Atlantis, the Lost Continent

Infobox_Film
name = Atlantis, the Lost Continent


caption = Promotional movie poster for the film
director = George Pal
producer = George Pal
writer = Daniel Mainwaring
Gerald Hargreaves (play)
starring = Anthony Hall aka: Sal Ponti
Joyce Taylor
John Dall
music = Russell Garcia
cinematography = Harold E. Wellman
editing = Ben Lewis
production design = George W. Davis
art direction = William Ferrari
special visual effects = A. Arnold Gillespie, Gene Warren, Jim Danforth
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
released = May 3 1961
runtime = 90 min
country =
language = English
imdb_id = 0054642|

"Atlantis, the Lost Continent" is a 1961 science fiction film, directed by George Pal and starring Anthony Hall aka: Sal Ponti, about the destruction of Atlantis during the time of Ancient Greece.

Plot

A Greek fisherman named Demetrios (Sal Ponti, under the screen name of Anthony Hall) and his father rescue Princess Antillia (Joyce Taylor) from a shipwreck without knowing that in fact she is from the technologically advanced civilization of Atlantis. Upon returning her to her civilization, Demetrios is placed into slavery. It turns out that the King Cronus (Edgar Stehli) is being manipulated by an ambitious usurper, Zaren (John Dall), using an evil sorcerer (Frank DeKova) who wishes to use the resources of Atlantis to take over the world. The slaves of Atlantis have been mining crystals which absorb the sun's rays and can then be used to fire heat rays.Through the help of a kind, spiritual high priest named Azar (Edward Platt), Demetrios is able to rescue the princess from the wicked spells of the sorcerer and his malicious pretender to the throne, and escape from the spectacular destruction of Atlantis in the climactic finale.

Cast

Production notes

The film is notorious for its inclusion of stock footage material from other movies, including "Quo Vadis" and "The Naked Jungle". Props from other productions were also reused, including a large statue at the temple from "The Prodigal" and Krell gauges from "Forbidden Planet".The spectacular special visual effects work of Atlantis, the elaborate miniature work of ancient Greek and Roman-style buildings, landscapes, temples, the volcano, the destruction of Atlantis, and the giant crystal ray machine, were the work of the special effects production company Fantasy Film Effects, supervised by Gene Warren, Wah Chang, and Jim Danforth, along with the MGM production staff supervised by A. Arnold Gillespie. They coordinated their work with George Pal, who worked closely with the production designer and art director George W. Davis and William Ferrari.

The film's prologue, describing the legend of Atlantis, features stop motion animation, often used by producer George Pal earlier in his career.

Reaction

The film has generally received poor reviews and was described by film critic Leonard Maltin in his "2002 Movie & Video Guide" as "Pal's worst film", saying that it had "poor effects" and that it was: "Occasionally funny – but not on purpose." [Leonard Maltin, ed., "Leonard Maltin's 2002 Movie & Video Guide". A Signet Book, 2001.]

Science fiction author David Wingrove also had similar criticisms in his science fiction film source book: "No expense was spared in buying up footage from "Quo Vadis" to give it true period flavour. Avoid." [Wingrove, David. Science Fiction Film Source Book (Longman Group Limited, 1985)]

At a preview screening of this film, questionnaires were handed to the audience asking what their favorite scene was. One person, apparently recognizing the footage taken from "Quo Vadis", replied, "The scene where Robert Taylor saved Deborah Kerr from the fire." [ [http://imdb.com/title/tt0054642/trivia Atlantis, the Lost Continent (1961) - Trivia ] ]

References