ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

Doug McClure's fourth Amicus studio's fantasy/adventure isn't a sequel to the first three, all of which were adaptations of Edgar Rice Burroughs stories.

McClure plays a turn-of-the-century explorer who travels via a diving bell to an ocean-floor kingdom ruled by Cyd Charisse.

Younger viewers will be interested in the film's roster of monsters: a giant octopus, a mollusk creature, an eel monster, and several others -- none of which are exceptionally well done, but they're all energetic.

Nice sets and matt paintings create the proper Lost Kingdom mood. Directed by Kevin Connor. Also starring Daniel Massey, Michael Gothard, Peter Gilmore, Shane Rimmer, and Lea Brodie.

Despite the flaws of this and the three previous Amicus studios fantasy/adventure yarns, they still remian the most amnbitious Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptations to date (or Burroughs-like, in this case).



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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]

[Bud Brewster]

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Aaah, that don't seem so great to me . . .
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Oh, wait! I was think of Sid Caesar! Silly me!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Enjoy the original trailer!
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_____ Warlords of Atlantis 1978 theatrical trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Robert (Butch) Day]

This is the full size diving bell from Warlords Of Atlantis (1978):



I think it looks like what Captain Nemo would have actually used for exploring the abyss!
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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[Bud Brewster]

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That's a great idea, Butch!

I can picture this diving bell hanging below the Nautilus on a long cable while the sub hovers above, almost at it's maximum depth. Nemo and a few men would be in communications with the ship, and he would direct the sub when to move forward or backward, up or down.

In this manner, Captain Nemo could slowly cruise along near the sea floor and make notes and drawings to document what he discovered in the abyss.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]

Just watch out for giant squids, who might mistake the bathysphere for food.

P.S. For the nerdy here, a diving bell is typically open-bottomed.
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...or not...

WayneO
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[Robert (Butch) Day]

What the producers of most movies actually mean when they say "diving bell" is "bathysphere" which is NOT open at the bottom. Wikipedia™ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathysphere
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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[Krel]

[Bud Brewster]

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I guess they switched to the bathysphere because with the diving bell the people kept falling out.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]

That's what the clapper is there for; to grab onto.
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...or not...

WayneO
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[Bogmeister]

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_____ Warlords of Atlantis 1978 theatrical trailer


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There were a quartet of sci-fi adventure films in the 2nd half of the seventies which took place in an earlier era, of which this was the last one.

The previous ones were The Land That Time Forgot (75), At the Earth's Core (76) and The People That Time Forgot (77). These also all featured Doug McClure, usually in the lead role, as in this one.

Doug McClure plays an engineer in the year 1898. He and a bumbling colleague (Peter Gilmore) are heading into the Bermuda Triangle on the rigger Texas Rose. Then, going beneath the waves in a revolutionary Bathysphere, they are accidentally swept into a cavernous world beneath the seabed and end up in the fabled City of Atlantis.

McClure also has to deal with mutineers and, of course, strange creatures.

The big sci-fi element here is the backstory created for these Atlanteans, who it is revealed came to Earth inside an asteroid from their dying planet thousands of years ago! Their society is revealed to be somewhat malevolent. The difference between this and the previous films is that the earlier ones were based on works by Edgar Rice Burroughs, while this was an original story by Brian Hayles.

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____________ WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS Review


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Brandon's Cult Movie Reviews: Warlords of Atlantis


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BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[The Spike]

In 1973, British director Kevin Connor made the tidy and undervalued horror film, From Beyond the Grave with Peter Cushing. But it was the film that he made in 1975 that would signal the start of four Z grade creature features that would make him known to the discerning creature feature fan. That film was The Land That Time Forgot, where he was paired with American beefcake actor Doug McClure, and the marker that culminated with Warlords of Atlantis in 1978 was well and truly set.

Here with this, in terms of fun arguably the second best film of the four after At The Earths Core, Connor and screenplay writer Brian Hayles send McClure, Peter Gilmore and a few rough neck sailor types under the ocean, to where the lost cities of Atlantis be. All of which is a plot perfectly designed to create monster mayhem and meetings with an unknown race that speak perfect English! Into the fray comes giant octopus, various reptilian sea monsters, The Mogdaan, Zaargs and an attack by flying piranha critters. Sure the effects are up and down, even shoddy and befitting the Z grade budget, but oh what fun it is.

The cast also contains John Ratzenberger, who would go on to be a household name playing Cliff Clavin in the long running show, Cheers. Another notable name on the cast list is Cyd Charisse who earlier in her career had appeared in Singing In The Rain and Brigadoon. But it's McClure who is always the main attraction in these pictures. Obviously brought in to keep the American audience in mind, it's somewhat inspiring watching Dougie manfully work thru the movie as if it's a masterpiece of the genre. That none of the Connor/McClure collaborations are genre high points is irrelevant, no amount of dopey effects and string assisted creatures can detract from the fact that ridiculous can sometimes be hugely entertaining. And that is exactly what Warlords Of Atlantis is. Now, where did I put my jar of pickles? 7/10
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The quality of mercy is not strnen.

[Gord Green]

The wonderful thing about this movie (and the three ERB adaptations!) is that they maintained the Victorian atmosphere of the original material.

I just wish that the two makers of the adaptations of THE WAR OF THE WORLDS had done so. There is a NEW version coming from the BBC that is going to do just that, and I look forward to seeing that!
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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Bud Brewster]

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Great posts, Spike and Gord! And I love the phrase Spike used in the excerpt below.