ATLANTIS, THE LOST CONTINENT

Following upon the heels of the critical and commercial success of THE TIME MACHINE (1960), the powers-that-be at MGM desperately wanted producer/director George Pal to do another film as quickly as possible. Given enough time, a large enough budget and, most importantly, a decent script to work with, Pal could have produced a film comparable to THE TIME MACHINE. But Pal didn't have those three key ingredients at his disposal, which resulted in ATLANTIS, THE LOST CONTINENT, which is considered by many to be Pal's worst film as a director. Remember, he was only the producer of DOC SAVAGE: THE MAN OF BRONZE.

ATLANTIS plays like any one of dozens of other low-budget sword and sandal films filling early '60s movie screens. It's colorful enough with some occasional flashes of imagination but it's also deadly dull with a cast of no-name actors (some of which are obviously dubbed despite this being an American production). There's decent miniature, model and matte work but the film relies heavily on lots of footage from bigger and better historical epic films (I'm looking at you QUO VADIS (1951)).

 Sal Ponti (aka Anthony Hall but a stiff by any name) stars as Demetrius, a Greek fisherman who rescues Atlantean princess Antillia (the lovely Joyce Taylor) from a shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea. They soon set sail for her home continent of Atlantis where Demetrius becomes a slave. He eventually leads a revolt of the imprisoned men from many other lands and destroys the entire continent in a spectacular climax. There's a sub-plot about turning men into animal-headed beasts (a steal from ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932)) that goes nowhere. The villains of the piece, Zaren (John Dall) and a mad surgeon (Berry Kroeger) are more than slightly effeminate and pose no real threat. You know a film's in trouble when Edward (GET SMART) Platt is the sole voice of reason in the story. Platt plays Azar, the High Priest, who has come to believe in the existence of one, true God rather than the many gods worshiped by the Atlanteans.

If you look quickly, you'll spot control panels from FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956) in the background of a laboratory. Veteran voice actor Paul Frees does triple duty as the film's narrator and the speaking voices for Demetrius's father and King Cronus (Edgar Stehli). The giant crystalline death ray projector is a well-designed prop as is the fish-shaped submarine used by the Atlanteans. 




A note about that submarine. In January, 1994, I had the honor of visiting the legendary Forrest J. Ackerman at the fabled "Ackermansion" in Los Angeles. Along for the ride were my buddies Kelly Greene and Walter Hausner, along with "Kookie" Kent Deluga and a couple of other "monster kids" whose names I don't recall. Forry met us at the front gate of his house and led us down a narrow walkway along the side that ended on a small patio. There on the patio was the submarine pictured above, a full size prop about six feet in length if I recall correctly. Forry asked us if anyone could identify the film it was from and only one of us knew (sadly, it wasn't me). The submarine from ATLANTIS THE LOST CONTINENT was the first piece of fantasy film memorabilia I saw (other than Forry himself) on that memorable day. I'll relate the full story of our visit to Forry's at a future date. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, ATLANTIS THE LOST CONTINENT is worth seeing by only the most devoted genre enthusiasts. Pal could and did make much better films than this one.