''The Land That Time Forgot'' is a 1974 British-American

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

fantasy film Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered a form of speculative fiction alongside science fiction f ...

directed by Kevin Connor and written by

Michael Moorcock Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, best-known for science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has work ...

and James Cawthorn, based upon the 1918 novel '' The Land That Time Forgot'' by

Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American author, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best-known for creating the characters Tarzan and John Carter, he ...

. It stars

Doug McClure Douglas Osborne McClure (May 11, 1935February 5, 1995) was an American actor whose career in film and television extended from the 1950s to the 1990s. He is best known for his role as the cowboy Trampas during the entire run from 1962 to 1971 o ...

John McEnery John McEnery (1 November 1943 – 12 April 2019) was an English actor and writer. Born in Birmingham, he trained (1962–1964) at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, playing, among others, Mosca in Ben Jonson's ''Volpone'' and Gaveston ...

Keith Barron Keith Barron (8 August 1934 – 15 November 2017) was an English actor and television presenter who appeared in films and on television from 1961 until 2017. His television roles included the police drama ''The Odd Man'', the sitcom ''Duty Free ...

Susan Penhaligon Susan Penhaligon (born 3 July 1949) is a British actress and writer known for her role in the drama series ''Bouquet of Barbed Wire'' (1976), and for playing Helen Barker in the sitcom '' A Fine Romance'' (1981–1984). She appeared in the so ...

Anthony Ainley Anthony Ainley (20 August 1932 – 3 May 2004) was an English actor. He was the fourth actor to portray The Master (Doctor Who), the Master in ''Doctor Who''. Early life Ainley was born in Stanmore, Middlesex, the son of the actor Henry Ainle ...

and

Declan Mulholland Thomas Declan Mulholland (6 December 1932 – 29 June 1999) was a Northern Irish character actor of film and television. He is known for his multiple appearances in ''Doctor Who'' and for his deleted portrayal of Jabba the Hutt in ''Star Wars'' ...

Plot

A bottle with a manuscript inside it is thrown into the sea. It floats to the coast of England, where a sailor discovers the bottle and opens it to read the manuscript. Bowen Tyler narrates. During World War I, Bowen Tyler and Lisa Clayton are passengers on the ship torpedoed by Captain von Schoenvorts. Along with a few surviving British officers, Tyler persuades the other men to take over the surfacing submarine, this being their only chance for survival. After they confront the Germans on the deck, a fight ensues, and they seize the German U-boat. Tyler takes command, hoping to sail to a British port. Von Schoenvorts has his crew steer toward a safe sea port, but German officer Dietz breaks loose and smashes the sub's radio. Off course and running out of fuel in the

South Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

, the U-boat and its crew happen across an uncharted subcontinent called Caprona, a fantastical land of lush vegetation where

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

s still roam, co-existing with primitive man. There are also deposits of

crude oil Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...

. If the Germans and British work together, the oil can be refined and enable their escape from the island. Tyler and von Schoenvorts agree to work together. Tyler discovers the secret of Caprona: individuals evolve not through

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charle ...

but by migrating northward across the island. With the submarine working again, a sudden outbreak of volcanic eruptions occurs across the island. Dietz starts a mutiny, shoots Captain von Schoenvorts, and takes command. He abandons Tyler and Clayton in Caprona in an attempt to escape, but the U-boat cannot function in the boiling waters, and the crew is killed as it sinks. Tyler and Clayton are stranded, and being the only survivors of their group, are forced to move northward. Tyler throws the bottle with the manuscript inside it that's seen at the beginning of the film.

Cast

as Bowen Tyler *

as Captain Friedrich Von Schoenvorts *

as Lisa Clayton *

as John Bradley *

as Lt. Dietz *

Godfrey James Godfrey James (16 April 1931 – 29 October 2019) was an English actor. His film appearances include: '' Séance on a Wet Afternoon'' (1964), ''Witchfinder General'' (1968), '' The Oblong Box'' (1969), ''Cry of the Banshee'' (1970), ''The Blood ...

as Borg *

as Olson *

Roy Holder Roy Trevor Holder (15 June 1946 – 9 November 2021) was an English film and television actor who appeared in various programmes including '' Ace of Wands'', ''Z-Cars'', '' Spearhead'', the ''Doctor Who'' serial ''The Caves of Androzani''. His f ...

as Plesser *

Andrew McCulloch Andrew McCulloch may refer to: *Andrew McCulloch (civil engineer) (1864–1945), Chief Engineer of the Kettle Valley Railway in Canada *Sir Andrew McCulloch (British Army officer) (1876–1960), commander of 52nd Lowland Division from 1934&ndas ...

as Sinclair *

Ron Pember Ronald Henry Pember (11 April 1934 – 8 March 2022) was an English actor, stage director and dramatist. In a career stretching over thirty years, he was a character actor in British television productions in the 1970s – 1980s, usually in bi ...

as Jones * Brian Hall as Schwartz * Peter Sproule as Hindle * Steve James as First Sto-Lu

Production

Amicus originally wanted to cast Doug McClure in the lead, but he refused, so they signed

Stuart Whitman Stuart Maxwell Whitman (February 1, 1928 – March 16, 2020) was an American actor, known for his lengthy career in film and television. Whitman was born in San Francisco and raised in New York until the age of 12, when his family relocated to ...

. Then Samuel Z. Arkoff of

American International Pictures American International Pictures (AIP) is an American motion picture production label of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing fi ...

came on board as co-financers, providing the bulk of the budget, but would only make the film if McClure was cast. He changed his mind and agreed to do the film.Mark McGee, ''Faster and Furiouser: The Revised and Fattened Fable of American International Pictures'', McFarland, 1996 p. 293 Kevin Connor said: "Doug was a great asset. In fight scenes he was especially good due to his hours of American TV action films. He knew exactly where the camera was at all times and threw punches precisely where the effect would work for the screen. He was always co-operative and came up with many ideas." Shooting began in February 1974 and lasted 16 weeks.

Shepperton Studios Shepperton Studios is a film studio located in Shepperton, Surrey, England, with a history dating back to 1931. It is now part of the Pinewood Studios Group. During its early existence, the studio was branded as Sound City (not to be confused w ...

were used for filming, whilst some of the scenes set in the landscapes of Caprona were filmed in a disused claypit in

Reading, Berkshire Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, Southeast England, southeast England. Located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the rivers River Thames, Thames and River Kennet, Kennet, the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 mot ...

. Kevin Connor recalled: "The reason we went for the hand puppets was for a more fluid look. Roger Dicken, who created the dinosaurs did such fine details and had the movement down so well that we went with him and used that technique. Also, we developed the use of a small VistaVision camera to shoot the dinosaur back-ground plates which gave us great quality because the exposed frame is twice the size of a normal 35mm. Everything was shot front projection as well." The U-boat and ships were models and the dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals were puppets, hand-held or on strings rather than

stop motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

. The speaking part of Von Schoenvorts was later dubbed in post-production by German-born actor

Anton Diffring Anton Diffring (born Alfred Pollack, 20 October 1916 – 19 May 1989) was a German-born character actor who had an extensive career in the United Kingdom from the 1940s to the 1980s, latterly appearing in international films. He appeared in ove ...

. Amicus was to make two more Burroughs adaptations, '' The People That Time Forgot'' (1977), a direct sequel to this film starring

Patrick Wayne Patrick John Morrison (born July 15, 1939), better known by his stage name Patrick Wayne, is an American actor. He is the second son of movie star John Wayne and his first wife, Josephine Alicia Saenz. He made over 40 films, including eleven w ...

, Sarah Douglas and McClure in an appearance midway towards the end, and '' At the Earth's Core'' (1976), with McClure (in a different role),

Peter Cushing Peter Wilton Cushing (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was an English actor. His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than 100 films, as well as many television, stage, and radio roles. He achieved recognition ...

, and

Caroline Munro Caroline Munro (born 16 January 1949)McFarlane, Brian (28 February 2014). ''The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth edition''. Oxford University Press. p. 538; is an English actress, model and singer known for her many appearances in horror, ...

. All three films were distributed in the United States by

Reception

Critics and audiences gave ''The Land That Time Forgot'' mixed reviews, earning the film a

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

approval rating of 50%. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' described the film is "an initially agreeable picture about the discovery of a mystery realm where various stages of evolution coexist," but "the early virtues of ''Land'' collapse once the island is reached and the traffic jam in artificial monsters develops."

Box office

The film was the 14th biggest hit at the British box office in 1975.

Comic book adaptation

A comic book adaptation of the film appeared in '' Marvel Movie Premiere'', a

one-shot One shot may refer to: Film and television * One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so * ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake * ''One Shot'' (2 ...

black-and-white magazine published by Marvel Comics in September 1975. It was written by

Marv Wolfman Marvin Arthur Wolfman (born May 13, 1946) is an American comic book and novelization writer. He worked on Marvel Comics's ''The Tomb of Dracula'', for which he and artist Gene Colan created the vampire-slayer Blade, and DC Comics's '' The New Te ...

and drawn by

Sonny Trinidad Celso L. "Sonny" Trinidad (died November 23, 2009) was a Filipino comics artist who worked in the Filipino and American comic book industries. In the U.S., he is mostly known for his work for Marvel Comics in the mid–1970s. Career Trinidad bega ...

References

External links

* * * * *
''The Land That Time Forgot''
at

BFI Screenonline Screenonline is a website about the history of British film, television and social history as documented by film and television. The project has been developed by the British Film Institute and funded by a £1.2 million grant from the National Lot ...

''The Land That Time Forgot''
at the

Movie Review Query Engine The Movie Review Query Engine also known as MRQE, is an online index of movie reviews. Registered users are able to access movie-specific forums and provide their own reviews. The site aggregates reviews, news, interviews, and other material assoc ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Land That Time Forgot (1974 film), The 1974 films 1970s fantasy adventure films British fantasy adventure films American International Pictures films Amicus Productions films Caspak trilogy Films about dinosaurs Films adapted into comics Films based on American novels Films based on fantasy novels Films based on works by Edgar Rice Burroughs Films based on science fiction novels Films directed by Kevin Connor Films scored by Douglas Gamley Films set on islands Films set in the Atlantic Ocean Films shot at Shepperton Studios Films shot in Berkshire Lost world films Prehistoric people in popular culture World War I submarine films 1970s English-language films 1970s British films