Lost Continent is a 1951 American black-and-white (this version in touched up colour) science fiction film drama from Lippert Pictures, produced by Jack Leewood, Robert L. Lippert, and Sigmund Neufeld, directed by Sam Newfield (Sigmund Neufeld's brother), that stars Cesar Romero, Hillary Brooke, Whit Bissell, Sid Melton, Hugh Beaumont and John Hoyt.
An expedition is sent to the South Pacific to search for a missing atomic-powered rocket in order to retrieve the vital scientific data recorded aboard. On an uncharted island they discover more than their rocket, now crashed atop a mysterious plateau, they find a lost jungle world populated by prehistoric dinosaurs.
REAR COVER OF DVD
You are about to take a hazardous journey into the unknown, an unforgettable, psychedelic, nautical adventure into a surreal land of unsurpassed horror and suspense. You are about to venture into the world of The Lost Continent, one of Hammer Studios' most obscure and demented creations. Visually stunning and highly inventive, The Lost Continent reaches new depths of weirdness.
Featuring a truly mesmerising performance from singer DANA GILLESPIE and a swinging soundtrack from sixties curios THE PEDDLERS, this film is a must for any fans of extremely rare, extremely odd, cult sixties cinema.
A dubious cargo ship carrying illegal explosives and sailed by a ruthless, alcoholic captain suddenly finds itself amidst uncharted waters after a savage, tropical storm. Soon its passengers are forced to fight for survival within a strange world inhabited by giant molluscs, huge scorpions, killer crabs, man-eating seaweed, a strange religious cult led by a child prophet, human sacrifice and a Spanish galleon populated by psychotic conquistadors.
DETAILED PLOT
Maj. Joe Nolan is the head of a South Pacific expedition to retrieve an atomic powered rocket that has vanished without a trace. His fellow serviceman and pilot, Lt. Danny Wilson, is also an expedition member. Aircraft mechanic Sgt. William Tatlow has also been recruited. The expedition includes the three scientists who helped build the rocket.
Their transport aircraft mysteriously crash-lands on a remote, unknown tropical island in the area where the rocket was lost on radar. Only two occupants are left on the island, a native woman and her young brother. The woman indicates something fell from the sky atop the forbidding, cloud-shrouded plateau that dominates part of the island. The rocket's fiery arrival caused the rest of the native population to abandon the island.
Expedition member Stanley Briggs dies accidentally on the steep ascent up the escarpment. After long stretches of rock climbing, the expedition emerges from what turns out to be a toxic gas cloud cover. They discover a lush, prehistoric jungle inhabited by various dinosaurs and a large field of uranium, which is what disabled their electronic tracking equipment.
They come upon a Brontosaurus, which attacks Robert Phillips as he retreats up a tree. Nolan and Wilson open fire, but they quickly discover that the dinosaur's thick hide absorbs bullets with little effect. Later that night they set up camp. When Nolan awakes, he finds Phillips and Russian scientist Michael Rostov gone. Phillips has gotten himself stuck in a large rock crevice near a Triceratops. Nolan accuses Rostov of arranging the accident on purpose, but Rostov insists that he was helping Phillips. The Triceratops nearly attacks the group, but another makes a challenge and the two dinosaurs fight to the death.
Nolan is convinced that Rostov, the scientist who helped make the rocket, is up to no good because he also appeared to be able to save Stanley Briggs on their ascent but failed to do so. Eventually, Rostov reveals himself to be a victim of the Holocaust in which he lost his wife and unborn child.
Wilson later shoots a Pterosaur for food near the rocket's landing site. The group soon discover that the rocket is surrounded by a Brontosaurus and a pair of Triceratops, but Nolan devises a strategy using their weapons that scare off the dinosaurs. Rostov and Phillips retrieve the needed data from the rocket. With his back turned, Tatlow is gored to death by an angry Triceratops, just as it is shot and killed by Nolan and Wilson. After the team finishes digging a grave, violent earthquake tremors begin, and the team must make a hasty retreat down the steep plateau.
The four manage to successfully return to the island's flatland in time to escape the island by using an outrigger canoe. The survivors are finally able to watch from a safe distance as the island is first rocked by more violent earthquakes, followed by a catastrophic eruption of the formerly dormant volcano, which ultimately destroys everything.