Movies That Time Forgot!

What a curious collection of movies these are. I well remember Doug McClure (who I watched as Trampus on The Virginian for years) and how he suddenly became the go-to guy for Burroughs films in the 70's. While I love Tarzan and the Martian and Venus novels are very entertaining, I'll confess the sheer splendor of the notion of Pellucidar might be my fave ERB concept. I got this quartet of flicks on a pair of dvds and watched them that way.

The Land that Time Forgot and its sequel The People that Time Forgot are not set in Pellucidar but Caprona, ERB's beyond bizarre lost world where evolution is recapitulated each generation. It's a strange idea and very difficult to communicate in a flim, though the first movie does a reasonable job at trying. We've got the submarine, the WWI setting, and such before we get to the dinosaurs and cavemen, and frankly they spend perhaps too much time in that set-up, but once there the movie gets running and despite breaks in logic never slows down nor does it offer up a partiuclarly happy ending. The sequel is stranger still as it seems more a Robert E. Howard adventure than an ERB one, though the main influence seems to be Frank Frazetta. There are a number of stunning images (and babes) in this movie, though the story itself is pretty weak. The tale is far less dense and less compelling, though I give the visuals high marks.

At The Earth's Core is a cracking good flick, and never lets up. The red sky of Pellucidar is strange and gives the whole movie a definitely stagey but offbeat feel. The acting is pretty good in this one and the story of one man leading a revolt against the Mahars is pretty well handled. The monsters are unintentionally laughable in places but given the times these were made quite understandable. Peter Cushing is especially good in this one, giving Abner Perry a real crackpot but capable presentation. The War Gods of the Deep has nothing to do with ERB but is spun out of a Poe poem and offers up sea monsters and impossibly aged pirates pitted against a lost world beneath the waves off England. Vincent Price keeps this one out of the fire when he's on screen. He's always so magnificent in his presentations that he elevates even the most lackluster movies. The sets on this one are pretty good, though Tab Hunter is pretty dense for most of the movie. It doesn't make sense all the time, but it does offer up some compelling images here and there.