The Lost Continent ** (1968, Eric Porter, Hildegard Knef, Suzanna Leigh, Tony Beckley, James Cossins) – Classic Movie Review 6941

Writer-producer-director Michael Carreras’s preposterous but fairly amusing 1968 British Hammer Films fantasy adventure film is based on Dennis Wheatley’s 1938 novel Uncharted Seas.

Eric Porter stars as Captain Lansen, whose dilapidated tramp steamer boat, packed with a full cargo of crazy people and explosives they should not have on board, sails through uncharted seas to who knows where to find who knows what. They are shipwrecked in a terrible tempest, come across the Spanish Inquisition for one thing, crab monsters for a second and man-eating seaweed for another.

The pukka late-Sixties British cast looks unperturbed by it all, though perhaps they should be. Paul Beeson’s Technicolor cinematography and Arthur Lawson’s set designs make it look uncommonly good. As screen-writer, Carreras makes a fair job of his adaptation of Dennis Wheatley’s novel Uncharted Seas, though he credits himself under the pseudonym of as Michael Nash. Leslie Norman started the direction, but he was soon replaced by Carreras.

Also in the cast are Hildegard Knef as Eva Peters, Suzanna Leigh as Unity Webster, Tony Beckley as Harry Tyler, Nigel Stock as Dr Webster, Neil McCallum as First Officer Hemmings, Ben [Benito] Carruthers as Ricaldi, Jimmy Hanley as bartender Patrick, James Cossins as chief engineer Nick, Dana Gillespie as Sarah, Darryl Read as El Supremo, Victor Maddern as the mate, Reg Lye as the helmsman, Norman Eshley as Jonathan, Michael Ripper as the sea lawyer, Donald Sumpter, Alf Joint, Charles Houston, Eddie Powell and Frank Hayden.

The music is by Gerard Schürmann and title song is by The Peddlers. Benjamin Frankel wrote the film’s original score but it was rejected by musical director Philip Martell, who commissioned Gerard Schürmann to write a new one. The special effects are by Cliff Richardson and Robert A Mattey.

It is shot at Elstree Studios, where a 175,000 gallon tank was built to film the sea scenes.

X rated when released, it follows in Hammer’s popular tradition of One Million Years BC.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6941

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