Among fans there are usually folks who share your enthusiasm for some of the less-than-classic films you watch. Then there are those films that you may love but everyone else will say … after a long pause … "It's just you." Atlantis, The Lost Continent is one of those films.  I love it but Bill Warren's take on the film in Keep Watching the Skies is pretty accurate. Now let's travel back in time to the early 1960s when the airwaves — and theaters — were full of Italian "Sword and Sandal" movies (Peplum they are called … the name derives from the Greek for tunic) and we kids watched a ton of 'em. If someone could find and post the MAD magazine Dave Berg (he did the comics "The Lighter Side of …") strip dealing with little kids talking about those films I'd really appreciate it.

Anyway we'd watch these flicks to see  the hot Euro babes (honestly … we did … it was years later that, as an adult, I re-watched a couple and was genuinely shocked at how homoerotic they were) and hope to God there would be some fantasy element. You can imagine how we swooned when Jason and the Argonauts hit the screens. So the George Pal film Atlantis, The Lost Continent was the best damned Peplum ever made if you were a kid of the right age and if you watched a ton O' Peplum. If not then it's like poor Bill Warren seeing the Irwin Allen Lost World at 17 years of age and not at age 8 or 9; no enjoyment there for Bill. Me? Well … it just hit me right.

As an adult (and before the flicks were out on video to be examined in detail) I noticed that almost all the big scenes were taken from the MGM super production Quo Vadis and I recognized most of the props from other MGM films … I watched way too many of the historical spectacle films. The official budget of $1.5 million is such a steaming crock … it is such a cheap film … but it officially was a big loss for MGM. It is not a good movie.  The leads are horrible and Joyce Taylor was both an appalling character and devoid of any appeal. It was a shock to see her in the MGM film Ring of Fire and in that film she's smokin' hot …  like a brunette Yvette Vickers … and the film is pretty darned good too. Great optical effects and miniatures.
 
http://image.toutlecine.com/photos/a/t/l/atlantis-terre-englouti-ii08-g.jpg  http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_jDu9ic32kg8/Sw5Y9ROCwaI/AAAAAAAACOQ/lse_KhQi0SE/s1600/000.jpg
Joyce in the Krell lab … er … Atlantis, The Lost Continent  on the left and in Ring of Fire on the right.

The script is derivative as hell and even as a kid I hated that damned "if someone is a monotheist he's almost a Christian and therefore good" trope irritated me. There was an Australian website that trashes this film, with some wit, by pointing out that it has the silliest headgear ever worn by a cast in a film. Alas I've had to update since that collage is no longer available. Everyone does love the submarine.
http://rudb.org/img/2010_10/i4cb5d29e1b466.jpghttp://fotos.subefotos.com/1932936808e023f0eb48cb345eed971eo.jpghttp://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/images/reviews/190/1285966290_9.jpghttp://img573.imageshack.us/img573/5669/vlcsnap166988.jpg
 Odd headgear (nice kippah but what was Berry Kroeger's Torah portion for his bar mitzvah?) and the totally cool submarine..

There is an episode of the Hercules TV show that is set in the George Pal version of Atlantis that I must seek out. Apparently it's a season three episode ("Atlantis").
Atlantis_crystal_wave.jpg  http://images.tvrage.com/screencaps/20/3835/78093.jpg  Atlantis_14.jpg  Atlantis_gliders.jpg


opticalguy1954@yahoo.com (Spencer Gill)
Last Edited By: opticalguy Jun 2 13 11:14 AM. Edited 6 times.