Lost Continent

source: Lost Continent

Trailer—Lost Continent

Lost Continent

Saw this when I was a kid. It wasn't the monsters that interested me though. The musical score is tremendous. Why was such an elaborate work put in this film? Also a very good cast. All went on to TV series on their own. If you enjoy the 50s monster movies, here's a good choice for a late night.

Half this movie consists of a bunch of guys rock-climbing up the side of a mountain at the top of which they shall meet some drawings of giant lizards that look like dinosaurs. At least that's what I think they found. This is a very early fifties entry in the science fiction genre, and not one of the best. Filmed on the (very) cheap by the legendarily prolific Sam Newfield, it features a once in a lifetime cast that makes it worth watching: Cesar Romero, Hugh Beaumont, Acquanetta, Sid Melton, John Hoyt and Whit Bissell. For those of us who grew up with most of these actors on television or in the movies this is a particularly satisfying cinematic equivelant of old home week, and was even forty years ago.

A decent cast is wasted in this low-budget film, hastily put together to compete with "Rocketship X-M", which wasn't all that good of a movie either. However, that movie at least attempts to convey some profound message, this film is satisfied with just being a typical "action" film. Unfortunately, very little action actually occurs as approximately two-thirds of the film is devoted to a search party making slow progress up a mountain. Although, it should be noted that the film actually tries to avoid stereotypes with the German/Russian guy. For that, I think, the film deserves a little praise.

"Lost Continent" is one of the toughest cinematic experiences I have had for quite some time. I'm pretty sure even audiences way back in 1951 found it hard to sit through. There's nothing wrong with the basic premise (stumbling across a previously unknown prehistoric world), even though it's been done many times before. However, it's this particular execution that kills the movie. It is ridiculously padded out - there's endless talk before the protagonists start their journey, and once the journey starts, it takes an unbelievable amount of time before they really get to see the prehistoric world, mostly because (as others here have mentioned) there is a rock climbing sequence that doesn't know when to quit. Eventually we get to see some dinosaurs, but it's not worth the wait - there are only a handful of (short) special effect sequences depicting the dinosaurs, and the stop-motion effects portraying them are kind of amateurish. This is one movie that should have been lost.

A bona fide atomic age film. A group of military men and scientists go looking for a missing rocket, soon find themselves making their way up onto a mountain where dinosaurs still roam. Alright, so it's The Lost World with an atomic rocket, but the characters are well-thought-out, the film is highly entertaining, the green tint was an original idea and there are interesting and thought-provoking pieces of atomic age tension. The bonus is that this film differs from a lot of monster movies of the fifties in that the dinosaurs are stop-motion rather than photo-enlarged lizards. Well worth seeing if you're a fan of dinosaur films, or sci-fi in general.

I usually enjoy movies where scientists with guns find some lost world where dinosaurs exist.I have seen a ton of them and they are usually good.This is the exact opposite.The most exciting thing about this movie is that Hugh Beaumont is in it, another old sitcom star that I have never seen in a movie.But his barely noticeable appearance is not enough to save this movie.It's literally so boring that I bet most people won't be able to make it to when they get to the "Lost Continent".There's so much non-sense,unintelligible babble and straight out lying that it's not easy to understand what's going on.Don't waste your time with this.Go watch it done right in The Land Unknown.