Lost Continent (1951)

"Look at the size of that footprint!", 18 March 2007

I don't quite understand the reviews for Lost Continent on IMDb. Most of the users who have taken the time to write a review have rated the movie a 5 or better. Huh? What did I miss? Sure, it's not the worst movie I've ever seen, but come on! Lost Continent is about as exciting as watching grass grow or watching paint dry or any other tired, old cliché you can think of. It's deathly dull! It seems that at least half of the movie is devoted to watching the characters either climb a mountain or just walk around. As a viewer, you get to watch all six characters going over the same boulder - and doing so very slowly - and without any tension or suspense - and often without any background music. And when our group of intrepid explorers isn't climbing over the same stage-bound rock for the fourth time, they're walking through a fake looking jungle. Actually, they're not really walking as it seems each time the camera cuts to them they're taking a fifteen minute break. How exciting is that! They don't do much and nothing much happens to them. Two-thirds of the movie is over before the first dinosaur makes an appearance. I realize that Lost Continent was made with a very small budget, but these dinosaurs are terrible. Movies made 20 years previous had better looking stop motion special effects.

But as I wrote earlier, Lost Continent is far from the worst movie I've seen. The acting alone keeps this thing from being a total waste of time. The name actors in Lost Continent are Cesar Romero and Hugh Beaumont. Both do a decent enough job, but they're not given much to stretch their acting abilities. Also present, as he was in seemingly everything made in the 50s and 60s, is Whit Bissell. The name might not be recognizable, but most fans of older films would be familiar with the face and voice.

3/10