In 1978 I was taken to the cinema to see a movie called Warlords of Atlantis. It was a movie that appealed to me on a lot of levels; Atlantis!; nasty creatures!; a bathysphere! I was young and bathyspheres were cool, so sue me. The movie’s lead was played by Doug McClure and over the years that followed thanks to the explosion of VHS films and then weekend showings on television I became introduced to a few other Doug McClure films too – The Land That Time Forgot, The People That Time Forgot, and At The Earth’s Core – all of which had a common theme of explorers exploring, adventures adventuring, and monsters monstering, and all of which were directed by Kevin Connor.
The Land That Time Forgot (1975)
Based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs book of the same name and set during the first world war the story follows what happens when survivors of a German U-boat attack take control of the vessel but end up chancing upon an isolated, volcanic island where dinosaurs still exist alongside various types of humans. Just like in the Bible.
The first lobby card from the movie shows the scene on the island of Caprona where we learn that the dinosaurs have learned over the millenia to abhor violence. Here, a prehistoric creature takes the dangerous guns from the sailors. America’s NRA launched a successful lobbying campaign of their own to get this particular scene cut from the American release of the film and to dub over the movie’s dialogue where Doug McClure’s character Bowen Tyler speaks of his admiration for the dinosaurs’ evolved sense of morality, replacing it instead with a wish that there was a good monster with a gun nearby to terminate the bad monster with his own gun.
A memorable moment from the movie captured in this card when the German submarine commander performs a thrilling cabaret with some of the various creatures swimming around near his boat. The act of holding his hand within the jaws of an enormous plesiosaur demonstrates his bravery and helps to cement a blossoming relationship between himself and Tyler.
The final lobby card shown from The Land That Time Forgot features a still from the middle third of the movie, the infamous hardcore sex scene between Susan Penhaligon’s character Lisa Clayton and a caveman. Gratuitous, very graphic, and highly censored worldwide it’s subsequently been very difficult to get hold of a print of the film that leaves much of the scene intact which does make the ending of the movie with Clayton nursing a hairy baby a tad confusing.
The People That Time Forgot (1977)
You won’t be surprised to discover that The People That Time Forgot is a sequel to The Land That Time Forgot and is based on another book by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The film’s plot revolves around a mission to Caprona to rescue Doug McClure from a legal minefield as he had decided to remain behind at the end of the previous movie in order to contest paternity of Susan Penhaligon’s hirsute child.
A very rare lobby card from the movie The People That Time Forgot here known as “The Distracted Card” in the business on account of the spelling mistake present, the result of a very understandable distraction by a couple of the stars of the film.
Demographics of the first film showed that it didn’t perform well with scientists, many of whom claimed that dinosaurs and people in the same film were just likely to make them irate rather than entertained. For the sequel a scientific expedition was forced into the storyline in order to appeal to this very rich group of potential cinemagoers but with very little success as it transpired the premise of scientists being very rich was insanely flawed.
Another film set on the island of Caprona and another cabaret, this one from the film’s finale where Doug McClure joins his rescuers in a farewell performance to the prehistoric creatures and people who had been such warm hosts to him. Critics and moviegoers alike were quick to slam the filmmakers for trying to cash in on the success of Abba by getting the cast to sing Waterloo, something that didn’t fit in with the setting of the film and completely at odds with Rice Burroughs’ choice of ten minutes of jazz scat singing. The planned non-Burroughs follow up to The People That Time Forgot, likely to be called The Five Hour Music Hall Medley That Time Forgot, failed to attract backing from the studios in the wake of the feedback.
At The Earth’s Core (1976)
Edgar Rice Burroughs was a renowned writer of adventure stories but it would be true to say that he wasn’t the most inventive in the field as demonstrated by yet another tale of his shifted over to the silver screen featuring an isolated world where cavepeople and dangerous creatures coexist, sacrifices, lots of lava, and bosoms. Still, people tend to like monsters, magma, and mammaries so why not give the people what they want? The general plot follows the discovery, exploration, and escape from a world inside our own after a voyage to it in a burrowing machine. Or a Burroughing machine perhaps. Perhaps not. What makes this story stand out from “The Land Forgot” tales is the inclusion of telepathic birds descended from the dinosaurs.
Doug McClure plays David Innes alongside Peter Cushing as Doctor Abner Perry in this film and the relationship between the two men is often hinted as something more than friends though never spelt out, a bold move for movies in the 1970s when homosexuality was punishable in many parts of the world by derision, ostracism, incarceration, and even death because of ignorance. How things have changed!
It wouldn’t be a Doug McClure and Kevin Connor film without a musical number (this film was released the year before The People That Time Forgot) and this lobby card shows the movie’s only tune, a sombre, moving solo from David Innes called “Jump Up, Jump Up, And Party, Party, Party” performed to a dignified and appreciative crowd of denizens of the underworld.
1976 was a cold year – if you lived through it then you’ll probably remember the international effort to move Norway from under the pack ice and place it next to Sweden for warmth – so any movies that showed warmth in some manner were treated well at the box office. Fire makes an appearance no less than two hundred times during At The Earth’s Core and accounted for repeat viewings from some chilly customers and record-breaking takings.
Warlords Of Atlantis (1978)
Unlike the other films in this list Warlords of Atlantis has no Edgar Rice Burroughs input. Not that you can tell. The plot centres on an expedition to hunt for evidence of Atlantis which runs into trouble in the form of attacks by prehistoric creatures and a double crossing from the crew before Doug McClure and comrades find themselves taken against their will to Atlantis itself. Things go about as smoothly as you’d expect from there on. Warlords of Atlantis was by far the darkest of the Kevin Connor/Doug McClure vintage adventure movies highlighted here and the only one not to include a googly-eyed sock puppet main character.
First victim of the double crossing on board the expedition’s ship is Able Seaman Giant Octopus who is shot in the back while checking the winch holding onto the bathysphere containing Doug McClure and Peter Gilmore.
This film being shot and shown in 1978 and after The People That Time Forgot director Kevin Connor was understandably forbidden from inserting his trademark song routine into the movie but that didn’t stop him from trying something showbiz anyway as this lobby card picture shows; our three main actors make most of their escape from the fifth Atlantean city in a crouching conga whilst the incidental music – expertly obscured by sound effects to avoid critical wrath – is Cuban disco fusion.
Screenplay writer of Warlords of Atlantis, Brian Hayles, sadly died in 1978 but probably died with a smile on his face knowing that he had finally managed to get one of his usually-censored double entendres onto the screen, a personal desire throughout his career. Pictured above is the Polished Helmet used in Atlantis. Rejected elements that didn’t make the final cut:
- two bathyspheres and Peter Gilmore remarking that they’ll “need to go balls deep on this expedition”
- the Guardians had one eye at the tips of their helmets
- every time the Guardians appeared on screen Doug McClure’s character remarked on their long rods
- the deserted, third city of Atlantis was called Cumfayce
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