By
1975, British horror was all but dead. Hammer were on their last legs,
main production had stopped, and the next year was to bring the dire To the Devil a Daughter
(1976), their last horror film. Their rivals in horror for nearly a
decade, Amicus had shot their last horror film the year before, with
the entertaining The Beast Must Die
(1974), and now the studio's producers looked to return to the family
friendly market that they had targeted ten years earlier with the Peter
Cushing, Doctor Who films - this time, they took a literary source and
aimed for the epic fantasy genre. Popular in the late 1960s with such
classic titles as Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and Hammer's One Million Years B.C. (1966), and contemporarily with The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974) the films often revolved around fantastic visual effects...
In
1916, a German U-boat sinks a British ship and a small group of
survivors, including Bowen Tyler (Doug McClure) find themselves
drifting in thick fog. Meanwhile, the U-boat surfaces to recharge the
batteries and when the boat's survivors discover it, they act quickly
to take over the submarine. Trying to contact a British vessel, they
find themselves under attack and head West, hoping to reach nuteral
America. However, the compasses have been sabotaged, and they have been
heading south the whole time - after the Germans briefly retake the
vessel, they find themselves drifting in the Southern Ocean, and
encounter a lost continent full of wild, ancient creatures. Exploring
the land they discover that it contains primitive humans and more
importantly, crude oil. Setting up a camp they begin to distill the
oil, but internal conflicts break out and they discover the mysterious
origin of life on the island...
Edgar Rice Burroughs' 1918 novel owes a large debt to Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island, and Arthur Conan Doyle’s
The Lost World
of which this story seems to be a direct combination, although with
some interesting additional ideas and themes. Unfortunately the film's
script over abbreviates the book, changes important points and
generally does not work. The storyline, as per the novel, begins during
World War 1 and the problems with the script are immediately evident.
Where the ship was and why Tyler, an American, was aboard are never
answered nor is the six days it takes the "experienced sailors" to find
out that the compass was pointing incorrectly, or just how the Germans
had arranged for their supply ship to be in the area when they take
over again, without a radio on board, or even how they suddenly end up
in Antarctic waters.
These
problems continue throughout, but could probably be ignored by most
viewers - but the severe lapses in characterisation are less forgivable;
there are brief hints that the German Captain is a nature lover, thus
explaining his microscope on board, but this is never elaborated upon,
nor is the feud between the English and German crewmen properly
explored, a brief fight scene is really all we see of this. Most
annoyingly of all, Bowen Tyler, the lead character, remains
completely unexplained, he is obviously a supporter of violence over
brains, yet is put in charge of the group ahead of the obviously more
qualified captains - the film would probably have worked better without
him. Don't expect anything in the way of moral debates either, the
characters happily go around blowing up dinosaurs and plundering oil
without much concern for the delicacy of the eco-system. Ultimately the
film seems incredibly rushed - the key theme
of
Burroughs' novel, the notion of
evolutionary metamorphosis is explained as an afterthought and hardly
touched upon, while the difference between the caveman groups (in
the novel, distinguished by their choice of weaponary) is not made
clear at all. The volcanic ending ("borrowed" it would seem from One Million Years B.C. (1966)) makes for a big, although rather drawn out climax, while the ending is interesting and fitting.
The
British director Kevin Conner took the director's chair here, and does
a decent job considering the film's low budget. The opening third, in
the submarine is nicely done with a claustrophobic set and some good
model shots (although a fight scene on deck is rather confusing, taking
place in fog, with most of the sailors wearing the same outfits).
Unfortunately, it is when the characters arrive on the lost island that
problems arise - without the time or resources for stop-motion
animation like that used very effectively in
One Million Years B.C. (1966) and
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
(1974), the dinosaurs and creatures are simple rod puppets and while
Ray Harryhausen spent years studying dinosaurs for complete accuracy,
the creatures here often seem vague and very fake. The soundtrack is a
relatively standard orchestral affair from long term Amicus composer
Douglas Gamley, it suits the film well.
On
the acting side, the film is nothing too special - Doug McClure has
screen presence but little emotion, and although John McEnery gives a
good turn as the German captain he is overdubbed by the Austrain actor
Anton Diffring who would probably have brought a more interesting take
to the role. Susan Penhaligon is rather pretty as Lisa but doesn't get
much to do.
Ultimately,
The Land that Time Forgot
survives as a daytime, family movie - but even a casual viewer,
overlooking the low budget effects and B-movie acting, would be hard
pushed to ignore the horribly illogical and underwritten plot. Not
recommended.
