The People That Time Forgot (1977)

 A direct sequel to 1974’s The Land That Time Forgot though for some reason the same team made At The Earth’s Core in between which may have confused cinema goers at the time. The film sees a friend of the missing Bowen Taylor leading an expedition to find him though in not as engaging fashion as the first film. This was actually the final film produced by the Amicus studio which had closed by the time it was released and its fair to say it is nowhere near as exciting as this poster makes it seem...

 

It's now 1919 and Major Ben McBride (Patrick Wayne) accompanied by a British naval survey ship are following the information in that cask that Taylor threw into the sea at the end of the earlier film. As the title suggests there is something of a pivot away from dinosaurs this time and when they do appear, save for some pesky pterodactyls, they are somewhat cursory sidelines from the main story. Perhaps the experience of the less than successful dinosaurs in At The Earth’s Core made the filmmakers more cautious.

It’s a shame that the opening shot betrays the extensive amount of miniature model work used in the early section of the film- both the ship and some scenes of the biplane the team use to get over icy mountaintops rely so heavily on this format which to be fair probably looked more impressive at the time. Now they look as tiny as they really are. In fact there is something of a tv series look to this film though luckily they can still deploy those very effective pterodactyls whose real life presence – they are rendered full size, not model shots- gives the otherwise slow first section of the film a kick. Other dinosaurs are stop motion models which look less than convincing though helpfully director Kevin Connor avoids too many lingering shots. The full size animals we encounter later in some caves work much better simply because you can see they are there. One armoured animal barges about and because its not a model shot, the actors can really hit it. I’m not sure what its supposed to be though.

Even by the standards of this type of film matters take a really long time to get going and I wonder if kids in the Seventies became restless at the endless trudging through hills and forests. They may not have appreciated the stilted banter either as McBride and photographer Charlotte Cunnigham (a lively Sarah Douglas) swap good natured barbs while failing to spark any on screen chemistry. Mind you what actor would be inspired by such dialogue?

More interesting supporting characters add some ballast to this expedition- mechanic Hogan played by the versatile Shane Rummer has most of his scenes on his own as he tries to fix the downed plane. Talking to himself, he is actually more interesting  than the dialogue other characters are sharing elsewhere. Thorley Walters as palaeontologist Norfolk seems to be the only one of the others to express real surprise and interest in the natural wonders they are seeing. He is the archetypal slightly eccentric but very British scientist that seemed compulsory for this type of film. And Tony Britton is a most unruffled Captain as you’ve ever seen, it’s a shame he has to stay on the ship.

Eventually- and it does seem a really long time- the party meets Ajor a cave girl who handily speaks English that Taylor taught her and is played by Dana Gillespie wearing the briefest of costumes. This is where the plot goes a bit bonkers but also becomes interesting. They are all captured by Samurai like warriors called the Nargas, whose visual aesthetic is strong and really well shot by Kevin Connor who excels when dealing with practical scenes. He shoots atmospherically around some interesting cave sets; the action pushes off and suddenly the final half hour becomes much more exciting. Naturally it is the women that the Nargas want to sacrifice; on this occasion into a volcano.

How did the Nargas manage to fashion such elaborate armour and robes? We don’t ask that; in fact nobody really asks much. Nowadays we complain about exposition heavy fantasy material but this is a film that could do with some more explanations  as it becomes increasingly heightened. It’s here we are reacquainted with Tyler now sporting a woolly beard and hiding behind a lot of skeletons. How long has he been in there? We don’t really know but Doug McClure livens up the movie almost instantly, throwing punches and helping the others escape. He may not last long – about fifteen minutes later he’s dead- but he does kickstart the film,

The Nargas’s leader Sabballa is a large presence, painted green and played by Milton Reaid in a manner that suggested he was loving strutting around being in charge. The tribe worship a volcano and the film’s most original idea is that it is somehow alive and at the end chases them across the landscape. It might sound a bit odd but it actually works really well with more explosions than I think I’ve seen outside a war film as the group race across the barren countryside pursued by seemingly endless, powerful bangs and plumes of fire. It gives the film an exciting, noisy climax it hasn’t really earned.

Despite being a sequel this film was omitted from subsequent physical releases drawing together what we might call the Doug and Dinosaurs movies and is not as fondly remembered as its predecessors. At times it plays like the leftovers from its two predecessors but is an example of the sort of material school kids watched in the summer holidays back in the Seventies.