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The Lost Continent

  • 1968
  • G
  • 1h 37m
IMDb RATING
5.5/10
2.4K
YOUR RATING
The Lost Continent (1968)
Trailer for this adventurous tale
Play trailer2:46
1 Video
52 Photos
Dinosaur AdventureSea AdventureAdventure

The captain, crew, and passengers of an old freighter-all of them with dark secrets to keep-find themselves adrift in a mysterious land full of monsters, conquistadors, and killer seaweed.The captain, crew, and passengers of an old freighter-all of them with dark secrets to keep-find themselves adrift in a mysterious land full of monsters, conquistadors, and killer seaweed.The captain, crew, and passengers of an old freighter-all of them with dark secrets to keep-find themselves adrift in a mysterious land full of monsters, conquistadors, and killer seaweed.

  • Directors
    • Michael Carreras
    • Leslie Norman
  • Writers
    • Michael Carreras
    • Dennis Wheatley
  • Stars
    • Eric Porter
    • Hildegard Knef
    • Suzanna Leigh
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.5/10
    2.4K
    YOUR RATING
    • Directors
      • Michael Carreras
      • Leslie Norman
    • Writers
      • Michael Carreras
      • Dennis Wheatley
    • Stars
      • Eric Porter
      • Hildegard Knef
      • Suzanna Leigh
    • 77User reviews
    • 49Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    The Lost Continent
    Trailer 2:46
    The Lost Continent

    Photos52

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    Top cast26

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    Eric Porter
    Eric Porter
    • Capt. Lansen
    Hildegard Knef
    Hildegard Knef
    • Eva Peters
    Suzanna Leigh
    Suzanna Leigh
    • Unity Webster
    Tony Beckley
    Tony Beckley
    • Harry Tyler
    Nigel Stock
    Nigel Stock
    • Dr. Webster
    Neil McCallum
    Neil McCallum
    • First Officer Hemmings
    Ben Carruthers
    Ben Carruthers
    • Ricaldi
    • (as Benito Carruthers)
    Jimmy Hanley
    Jimmy Hanley
    • Patrick, the Bartender
    James Cossins
    James Cossins
    • Nick, Chief Engineer
    Dana Gillespie
    Dana Gillespie
    • Sarah
    Victor Maddern
    Victor Maddern
    • Mate
    Reg Lye
    Reg Lye
    • Helmsman
    Norman Eshley
    Norman Eshley
    • Jonathan, the Prisoner
    Michael Ripper
    • Sea Lawyer
    Donald Sumpter
    Donald Sumpter
    • Sparks, the Radioman
    Alf Joint
    Alf Joint
    • Jason, a Crewman
    Charles Houston
    Charles Houston
    • Braemer, a Crewman
    Shivendra Sinha
    • Hurri Curri
    • Directors
      • Michael Carreras
      • Leslie Norman
    • Writers
      • Michael Carreras
      • Dennis Wheatley
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews77

    5.52.4K
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    Featured reviews

    chris_gaskin123

    Enjoyable Hammer lost world adventure

    I have sometimes confused The Lost Continent to the 1951 dinosaur movie of the same name. It is rather enjoyable though.

    A tramp steamer with a motley collection of passengers and plenty of barrels of a dangerous explosive goes on an expedition and ends on an uncharted island in the Sargasso Sea which seems to be a graveyard for ships. When there, they discover the land populated by giant crabs, a giant scorpion, man-eating seaweed and survivors of the Spanish Inquisition! After several of the party and Inquisition are killed by the monsters and the explosive chemical, they set off and head back to civilization, along with some of the Inquisition.

    Hammer made this movie in 1968 and I taped it when it came on Channel 4 some years ago. Some of the monsters look rather cheap and the movie has a good theme song.

    The cast includes Eric Porter, Suzanna Leigh, Nigel Stock and Dana Gillespie.

    This movie is worth a look at. Enjoyable.

    Rating: 3 and a half stars out of 5.
    Joe Cuneo

    This brought back memories.

    When I saw this as a kid, I thought it was cool, because it had creepy monsters and a theme song that sounded like Andy Williams in some lounge. A group of forlorn passengers on board an unseaworthy steamship, which happens to be carrying high explosives, set sail for South America. They get caught in a hurricane, the crew mutinies, they get in a lifeboat, man-eating seaweed tries to eat the captain, then they find their ship again and go back on board. that's when the fun begins. The evil seaweed pulls the ship into the Sargasso Sea, where it is chow-time for all the creepy sea creatures that attack and devour the ship's passengers. Also on hand are a bunch of Spaniards who think it's the 1500's. They have managed to peacefully co-exist with these slimy creatures. They are ruled by a petulant boy-king who tries to seize the ship and it's supplies. Our heroes must battle the Spaniards and the monsters and get home.
    Cajun-4

    Oddly endearing cinematic mess.

    THE LOST CONTINENT is from a novel by Dennis Wheatley, a prolific writer whose books were a compilation of badly written prose, cardboard characters and often inaccurate details. They also happened to be enormous best sellers.

    The movie captures his style. We are introduced to characters whose personalities change during the movie for apparent reason and plot threads that start promisingly then go nowhere.

    Ben Carruthers is an almost cartoon-like sleazeball and good actors like Eric Porter, Jimmy Hanley and Hildegarde Kneff somehow manage to keep straight faces throughout.

    The music is weird; from the opening crooning of a completely inappropriate title song it seems throughout to have been written for a different movie, having no connection with the mood of the scenes.

    With it's painted sets and general air of cheapness it should have been a complete disaster but somehow in the end it all becomes strangely likeable.

    One for those yahoo evenings with beer and popcorn.
    barnabyrudge

    Weird but mildly intriguing fantasy adventure

    The Lost Continent belongs in the same category as films like The Island (1980) and Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959). It's scientifically implausible, childish but fairly inventive in plotting, and surprisingly enjoyable if you allow yourself to be drawn into the story without clinging too stubbornly to reality.

    In this one, a ship is fleeing from African customs officials when it runs into heavy weather in uncharted waters. The passengers and crew abandon ship, but later they rediscover it, trapped in a peculiar section of sea infested with weeds. This same seaweed world turns out to be the home of a long-lost community of sailors, ruled (somewhat tyranically) by descendants of the Spanish Inquisition.

    Eric Porter plays the lead role with a commendably straight face, getting over a convincing reading the ship's captain. Other members of the cast take things less seriously and seem to have their tongues pretty firmly in their cheeks, but they still give interesting enough performances. The script is a real piece of lunacy, with loads of obvious plot holes and unlikely situations - in many ways you wonder if they wrote it over a drunken weekend - but again there is sufficient imagination to carry the picture through.

    This is undoubtedly a wild, wacky and downright infantile adventure film. But, in spite of its many faults, I like it to a certain degree because it has the courage to ignore its own daftness and run along at an entertaining and lively pace.
    6Coventry

    Odd & Unusual Hammer Voyage

    You know what a typical Hammer production looks like, and "The Lost Continent" definitely doesn't fit that picture. It doesn't feature any old Gothic castles or torture dungeons, any cloaked vampires or mad Barons and it doesn't even star Christopher Lee or Peter Cushing. Surely Hammer also produced other mythologist films and stories revolving on time warps, but "The Lost Continent" is an entire league on its own and the complete opposite to what you expect. Right after watching this movie, you can't even properly determine for yourself whether it's good or bad … just plain weird. "The Lost Continent" is an outrageously plotted but awkwardly coherent film with two entirely different main story lines rolled into one. The titular continent (although it's merely just a small island) actually doesn't get reached until the twenty last minutes and, before that, it is just a suspenseful thriller set on a boat. The ambiance on the ancient and leaky cargo ship is rather tense and sinister. The captain ignores safety warnings and advice from his personnel and the passengers prefer facing a terrible sea storm rather than to return to the coast, even though they have been informed about the potentially explosive cargo. Suffice to say these aren't normal tourists, but people with dark secrets or even fugitive criminals. There are a lot of intrigues going on-board, but the sea is mightier. The captain and his passengers have to abandon ship, but they recover another one slowly drift towards uncharted regions. There they encounter ravenous seaweed and a lot of other things that don't make the least bit of sense, like gigantic crab-creatures, a native tribe under the impression that the Spanish Inquisition isn't finished yet and a local girl with the most gorgeous pair of breasts in the universe. In order to set food on land, they have to put watery pillows on their feet and attach balloons on their shoulders, which forms another very ludicrous sight to behold. "The Lost Continent" is an incredibly silly film, but all cast members perform their roles with a poker straight face, like as if they were starring in the greatest & most budgeted epic adventure in the history of cinema. The effects and monsters designs are extremely dodgy and laughable, but also somewhat charming. The film hasn't got a real ending, but (fortunately?) Hammer never bothered to make a sequel. Crazy little Brit-film, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to open-minded fans of cult cinema.

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    Related interests

    Sam Neill in Jurassic Park (1993)
    Dinosaur Adventure
    Suraj Sharma in Life of Pi (2012)
    Sea Adventure
    Still frame
    Adventure

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Dana Gillespie talked about seeing this film in a theater and why she prefers music to acting. "I do remember when THE LOST CONTINENT (1968) first came out, I went to the premiere. But I thought I'd go and see the film again sort of anonymously in the local ABC in the Fulharn Road. And I went in and sat up the back to watch it and, the moment when I come on with these balloons on my shoulders, the whole audience fell about with laughter. Then I realized there's no point ever being taken seriously in the film world. But you know, if you're born with a particular shape, you're judged on how you look. It's a nuisance, and that's why I've always preferred music for my profession- because it really doesn't matter what color or shape or size you are."
    • Goofs
      Much is made of the importance of the buoyancy balloons when crossing the seaweed. Yet they are not large enough to do much good, they don't float upwards, or need to be tied down when not in use, and near the end of the film they are not needed anyway.
    • Quotes

      [facing down the Grand Inquisitor]

      Capt. Lansen: We're getting out. Now we can noisily, or we can go quietly. The choice is up to you.

      The Grand Inquistor: Where are you going? You're trapped here like the rest of us. There's no escape.

      Capt. Lansen: How do you know? Have you ever tried?

      The Grand Inquistor: Our ancestors tried.

      Capt. Lansen: I'm not talking about them, I'm talking about you.

      The Grand Inquistor: It's God's will!

      Capt. Lansen: It's your will, because you want it this way! You do it in the name of God through this child here because you haven't got the guts to do your own dirty work!

      The Grand Inquistor: You speak bravely of escaping. How are you going to do it?

      Capt. Lansen: I don't know, but we'll try.

      The Grand Inquistor: You will fail!

      Capt. Lansen: Then we'll go on trying, and the day we stop trying we stop living!

    • Alternate versions
      The Warner / Seven Arts US release was pared down by 8 minutes or so, of slightly more adult material and released with a G rating. It would have otherwise gotten the M rating, which later morphed into GP and then PG. When Anchor Bay released the VHS and DVD editions, they found an uncut print and cut the material back into the film. You can notice these scenes as they are of slightly poorer quality than the bulk of the film.
    • Connections
      Featured in The World of Hammer: Lands Before Time (1994)
    • Soundtracks
      Lost Continent
      (over the credit titles)

      Song by Roy Phillips

      Sung by The Peddlers

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • June 19, 1968 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • United Kingdom
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Bestien lauern vor Caracas
    • Filming locations
      • Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, UK(Studio)
    • Production companies
      • Seven Arts Productions
      • Hammer Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 37m(97 min)
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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