of centuries old galleons and the killer sea weed being its strong points. The excellent recreation of the bizarre society that lives there which is straight out of the era of the Spanish conquistadors also deserves special merit in its costumes and brutal rituals.

Certainly "The Lost Continent", would not be on everyone's list of top ten horror efforts but that is not to say it's not a movie that is enjoyable or in any way memorable. The performances alone lift this effort above your usual Saturday afternon fare and certainly the killer sea weed is a most unusual element to see in a Hammer film. No Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee in sight here in the cast as one almost comes to expect with a Hammer Production but as long as you put your mind in neutral and sit back for some incredible goings on in the Sargasso Sea involving all kinds of bizzare creatures and happenings then you are sure to have a fairly interesting viewing experience. Enjoy!

This is a classic film, one of Hammer's Best and that is sayihng a lot. Gotta love Hammer. You have a no nonsense captain carrying an illegal caro. A first mate who must have used Clairol Blond 4-32574X 013 box and can't be decisive. You have a Motley Crew of old sea dogs along with a passenger list of people who are running away from their pasts: including a manly but handsome Barbara Streisand look alike, a poorman's Michael caine and his daughter, a drunken piano player and a reject from the Rico Suave' Social Club and others. All of them on one rusty cargo ship. This ship ends up in trouble and the people react in various ways. Some new comers arrive at the ship including the extremely voluptuous Sara (Dana Gillespie) who in real life is a British blues singer but in this film sounds like a scandanavian lost girl. Lots of Killer weeds and Evil coneheads round up the cast. I almost forgot about this one until I bought it a few years ago. I saw this on TV when I was a kid and I am still waiting for the sequel.
Highly Recommended. This film has a very interesting story, I would love to see a prequel as well. Dana Gillespie is worth the price of this DVD alone.
Good flick. I just finished watching this for the umpteenth time and had to finally review it.

This film has all the elements that make for an enjoyable time. There's mutiny, over-bearing characters, the obligatory maidens in distress, and plenty of mutated sea creatures! The film moves along at a decent pace and it makes for a good viewing experience. There's also eight minutes of added footage that you usually don't have the pleasure of viewing on TV, so check it out! If you're looking for a good film to sit back and just relax with.....this is a good bet!

Ahhh...memories of going to the movies each week all summer long as a kid. Back in the 70s in elementary school, students were given the opportunity to purchase a set of special movie tickets for about a dollar a piece (or was it a dollar for the whole thing?) and you could go see a different movie each week. Each year there were several new/different movies, but there were at least three that came back year after year. 1. the 1966 Batman with Adam West and Burt Ward 2. Big Jake with John Wayne and 3. Hammer Studios' The Lost Continent. I loved those three movies especially The Lost Continent with the writhing, man-eating seaweed vines and the giant crab-like monster battling the equally huge scorpion monster. Great fun. My uncle would take me every year to see all 10 movies through the summer and we always looked forward to the weeks when we'd get to see those three again. Unfortunately, I had forgotten the name of my favorite one and it took me over 20 years to finally find out what the name of that movie was (The Lost Continent). I finally found it on VHS at a video store in the mall back about 10 years ago. I wish I had known about the DVD release back when it came out...I would have bought that in a heartbeat! Lots of fun! Especially if you love monsters and crazy weird stuff in your movies!

If ever a movie deserved the accolade "you've got to see it to believe it" than this version of THE LOST CONTINENT (not to be confused with the 1951 B movie) is it. It isn't that it's really bad (though parts of it are) or that it lacks action (hurricanes, explosions, maneating crabs), it's just that the screenplay is truly bizarre. The setting is a tramp steamer and the film starts off like SHIP OF FOOLS with each passenger having a background story then it turns into THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE when a hurricane strikes (except the ship doesn't tip over). Next up it's Hitchcock's LIFEBOAT as our passengers are adrift for awhile before being reunited with their ship. Throw in a little sci-fi as the ship is trapped in a current of killer seaweed that takes them to a ship's graveyard where they encounter a lost civilization of Spanish Inquisitors (before MONTY PYTHON), some phony giant crabs similar to those in a forgotten 1953 adventure film PORT SINISTER (not to mention Roger Corman's ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS), and you have a movie that defies description although I did my best.

Fortunately LOST CONTINENT is loaded with some imaginative and creative low budget effects that after awhile you begin to enjoy like a kid at a Saturday matinee. The art direction and camera lighting are also highly inventive (and occasionally cheesy) and that makes certain scenes quite memorable. Adding gravitas to this rather unweildy opus are Eric Porter as the ship's captain and Hildegard Neff as a passenger that he falls for. This may not be Shakespeare or Pinter but they treat it as if it were and that's loads of fun as well. A solid cast of British character actors and a lost civilization woman with astonishing attributes keep things moving along nicely or help to distract us from what's going on. Michael Carreras (son of Hammer head James Carreras) took over direction from Leslie Norman (X THE UNKNOWN) when he left the project which may account for the film's occasional schizophrenic quality. LOST CONTINENT remains a one of a kind film from Hammer and is definitely worth seeking out. It may not be a good film, but it's an unforgettable one.