ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Before you read the post, watch the trailer!

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And of course, this thread comes with a music soundtrack — an All Sci-Fi exclusive Special Feature!

Click on this link and let YouTube play a seven-minute suite by Russell Garcia from Atlantis, The Lost Continent.

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Enjoy!
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This is the somewhat disappointing next-film-after The Time Machine for producer-director George Pal. It was apparently too soon after that beloved classic (just one year's difference), and it may have been rushed. We were expecting so much after that epic adventure into the future, but what we got was a slap-dash jaunt into the past.

But wait a minute — maybe I'm being too tough on this movie. I didn't see it in 1961 when it first came out at the Loew's Grand Theater, the way I did with The Time Machine, so it didn't become one of those boyhood cinematic adventures that molded and shaped me into the cockeyed optimist I am today. I saw Atlantis, The Lost Continent many years later, after I'd gotten old and jaded and cynical.

You know . . . over twenty-one.

But I'll bet if my father had carted the family off to a drive-in theater like this one —



— on a warm Saturday evening in May of 1961, I'd have camped out in the backseat of our 1957 Ford Fairlane, which looked remarkably like this one, right down to the two-tone green color —



— and gazed over the back seat at the drive-in theater's big screen, alongside my eight-year-old sister, both of us lovin' every minute of this movie.

Rolling scrolls (moved by stop motion) start the movie off with a unique George Pal touch. When it's 1961 and you're thirteen years old, sitting in the backseat of the family car at a drive-in theater, a little stop motion tends to put you in a good mood.





The basic idea of this movie is great: a colorful adventure yarn, set in an ancient land which existed before recorded history — a whole continent we don't have anymore, sitting right out there in the Atlantic, conveniently located to all the finer ports-of-call like London, Paris, and New York — even though they didn't exist yet.





According to legend, Atlantis possessed a rich culture and an advanced technology that was spread throughout the world before it was destroyed by the Big Disaster (whatever it was).

The movie starts with a nice prologue narrated by Paul Frees, who also does the trailer you watched earlier. His little infomercial gives the audience a crash course in the history of Atlantis and all the strange evidence that there might have once been a landmass between Europe and the Americas that would help explain the various animals and plants that couldn't have evolved independently, separated by the vast Atlantic Ocean of today.



Ditto for widely separated cultures that had some remarkable similarities, like the Aztecs and the Egyptians.

]

Mr. Frees' lecture is chuck full of interesting stuff. It was a nice way set the tone for the story.

Some of the scenes showing large crowds of Atlantian citizens are actually borrowed scenes showing large crowds of Roman citizens from various biblical epics — but with creative enhancements!



The triangular pool in the scene below was matted into the middle of a track used for a chariot race in another movie! I wish I knew which film it was from.



One can hardly blame George for trying to save a few bucks. Roman crowds probably work cheaper. But the borrowed shots are indeed spectacular, and they were integrated well with the newer footage — in this case with a skillfully matted section that includes the death ray in the center!



Notice that the death ray is not matted into the scene below, showing the same area from the opposite side. The original scene has a pattern on the platform we can see in the picture below, but it's covered up by the matted section with the death ray in the picture above!

These matted scenes actually seem better done than several scenes in The Time Machine!



There are a few optical effects, but they aren't very impressive, despite the fact that they were supervised by A. Arnold Gillespie, the head of the Forbidden Planet effects team.





But the miniatures and matte shots are a delight to the eye.











Hats off to the excellent design of the "death ray" — both the miniature and the full-sized one. I assume George Pal kept this model like he did the one of the time machine . . . and they both burned up in the house fire that occurred several years later.



Make-up fans will enjoy William Tuttle's designs for the bearmen, bullmen, and dogmen — unfortunate victims of the Atlantian sorcerer/scientists who conduct bizarre experiments using hypnosis and funky drugs on the slaves.

This poor kid is being changed from a handsome, healthy teenager into a low, dirty bull-boy. Apparently there was a live-stock shortage in Atlantis — but they had a surplus of teenagers.



Maybe the school system came up with this as part of their disciplinary program. (As a retired school teacher I must admit that I had days during which I'd have voted for this idea.)

Naturally, the movie's main event is the Big Disaster itself, and I'd be a low, dirty dog-boy if I didn't confess that this part of the movie shines brightly. The climactic destruction of Atlantis goes on for ten glorious minutes, and during the scenes shown below the detailed miniatures are used to good advantage.

I doubt if any young viewers back in 1961 were disappointed by the epic destruction that kicked off when this colossal volcano decided to do what the Atlantians should have seen coming from a long way off (figuratively speaking).

I mean, who could live at the foot of this geological beast and be surprised when it decided to pitch a tantrum?

















After all the real estate finally went down for the count, our heroes and a handful of survivors set out for new lands, and we're treated to one last bit of stop motion with little boats sailing away from where Atlantis once existed, in a scene that symbolized the spreading of the lost continent's culture to all those less educated folks in other lands.







Yep, the more I think about it the more I convinced I am that if I'd volunteered to cut the grass for my father in exchange for a family trip to the drive-in on Saturday night, I might have enjoyed this movie almost as much as The Time Machine — and I could have written a much longer post about it!

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

[Eadie]

Look it up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis,_the_Lost_Continent

The movie was Quo Vadis.

[Bud Brewster]

Thanks, Eadie!

George Pal took this scene —



— and made it into this scene.



Not bad, huh?
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Eadie]

My dad (Pye-rate) says that both of the miniatures were owned by Forry Ackerman. He doesn't know what happen to them when 4SJ passed away.

I'm re-posting the pictures of the flying man.

[Bud Brewster]

[Krel]

Forry Ackerman used to own the submarine also. I remember seeing a photo of it sitting in his backyard in a magazine, back in the 70s.

David.

[larryfoster]

I don't think much of the Atlantis (fish) submarine, but I love the classic Greek-Roman architecture.

If I were to design a palace compound... it would have ancient Egyptian architecture boundaries, surrounding a Greek-Roman core living complex. Modern comfort living areas would be limited to (out of sight) underground.
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Tired of waiting on NASA to adopt Flying Saucer technology! Sick of human political-representative government! I want 1970: COLOSSUS (The Forbin Project) A.I. - as World Control government! Providing flying saucer tech, "For the betterment of man."

[Pow]

The legend of Atlantis is well known & has figured as a plot line in many a tv shows.

Oddly it has not been featured prominently in any major motion pictures such as George Pals' version here.

[Eadie]

[Bud Brewster]

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This wouldn't be the first time Butch pulled our legs when it came to famous people he claimed to know and the valuable collectibles they supposedly gave him.

For example, he told me on the phone several times that Bill Malone gave him one of the blasters from Forbidden Planet. But I later learned from a very reliable source that Mr. Malone is not that generous, nor is he actually acquainted with Butch.

In my most recent phone conversation with Butch he told me he was currently being treated for a medical condition which affected his judgement, and it has frequently caused him to make inaccurate statements here on All Sci-Fi.

He apologized for the statements he's made here that later turned out to be untrue.

I hope the recent treatments he's received have helped.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Gord Green]

I DID see this in '61 and loved it! Being 13 the special effects were seamless to my untrained eye and greatly enhanced the story.

I also thought the fish-like submarine was reminiscent of the Nautilus from 2000 Leagues under the sea, but in a smaller scale.

This movie encouraged me to go to the library and find an original first printing of Ignatius Donnelly's ATLANTIS, THE ANTEDILUVIAN CONTINENT. Because of it's rareness it could not be taken out, so I sat there for hours reading and taking in the scent only real old books have. I felt myself transported , remembering the scenes from Pal's film, to an age undreamed of.

Heady stuff to a 13 year old and thanks to having seen this film!

Ah, the power of celluloid!

[Gord Green]

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This film also had a Dell comic book adaptation. I believe I read this before I saw the movie and enjoyed it tremendously!

Anyone have scans of the comic? I'd love to see them!

[Bud Brewster]

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Yep, these guys do! Just click here.

I might get around to posting all the pages from this one too, but I'm not as fond of this movie as I am of Mysterious Island and Jason and the Argonauts, so it might be awhile.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Eadie]

I know this doesn't belong here, but I couldn't resist.

[Bud Brewster]

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Funny cartoon, Eadie! Thanks!

And of course it belongs here! I mean, it's not This Feline Earth, right? Or The Taby from Another World.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)