Jonatwork wrote:
Another film I love for the strangeness of its setting. Makes a great double-feature with ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE.
I used to watch those two together a lot, I totally agree. Their plots, of course, are not dissimilar. They both have the ship of fools getting shipwrecked thang goin' on. Wasn't Uncharted Seas by Dennis Wheatley which Lost Continent was very loosely based on inspired by William Hope Hodgson's writing, which Matango was based on (Voice in the Night)?

I don't care what people say, I love Hammer's Lost Continent. It's very much what Sayonara Jupiter or Prophecies of Nostradamus was to Toho: a huge freakin' mess, but a gloriously fun one. It's such a strange yet aesthetically pleasing work, from the weird, cocktail loungy music and songs by The Peddlers to the absolutely visually stunning (especially for 1968) art direction and just the fact that all the British actors keep a completely straight face at all times. Dana Gillespie is just luscious to boot. The fake looking mechanical critters (created by Robert Mattey I believe of 20,000 Leagues and Jaws fame) are an eye sore, but other than that the film's production values easily rival Hollywood's. It scared the hell out of me as a little kid. I imagine if Hammer had made a version of King Kong like they wanted to I bet it would have looked a lot like this.