Lost Continent (1951)
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This article is dedicated to the actors who starred in the film and the people who were present in the production of it. May they all rest in peace. |
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Lost Continent is a 1951 American science-fiction drama movie starring Cesar Romero, Hillary Brooke, Chick Chandler, Hugh Beaumont and John Hoyt, directed by Sam Newfield and produced by Jack Leewood, Robert L. Lippert, and Sigmund Neufeld.
Plot
An expedition sent to retrieve a rocket that went missing over the South Pacific discovers a plateau inhabited by prehistoric creatures.
Production
Lost Continent was a low-budget film shot in just 11 days from April 13 to late April 1951 at Goldwyn Studios.
Black-and-white footage set atop the prehistoric escarpment was tinted a mint-green color on all theatrical release prints to produce an eerie, other-worldly effect. The general plotline of the film strongly resembles that of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel The Lost World.
Special effects for the film were credited to Augie Lohman, but recent research, as per an article in Filmfax #105 (March 2005), posits that the stop-motion for the pterodactyl, brontosaurs, and triceratops, were contracted by Lippert from Edward Nassour, and were likely the actual uncredited work of Jay Baylor and sculptor Henry Lion, who worked for Nassour during that time. Baylor and Lion were also the likely duo who worked on The Beast of Hollow Mountain.
Why It Sucks
- The film has incredibly poor pacing. For example, there's a scene showing nothing but rock climbing that goes on for 20 minutes (about a quarter of the movie's length), with barely any dialogue, relevance to the plot, or even any music.
- The film was shot in just 11 days, which might explain the film's terrible pacing.
- Despite featuring some big-name actors like Cesar Romero and Hugh Beaumont, the roles they play are incredibly boring.
- The dialogue is bland and generic, sometimes coupled with really unfunny jokes.
- There are some random moments, like one of the characters dreaming about humping an airplane.
- The special effects are not very good, with the dinosaurs having bad stop-motion animation.
The Only Redeeming Quality
- The premise of an expedition team going to an island inhabited by dinosaurs is really cool, but it was wasted and poorly executed.
Reception
Lost Continent saw negative reviews. Jeff Ulmer of digitallyobsessed.com stated, "A good third of the movie is spent showing our characters climbing the same Styrofoam set prop from different angles... The pacing is pretty slow: the first twenty minutes is spent introducing the characters; the next 20 is spent having them climb up a mountain, and then jamming what little action there is into the remaining run time—all of which you would have seen in the trailer."
The film was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 in season 2, where host Joel Robinson was nearly driven to insanity and shouted during the rock climbing sequence. Ever since the episode's airing, "Rock climbing" (a term used by Dr. Forrester to torture Joel with a boring scene that pads the film) has become an expression to describe scenes made for no reason other than to pad out the movie or TV show's length.
MST3K
Lost Continent was featured in a Season 2 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank taunted Joel Robinson before the film began with the words "Rock Climbing.") In a host segment Michael J. Nelson portrayed actor Hugh Beaumont as a member of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
The Lost Continent episode of MST3K was released by Shout! Factory as part of their Volume XVIII series DVD boxed set.
Trivia
- As previously stated, the film was shot in just 11 days.
- Some sequences were tinted green on the original release prints to produce an eerie, other-worldly effect.
Videos
