THE LOST CONTINENT 1968

Hosted by Cinematic Catharsis and Realweegiemidget Reviews

"A Living Hell That Time Forgot!"

"See blood beasts battling over female flesh!, torture pits for forbidden lovers!, sacrifice to giant jaw-snapping mollusks!, escape from floating death ship!, helpless beauties attacked by crazed kelp-monsters!, fiery destruction of the lost continent!"

    The second of Hammer's adaptation of a Dennis Wheatley novel released by the studio in 1968 (along with THE DEVIL RIDES OUT), this was Hammer's most expensive production ever at a cost of over £500,000 mostly due to the construction of two large tanks at Elstree Studios. Along with THE DEVIL RIDES OUT it was also a relative failure at the box-office upon its release, but unlike its more Gothic horror-like counterpart THE LOST CONTINENT hasn't received much of a critical reappraisal.
   Directed by Hammer producer Michael Carreras and written by him under the pseudonym "Michael Nash", it was based upon Wheatley's novel Uncharted Seas. Most likely also influenced by William Hope Hodgson's series of "The Sargasso Sea" stories, it's a production unlike anything else in the Hammer filmography. Alternately lurid, weirdly psychedelic, daffy, and hallucinatory it's one of those that when first seen as a child will forever stick in your mind and when viewed as an adult still pulls you in with an odd fascination. Even more so than DRACULA A.D. 1972, if there's was one Hammer movie that you could say had an LSD acid-drenched atmosphere, it's THE LOST CONTINENT.
   Starting in full 1968 mode the opening song features a pop vocal song by The Peddlers, it's not exactly a song with a beat with its melancholy organ wheezing away in the background (strands of which will pop in various time during the movie) it has a low-rent lounge feel to it. Straight off we're thrust into a weird world as a shipwreck strewn and seaweed clogged stretch of ocean is shown with derelict ships of all eras. We then cut to a strange shipboard funeral populated by a rag-tag group of people with clothes going back several hundred years. Leading the service is a Captain in a contemporary dress who intones to himself how they ended up here.

    Flashing back the same officer, Capt. Lansen (played with all sorts of jut-jawed determination by Eric Porter HANDS OF THE RIPPER) hastens a quick escape from the port of Freetown with the coast guard in pursuit. It's soon relived that the Capt. is looking to pad his retirement before his rust-bucket of a ship sinks by hauling a cargo hold full of illegal explosives which ignite by contact with water. Also, onboard is a SHIP OF FOOLS-like motley group of passengers all of whom have various reasons for fleeing the locale too. There's banished Dr. Webster (Nigel Stock THE GREAT ESCAPE) whose in trouble for "illegal operations on women" and his over-sexed trust fund daughter Unity played with ravenous zeal by Suzanna Leigh (DEADLIER THAN THE MALE), alcoholic lounge singer Harry Tyler (GET CARTER), a notorious dictator's mistress Eva Peters (Hildegard Knef (later in the bat-shit crazy WITCHERY from 1988 with Linda Blair & David Hasselhof) whose fleeing with her husband's ill-gotten funds after his downfall. Pursuing Eva is sleazy detective Ricaldi (Ben Carruthers THE DIRTY DOZEN) who very quickly lets her know that is open to bribes by either money or jumping into bed with her. The crew consists of a conscious-driven chief engineer (James Cossins THE HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN) and a nervous first officer (Neil McCallum DR. TERRORS HOUSE OF HORRORS). Lurking amongst the nameless crewmen is Hammer character actor extraordinaire Michael Ripper (THE MUMMY'S SHROUD).
   The script then jumps from one disaster and/or calamity to another at a frightening pace starting with an approaching hurricane, the crew abandoning ship when the find out the cargo's nature, a huge hole is torn in the side of the ship by a floundering anchor while a crew member whom Unity has been lusting over gets get head bashed in by an errant pulley. Gathering his remaining officers and the passenger's Capt. Lansen has the explosives moved away from the incoming water while the chief engineer struggles to keeps the engine and pump running. In rapid secession, the remaining crew and passengers deciding to take their chances on the open water in a lifeboat whereupon Dr. Webster is devoured by a shark (which Unity gleefully revels in) and Eva shoots a mutinous crewman in the belly with a flare gun (whew !!).

     Drifting into the Sargasso Sea, the survivors find the lifeboat surrounded by a strange moving seaweed which is discovered eats away at flesh. Coming across their old ship and finding it afloat they board it and soon find themselves tangled in the mass of living seaweed and surrounded by fog and derelict ships. It's soon discovered that they're not alone as other shipwreck survivors have formed a colony on a nearby island and propel themselves across the seaweed by means of large paddle-like shoes and balloons on their shoulders. One of these survivors Sara (Dana Gillespie -who in 1977 would play pretty much the same role in THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT) arrives with her strategically unbuttoned blouse and heaving bosoms (which along with Leigh entangled in tentacles would become the focus of the film's campaign) to warn Lansen of an impending attack by another group.  Gillespie is a member of a group of exiles who were looking for religious freedom and have been living and procreating on the island for hundreds of years.

     It's here that the film's weirdness bolts into the stratosphere with the reveling that the area is dominated by the descendants of a group of Spanish conquistadors who are ruled by an adolescent emperor-god named El Supremo (or sometimes El Diablo) but is actually controlled by his chief inquisitor played by Hammer stuntman Eddie Powell. The group has been living by looting stranded ships and have a slimy weed-beast with a gaping mouth (oddly foreshadowing the Sarlac in RETURN OF THE JEDI) that lives under their galleon and to whom they feed stranded travelers who refuse to join their society.

     In addition to the pit monster, there's also a huge glowing-eyed octopus-like creature (who has a special fondness for Leigh) and large scorpions all of whom come popping out of the fog and while not the stop motion wonders that a Harryhausen or Danforth would bring to Hammer's prehistoric epics they exude a certain charm and fit in with pulpy adventure atmosphere of the plot. Shot by DP Paul Beeson (CRESCENDO) the film is devoid of the usual rich Hammer Gothic color-scheme and instead has murkier look and except for Suzanna's ever-changing & eye-popping (in more ways than one) wardrobe, it has somber, more muted colors. The fog-shrouded setting looks more like Corman's Poe films such as HOUSE OF USHER and it does a Mario Bava/PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES feel with an alien fog-shrouded world and strange things lurking in that fog.
     Carreras's script while careening from one action, disaster or monster set piece to another does take the time for character development and we do get a distinct feeling for each character.  Barely pausing to catch its breath the story doesn't allow you to dwell on certain questions (how are the large balloons inflated and how are the 400 years old clothing still in use??). In addition to bug-eyed giant octopuses, there are some surprising adult themes luring about including Hildegard offering her body to the sleazy Ricaldi and later becoming involved in triangle love affairs with Porter's captain and Leigh's hyper-sexed Unity whose eyed by her father with some not too subtle incest vibes. The film in its own way also deals with the nature of religious hypocrisy (with that religion run totally amok) and is typical of the period presents us with a gaggle of ant-heroes with Sara's group providing the moral compass
      The ending while feeling rushed does have a nice symmetry to it (you just knew those explosives are going to used eventually) and features a terrifically weird candlelit ceremony and leprous faces with the survivors neatly splitting off into three couples.

   

THE SKULL 1965

Hosted by Cinematic Catharsis & Realweegiemidget Reviews

"When The Skull Strikes, You'll Scream!!"

     Formed in 1962 by American producers/screenwriters Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg as a UK based film company, Amicus was to compete in the what was then rapidly growing British horror industry which was initiated by Hammer with CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957) and DRACULA (1958). In a pre-Amicus period, the duo collaborated on the magnificent THE CITY OF THE DEAD in 1960 and earlier in the '50s had proposed a Frankenstein script for American producers A.A.P. who in turn forwarded the script to Hammer and Subotsky went to his grave insisting he should be listed as a producer on CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN.

   Although most famous for their anthologies Amicus also released a fair number of stand-alone horrors which range from the ridiculously fun (THE DEADLY BEES 1966) to the wonderful Gothic overdrive of 1973's AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS! (which I really hope some fellow blogger will cover). 1965's THE SKULL was Amicus's second horror film after DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS and stands out as one their best efforts featuring the always welcome duo of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee along with a gaggle of British character actors and inventive direction by Freddie Francis. The film (however lightly) contains themes & relationships that are head and shoulders above what Hammer was tackling in their run of Gothic horrors and psychological thrillers.

    The script by Subotsky (based upon a short story by Robert Bloch) could have easily fit into one of Amicus's anthology works as after the initial story set up a not really happens but because of its strong cast and Francis direction, it never feels padded (although there are few instances of characters coming and going from the same location to complete a single task). This was also due to fact that Francis had to pad out the script, which only amounted to 52 minutes of running time, to which he also added fluid long tracking shots with stretches of no dialogue which was unheard in horror films of the time.
     Opening with a bit of preamble to the origins of the title "character" a trio of grave robbers led by Pierre (Maurice Good QUATERMASS AND THE PIT) are shown excavating the body of the Marquis De Sade. Chopping off the head Pierre scuttles back to his quarters where is surprised by the uninvited sight of his unnamed mistress (April Olrich) in the bathtub (with a surprising amount of backside nudity for a film from this era). Quickly dipping the head in acid he's interrupted by an unseen calamity which is mirrored in a closeup of his screaming mistress face (and Olrich is a great screamer by the way).
    Jumping ahead to contemporary times we're introduced to Christopher Maitland (Cushing) and Sir Matthew Phillips (Lee) fellow collectors of weird and satanic objects d'art who are at an auction presided over by the scenery-chewing Michael Gough (in a short cameo). Maitland is approached by the seedy Marco (Patrick Wymark THE BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW) a supplier of strange artifacts to the two men who ends selling Maitland a satanic book bound of human skin. Teasing him with the promise of a special piece he later returns to Maitland's with a skull purporting to be that of the Marquis de Sade (which also gives us the rest of the flashback story from the preamble). Deferring on the purchase he later finds out from Sir Matthew that the skull was stolen from him but he is reluctant to pursue its return as he claims he has a certain diabolical "power" over its owner.

     Soon Maitland comes to possess the skull and finds that it does indeed make for a disturbing piece in his collection. Although Lee and Cushing share only a few scenes together as Lee's role is just a cameo it's interesting to see them pitted against each other as rival-obsessed collectors (a trait familiar to many of my fellow video collectors I'm sure). Maitland claims that he's acquiring the items for "research" seems to be an excuse mealy for his character to revel in various he ignores everything around him us objects notorious past histories and shut out the duties of marriage & responsibilities. His obviously long-suffering wife (played by Jill Bennett from Hammer's THE NANNY in a sadly underused role) is resigned to the fact that she secondary to his collection as the couple sleep in separate rooms. Anna Palk who was a lead in THE FROZEN DEAD and TOWER OF EVIL has a small role as Cushing's housekeeper and one wonders if both roles were cut down at some point in production.
     Set up as the nominal hero (or even anti-hero) Maitland is not a very nice person, but it's to Cushing's credit that as an actor he enlists sympathy, as you feel for the character he begins to descend into evil. As I mentioned before his "collecting" mania enters his personality and the sleazy Marko knows exactly how to play him in to snag him into a deal while Lee even with his short screen time seems much more grounded and rational.
     Francis used a large skull apparatus on the front of the camera to give a pov view through the skull's eye sockets and as to be expected he makes great use of the scope compositions, plus you'll want to freeze the picture at certain points just to study all the creepy bric-a-brac displayed in Cushing's study. There's a terrific Kafka-like dream sequence that looks like something out of an Avengers TV show with a creepy set design.
    Peter Woodthrope (who had just co-starred with Cushing in THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN) shows up as Marco's shady landlord and there's Nigel Green (COUNTESS DRACULA) and Patrick Magee (DEMONS OF THE MIND) as the fact-based police inspectors.
   A very big thanks goes out to Cinematic Catharsis & Reelweegiemidget Reviews for hosting this blogatohn.