ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Today we offer High Adventure! (On a low budget,)

There are wo adventures in the jungle-filled backlot sets pf Darkest Hollywood, and one desert adventure in which the lost continent of Atlantis is discovered.

Nice trick, eh?

If these treacherous journey’s appeal your sense romance and foreign intrigue, then don your pith helmet and sally forth by clicking on the suspicious links below!
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Journey Beneath the Desert (1961)



[Also released as: "Atlantis"]

The desert seems an unlikely place to run across the Lost Continent of Atlantis, but that's where a group of adventurers find a remnant of the legendary civilization that supposedly sank beneath the Atlantic.

There seems to be a great deal of sincere ambition behind this production, but the script and acting sink the effort. The plot, however, is rock solid: a helicopter is forced down in the desert near the site of a recent atomic bomb test. The explosion has opened up an entrance to a hidden underground city, ruled by evil Queen Antinea (Haya Harareet) who deals harshly with outsiders.

Sounds good, yes, but there's too much talk and too little else. This low-budget remake of 1948's "Siren of Atlantis" (which starred Maria Montez) was director Edgar G. Ulmer's next-to-last film. Ulmer has several minor but interesting sci-fi films to his credit ("The Man from Planet X", "Beyond the Time Barrier").
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The Jungle (1952)

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From the same studio that gave us "The Lost Continent" (1951) comes this obscure sci-fi adventure in the same vein, with Cesar Romero again cast as the leader of an expedition in search of prehistoric creatures.

The exotic beauty of co-star Sulochana replaces the exotic beauty of Acquanetta. Also starring Rod Cameron and Marie Windsor (as a princess).

In this story the adventurers head for India instead of a jungle-topped plateau, and they're looking for mastodons instead of dinosaurs. The biggest difference between "The Lost Continent" and "The Jungle" is that the former used in-door sets and unskilled animation, while the latter features a few East Indian locations and real elephants with applied hair to regress their evolutionary look a few hundred thousand years.

The trick isn't entirely effective, but the effort should be appreciated. Despite it's low budget, it's a lively yarn with a brisk pace provided by William Berke's direction and Carroll Young's script.
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Jungle Hell (1956)

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This seldom-seen, low-budget curio from writer-producer-director Norman A. Cerf and Medallion TV productions stars Sabu Dastagir ("The Thief of Baghdad", "The Jungle Book"), David Bruce ("The Mad Ghoul") and George E. Stone.

The plot (slim as it is) does offer a flying saucer and a destructive energy beam, but the special effects are skimpy and not very impressive.

Youtube has a trailer which makes it look a bit better than it sounds. The dramatic narrator states that aliens control the jungle animals — and it shows a few scenes of a spinning flying saucer. He calls this, "Sabu's only science fiction adventure!"
There are about as many scenes of scientists in labs as there are scenes of critters in the jungle — which might mean nothing, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

_______________ Jungle Hell (1956) Trailer


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