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Highly Overrated But Still Good

Excellent adaptation.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Blistering performances.

At the age of 14 I liked Atlantis, The Lost Continent because I had 14 year old tastes at the time it was in theater. George Pal produced a really neat show for juveniles and it came out at a time when Italian studios were turning out dozens of these films based on classical ancient times. Looking at it more than five decades later I can now appreciate the great cast of character players brought in to support a pair of less than charismatic leads. Any film that has John Dall, Edward Platt, Berry Kroeger, Frank DeKova, Jay Novello, and Edgar Stehli should not be missed.Our leads are Anthony Hall as Demetrios a poor but humble Greek fisherman who catches Joyce Taylor a princess from a far away land. She's run away because she doesn't want to marry Dall and considering he's more than a bit off kilter who could blame her. She still insists on royal prerogatives in dealing even with her rescuer.In the end Hall takes his little fishing boat beyond those Pillars of Hercules at the mouth of the Mediterranean and they find Atlantis or Atlantis actually finds them in a metallic submarine that Dall is captaining. After that Hall is taken to the island of Atlantis where Edgar Stehli is the king, Taylor his daughter, Kroeger a mad scientist physician who has created a race of mutants, DeKova the court astrologer and Platt a priest. Each one of these people gets to strut the stuff that we expect from them. Pal gave them all their heads and they run with it. As an adult this is what I love this picture for.Especially Dall working that death ray machine. The man is truly achieving orgasm as he zaps people into non-existence with a phaser like device. The Atlanteans all dress in classical Peplum style, but have made some really far advances.Juveniles will still love it, many adults will too. But as Atlantis falls, didn't someone think to save that submarine. Whoever did would be ruling the planet.

Although cheesy and corny at times, this lavish George Pal spectacle still packs a punch today with some agreeable old-fashioned special effects and a little bit of everything in the plot. Sure, it's not a perfect film, but what is? Occasionally dated and sometimes juvenile, ATLANTIS, THE LOST CONTINENT more than overcomes its flaws with a story populated by interesting characters, plenty of incident and interesting factors in the plot.The film begins as a romantic adventure yarn as a beautiful Princess - as played by Joyce Taylor, who is very good and charismatic in the part - falls in love with a simple Greek fisherman, a fresh-faced lean youth played by Sal Ponti as a fearless, indestructible hero type. Once the action moves to Atlantis, the plot thickens with the introduction of many supporting characters, each with their own motivations, and numerous sub-plots.From this point there are plenty of ominous rumblings and omens which point to the demise of Atlantis, which of course is saved for the finale. Up until then we follow Ponti, as he becomes a slave and rebels against the cruel guard, as led by a young William Smith. There are some fun sword-and-sandal type battle sequences involving battles between guards and slaves which highlight the action. Meanwhile Ponti finds himself facing the gladiatorial "fire and water challenge", in which he battles a brute of a man in a pit of hot coals which is then flooded with water. Again, a rousing moment, the highlight being the point when Ponti sets his opponent's head aflame! Another plot strand involves John Dall's Zaren, the King's right-hand who is effectively running the show and plans to become master of the world by using a crystal-powered death ray to destroy all of the other countries. Dall is the kind of slimy, yet charismatic villain you just love to hate, and kudos to the scriptwriters for not portraying him as a bad guy at the beginning of the film - instead, it's a gradual process.Yet another sub-plot involves prisoners being converted into beastmen by the evil scientists of Atlantis, and sadly this is the most juvenile and poorly-realised portion of the film, with silly makeup effects and a lack of the tragi-horror combination that the writer was looking for with the beastmen. Thankfully this unwanted element is kept to the background in the movie. The special effects and fantastic elements are kept to a minimum up until the finale, which is where the budget seems to have been spent, and boy does it show. As Atlantis cracks up, we're treated to spectacular shots of bubbling lava, exploding volcanoes, collapsing buildings, the city on fire, rubble and masonry crushing people, floods and the city sinking beneath the ocean. On top of all this, the death ray comes into play to destroy numerous ships and lives, before it finally skeletonises the bad guy and goes berserk, causing yet more destruction. A truly satisfying conclusion to the movie and worth waiting for.Even in the quieter moments, there is much to enjoy in ATLANTIS, THE LSOT CONTINENT's colourful cinematography and imaginative set design, including a weird temple with a huge Minotaur statue. In all, this is a splendid - if minorly flawed - retelling of the classic legend and an all-round crowd pleaser, bolstered most by the likable leads and Pal's uniqely old-fashioned approach to the adventure.

The idea of a Atlantis...lost continent and what may have happened to it is intriguing and this movie takes us into that world. It is not perfect, but let it suspend your beliefs for a time and enjoy it for what it is....Good points to ponder throughout the movie and the beginning is very well presented. It sets you up quite well. Afterall, what did happen to Atlantis? Keep in mind that there was quite a bit of known knowledge around thousands of years ago that was quite extra ordinary. The concept of batteries is evidenced to be thousands of years old yet we give it no thought. Furthermore,it was a standing rule in Egypt that when you visited and had anything in writing, they were allowed to copy it. Thus the great library was created having knowledge from all over the world only to be destroyed later on. Where did all the knowledge that Atlantis had go? Why did it go? They were ahead of their time these Atlantisians...This movie will help you with that thought....Enjoy...

I remember seeing this when it was first released many years ago & when George Pal was a household name. I recently had a chance to see it again on TCM and considering the time that has elapsed, some of the special effects still look OK.Being much older I now realize the acting skills of some of the players leave a lot to be desired but all in all it is still an enjoyable film despite the "steals" from Quo Vadis & elsewhere.When I was a kid the final destruction scene gripped me and I never forgot the "laser" gun frying the bad egg on the steps and the smiling skeleton dropping down. Funny now how I now notice the saw line around the head & thinking how is it the bones survived the blast on that occasion but when Zaran was picking off the boats it was complete disintegration. One can't be too picky though he must have had real good eyesight to catch sight of the hero & damsel in the teeming crowds, smoke and flames.