By Richard Harland Smith
The Lost Continent
Brief Synopsis
When a tramp steamer is attacked by a mass of living seaweed, the occupants are forced to take refuge on a strange island.
Cast & Crew
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Michael Carreras
Director
Eric Porter
Captain Lansen
Hildegard Knef
Eva
Suzanna Leigh
Unity
Tony Beckley
Harry Tyler
Nigel Stock
Dr. Webster
Photos & Videos
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1 Photo
Film Details
MPAA Rating
Genre
Horror/Science-Fiction
Action
Adventure
Fantasy
Horror
Release Date
Jan
1968
Premiere Information
New York opening: 19 Jun 1968
Production Company
Hammer Film Productions, Ltd.; Seven Arts Productions
Distribution Company
Twentieth Century--Fox Film Corp.
Country
United Kingdom
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel Uncharted Seas by Dennis Wheatley (London, 1938).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 29m
Sound
Mono
Color
Color (DeLuxe)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.78 : 1
Synopsis
Captain Lansen is sailing his old freighter from Africa to South America with a cargo of illegal explosives and a handful of motley passengers. The travelers include Dr. Webster, charged with criminal malpractice; his nymphomaniacal daughter, Unity; Eva, the ex-mistress of a recently deposed Latin American dictator; Ricaldi, an agent sent to recover money stolen by Eva; and Harry Tyler, an alcoholic piano player. When Lansen ignores his first officer's hurricane warning, his crew mutinies and abandons ship. Lansen and the passengers are also forced to take to a lifeboat, and they drift aimlessly for days. After Webster is killed by a shark and Ricaldi is carried off by an enormous octopus, the survivors come upon their ship, still in good shape though its propellers have become entangled in a morass of carnivorous seaweed. The passengers reboard the vessel and float off into another continent, where the survivors of previous wrecks have evolved a method of moving about on the deadly weed by means of gas-filled balloons. Ruling over these strange inhabitants in the manner of an evil inquisitor is El Diablo, a boy king of Spanish descent. With the aid of a friendly resident, the passengers escape death by burning the seaweed; then, having destroyed their enemies, they return to civilization.
Cast
Eric Porter
Captain Lansen
Hildegard Knef
Eva
Suzanna Leigh
Unity
Tony Beckley
Harry Tyler
Nigel Stock
Dr. Webster
Neil Mccallum
First Officer Hemmings
Benito Carruthers
Ricaldi
Jimmy Hanley
Pat
James Cossins
Chief
Dana Gillespie
Sarah
Victor Maddern
Mate
Reg Lye
Helmsman
Norman Eshley
Jonathan
Michael Ripper
Sea lawyer
Donald Sumpter
Reynolds ("Sparks")
Alf Joint
Jason
Charles Houston
Braemar
Shivendra Sinha
Hurri Curri
Darryl Read
El Diablo
Eddie Powell
Inquisitor
Frank Hayden
Sergeant
Mark Heath
Horace James
Customs men
Crew
Elsie Alder
Hairdresser
Roy Baker
Sound Editing
Chris Barnes
Film Editor
Paul Beeson
Director of Photography
Michael Carreras
Producer
Arthur Fehr
Modeller
Dominic Fulford
Assistant Director
Mary Gibson
Wardrobe
Arthur Hayward
Consultant
Anthony Hinds
Executive Producer
Irene Lamb
Casting
Arthur Lawson
Art Director
A. W. Lumkin
Recording Supervisor
Peter Manley
Associate Producer
Peter Manley
Production Manager
Philip Martell
Music Supervisor
Robert A. Mattey
Special Photography Effects
Michael Nash
Screenwriter
James Needs
Film Editor
George Partleton
Makeup
Roy Philips
Composer
Don Picton
Assistant art Director
Cliff Richardson
Special Effects
Gerard Schürmann
Music Composition
Doreen Soan
Cont
Russell Thomson
Camera Operator
Carl Toms
Costume Design
Denis Whitlock
Sound mix
Photo Collections
1 Photo
The Lost Continent - Movie Poster
The Lost Continent - Movie Poster
Film Details
MPAA Rating
Genre
Horror/Science-Fiction
Action
Adventure
Fantasy
Horror
Release Date
Jan
1968
Premiere Information
New York opening: 19 Jun 1968
Production Company
Hammer Film Productions, Ltd.; Seven Arts Productions
Distribution Company
Twentieth Century--Fox Film Corp.
Country
United Kingdom
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel Uncharted Seas by Dennis Wheatley (London, 1938).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 29m
Sound
Mono
Color
Color (DeLuxe)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.78 : 1
Articles
The Lost Continent
An adaptation of Dennis Wheatley's 1938 novel Uncharted Seas - with unattributed borrowings from William Hope Hodgson's The Boats of the Glen Carrig - The Lost Continent (1968) represented something completely different for Hammer Film Productions. Though the British horror house had dipped a toe into lost world waters with its 1965 take on the H. Rider Haggard classic She and 1967's Slave Girls (US: Prehistoric Women, 1967), The Lost Continent was a quantum leap to left field for a company whose stock-in-trade had been to that point stately Gothic shockers in Victorian dress. Written and directed by Michael Carreras (son of company president James Carreras), The Lost World throttles up the sum of all absurdities as a Ship of Fools (1965)-style steamer sails into a fetid Sargasso choked with derelict vessels and strangling seaweed, a strange new world inhabited by crustacean behemoths, grabby tentacled sea beasts, and a legion of inbred conquistadors led by a capricious boy king. A pulpy bouillabaisse worthy of Japan's Toho Company, The Lost Continent boasts a disarmingly seasoned cast, led by Eric Porter (star of the starchy BBC soap The Forsyte Saga), German actress-singer Hildegard Knef, Shakespearean actor Tony Beckley (later the child killer of the 1980 slasher When a Stranger Calls) and Ben Carruthers, hell and gone from his film debut in John Cassavetes' Shadows (1959).
By Richard Harland Smith
By Richard Harland Smith
The Lost Continent
An adaptation of Dennis Wheatley's 1938 novel Uncharted Seas - with unattributed borrowings from William Hope Hodgson's The Boats of the Glen Carrig - The Lost Continent (1968) represented something completely different for Hammer Film Productions. Though the British horror house had dipped a toe into lost world waters with its 1965 take on the H. Rider Haggard classic She and 1967's Slave Girls (US: Prehistoric Women, 1967), The Lost Continent was a quantum leap to left field for a company whose stock-in-trade had been to that point stately Gothic shockers in Victorian dress. Written and directed by Michael Carreras (son of company president James Carreras), The Lost World throttles up the sum of all absurdities as a Ship of Fools (1965)-style steamer sails into a fetid Sargasso choked with derelict vessels and strangling seaweed, a strange new world inhabited by crustacean behemoths, grabby tentacled sea beasts, and a legion of inbred conquistadors led by a capricious boy king. A pulpy bouillabaisse worthy of Japan's Toho Company, The Lost Continent boasts a disarmingly seasoned cast, led by Eric Porter (star of the starchy BBC soap The Forsyte Saga), German actress-singer Hildegard Knef, Shakespearean actor Tony Beckley (later the child killer of the 1980 slasher When a Stranger Calls) and Ben Carruthers, hell and gone from his film debut in John Cassavetes' Shadows (1959).
By Richard Harland Smith
Quotes
Trivia
In the first interior boat scene, the Doctor is reading "Uncharted Seas" by Dennis Wheatley, the book on which the film is based.
Notes
Copyright length: 101 min. Opened in London in July 1968; running time: 98 min. Norman was replaced as director by Carreras.
