The Land That Time Forgot (1974)

 

In the mid Seventies a team headed by Amicus studios, at that time known for horror films, dipped their toes in the waters of fantasy adventure. They adapted a trio of stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs on what were essentially shoestring budgets and aimed at a juvenile audience. The Land That Time Forgot was the first yet is a curious film quite unlike the ones that followed which leaned further into either the fantastical or mythical. Evolution is this movie’s theme and while it doesn’t come up with any answers, it does pose some interesting questions. 

 

In tone it reminds me of Silent Running, another `film in disguise` which is more cerebral than it may appear at first. Not quite what you’d expect from film producers Amicus and having watched At The Earth’s Core first made by the same team from another Edgar Rice Burroughs novel I was thinking this would be similar yet its is quite different. Within ten minutes of At The Earth’s Core, Doug McClure is being chased by a giant chicken bird thing. Here, he is taking over a Russian submarine by stealth. The difference is striking.

Its 1916 and initially we spend time with a German U boat as it fires at and sinks a ship. Then we meet some survivors of the attack- two civilians, Bowen Taylor and Lisa Clayton ,and also a handful of soldiers left. When the German sub surfaces this party successfully overcomes the boat and take over. There then follows a cat and mouse game as the Germans win the submarine back only for Taylor and co to escape again. As the vessel’s ownership changes hands they are drifting further and further South except it is getting colder. Soon they realise working together is the only way to ensure they can escape their predicament.

The film has an unexpected moody ambience from the start. We see a container being hurled over a tall cliff edge into the water and underneath the opening credits it bobs its way around the ocean till someone finds and opens it. Penned by Bowen Taylor the manuscript inside forms an occasional narration though this device is not overused.  The first half hour or so plays out like a standard war film. Shot with a muted colour palette and totally devoid of incidental music it is not at all what I expected. It would be a stretch to call it gritty but its certainly concentrated and focussed on realism while the cinematography is muted and shadowy.  Kevin Connor’s direction keeps everything as claustrophobic as a submarine set adventure would be using a full size replica of the vessel as it would have been. The performances too are dialled down and professional. It takes until a good half hour before anything vaguely fantastical happens by which time it feels odd which works in the film’s favour. The incidental music only kicks in when we first sight the island of Caprona a long rumoured hidden place with its own microclimate.

Form hereon in the film does become a more standard adventure caper yet Connor’s intricate direction ensures the early tense mood is mostly maintained.  One massive advantage the production has – which the subsequent At The Earth’s Core did not- is being able to film all the island material on location. It may well have been largely in England- and some of it was shot in a clay pit- but its made to appear suitably exotic. In particular Connor shoots the later jungle material in covert style taking advantage of the location’s flora and fauna and manages to set off an impressive display of pyrotechnics at the end. Considering the budget was $250,000, there is a lot of creative invention at play that gives the impression much more money was spent.  

A process called Vista Vision was used to shoot the forest backgrounds which were then mixed with creatures. The dinosaurs we see are hand puppets that are then mixed with the live action. In themselves they are amongst the better attempts at this kind of thing form the Seventies being able to move more like actual animals.  While sharp, modern tv screens can easily pick out the divide between the two elements for a cinema or tv audience fifty years ago I am sure they looked as fantastic as Jurassic Park did to later generations. Very effective sound effects go a long way too with appropriate roaring and screeching aplenty. 

If their fights are a little bit arbitrary - every dino film seems to include a T Rex versus Triceratops battle – they are not really the main driver of the story.  Perhaps the most impressive feat are the pterodactyls in which full sized models fly overhead and even pick people up. I’m not sure if they are stunt people or just dummies but even so it is rendered really well. All the way through the danger of the place is put across very strongly. The climax in which the survivors are beset by dinosaurs, cave men and an active volcano is nothing short of spectacular with the production utilising lots of real fire and special effects explosions cooking up a real climax.

The film’s narrative also has more than you would expect. I’ve seen lots of movies like this where giant creatures stomp about, and the human characters try to survive and that’s all. Here the island seems to be home to different stages of evolution. Handily the sole female character Lisa is a biologist and her expertise, along with the unexpectedly academic German commander Von Schoenvorts , allows them to realise what is happened. Some viewers may have been disappointed that we don’t get an explanation as to how this is happening clearly setting up for a sequel. Its definitely an intriguing idea meaning that the human primitives we meet are divided into different tribes each representing evolutionary stages. One of them is adopted by the camp and then is hypnotically drawn to the next tribe suggesting this is not just different stages of evolution in the same place but a living, breathing eco system developing at its own pace.

The storyline is complemented by steely performances keeping in tune with the opening segment. This suits the somewhat grim faced Doug McClure who always looks like he doesn’t really want to be making these films and Susan Penhaligon’s earnest if over expositional Lisa Clayton. The most interesting role is that of U boat commander Von Schoenvorts who displays an unexpected interest in nature and art while also casually being fine with torpedoing  ships. I was surprised to note in the credit that John McEnery's voice was overdubbed by Anton Differing however this does not default from a layered performance. The closest that the production comes to a hissable villain is Anthony Ainley’s Dietz. Later to become the Eighties version of The Master in Doctor Who, there are early signs here of his more theatrical flourishes that sometimes jar with the other actors while his character’s later actions seem unlikely even though they facilitate further jeopardy at the climax. Keith Barron is a stalwart presence as the practical and implacable John Bradley while Bobby Parr is able to give the primitive character Ahm some likeable variation.

Burroughs’ original story, initially called The Lost U Boat- was published as the first of a three part serial in Blue Book magazine in 1918 with a novelisation in 1924.  This part of the story is the first of a trilogy revolving around the island of Caprona of which the others are The People That Time Forgot and Out of Time’s Abyss. Only the former was adapted for a film before Amicus went out of business. This adaptation was penned by James Cawthorn and Michael Moorcock and took sixteen weeks to film starting in February 1974. It was released in cinemas on 29 November that year. The film fared well in the UK though less so in the US despite McClure’s presence. In 2009 a somewhat looser adaptation of the story- set in the present day and featuring a cruise boat blown off course and discovering the island -  was released.

The marketing of the film did not reflect at all the mood of the first half hour; in some ways the film feels ahead of its time. Back in the Seventies this sort of movie was solely pegged as being for kids so its more philosophical notes are welcome. Kids in the Seventies were not as undemanding as some film makers seemed to think. Later Jurassic Park is able to be introduce more narrative depth to complement the creature action and enabled this type of film to be a little more credible to appear in. Even so years later Susan Penhaligon spoke about how pivotal the film was for the commercial side of her career raising her profile enough to be offered one of her best known roles in Bouquet of Barbed Wire.

I would definitely categorize The Land That Time Forgot as one of the better Seventies genre films which makes extra effort in every department to have more substance than you would expect and is also a very enjoyable action film.