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The
People That Time Forgot
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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
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5
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5 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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American
pulp writer Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950)
would see numerous films made during his lifetime
featuring his most famous creation, Tarzan of
the Apes. But until the 1970s no movie producer
had attempted bringing to the screen any of his
other many characters, such as John Carter of
Mars or David Innes of Pellucidar. This was most
likely due to the exorbitant cost rendering such
fantastical tales into a film would entail. (To
say Burroughs had a grand scale imagination is
an understatement.) That British producers Max
J. Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky gave it a shot
is commendable, though the results — The
Land That Time Forgot (1975), At
the Earth's Core (1976), and this one — are
a mixed bag at best.
It's a direct sequel to The
Land That Time Forgot, based on the second
book in Burroughs' Caprona trilogy. (The third,
Out of Time's Abyss, was never filmed.)
The first story chronicled the World War I adventures
of Bowen Tyler —
played in both flicks by Doug McClure —
who, with the survivors of a torpedoed freighter,
commandeers one of the Kaiser's submarines. The
sub's compass is sabotaged and the boat becomes
lost in Antarctic waters. Eventually Tyler and
company encounter an uncharted island, ringed
by a solid wall of high cliffs. No ship has ever
landed there but the U-boat cruises through an
underwater tunnel to reach the interior. Here
a lost, prehistoric jungle world of dinosaurs
and cavemen is discovered. The sub is eventually
destroyed, stranding Tyler and his girlfriend,
who are the only survivors. Tyler writes down
his experiences and seals the manuscript in a
canister, which he hurls over the cliff edge into
the sea. The
People That Time Forgot
follows a postwar expedition sent out to rescue
Tyler and verify his incredible account.
The rescue mission is led by
Major Ben McBride (Sinbad
and the Eye of the Tiger's
Patrick Wayne), square-jawed American flier and
boyhood friend of Tyler's. (The character was
called "Tom Billings" in ERB's book.)
Joining him are famed paleontologist Prof. Norfolk
(Thorley Walters - Frankenstein
Created Woman), ace mechanic Hogan (Shane
Rimmer) and adventurous newspaper photographer
Lady
Charlotte, aka "Charly" (Sarah Douglas,
best known for her roles in Superman
II and Conan
the Destroyer). They, along
with McBride's amphibious biplane, are transported
to the coast of icebound Caprona by the Royal
Navy ship H.M.S. Polar Queen, which can
only wait at anchor three weeks before the ice
closes in. McBride and his companions take off
in the plane, but not long after crossing the
ice cliffs they're attacked by a prehistoric pterodactyl
—
early confirmation that what Tyler wrote was true.
An aerial dogfight ensues between the plane and
the flying dinosaur (a well-handled sequence despite
the obvious budgetary constraints); Hogan blasts
the beast with a machine gun but the pterodactyl's
only brought down when it tries to take a bite
out of the propeller. This also damages the plane,
which McBride manages to glide in to a safe, if
extremely rough, landing.
Leaving Hogan to guard and
repair the plane, McBride, Charly and Norfolk
set off on foot to search for Tyler. The first
human they encounter is bodacious cavegirl Ajor
(Dana Gillespie), who astonishes them by speaking
English. (In
keeping with Burroughs' literary penchant for
amazing coincidences, it turns out Ajor knows
Tyler well; it was he who taught her English.)
She explains that Tyler lived among her people,
the Ga-lu, until they were attacked and slaughtered
by the evil Naga, an advanced race of bloodthirsty
warriors who worship a volcano god. Only a handful
of Ga-lu survive, scattered across Caprona and
hunted by both the Naga and the Neanderthalish
Ba-lu. It's believed that Tyler himself was captured
by the Naga some months earlier and taken to their
capital, the dreaded City of Skulls. Naturally
McBride and company decide to go there and rescue
him if he's still alive.
That's
the entire movie in a nutshell, folks. We get
the usual assortment of walking sequences interspersed
with the occasional dinosaur encounter or caveman
attack until our protagonists reach the domain
of the Naga. Immediately captured, Charly and
Ajor are slated for sacrifice to the volcano god
while McBride and the professor are tossed in
a dungeon. Here they meet up with Tyler, who helps
them engineer a nick-of-time escape and rescue
the gals. The last 25 minutes are taken up with
the race back to the plane while the island explodes
around them — ye old volcano god doesn't take
kindly to being denied. Tyler and his buddy Ben
get to fight side by side against a horde of samurai
armor-clad baddies. It's all very old fashioned,
formulaic stuff... which, by the way, is pretty
much the way Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote 'em.
As
with the other AIP-Burroughs flicks, the budget
just wasn't there for state of the art effects
or production design. The monsters are all unconvincing
puppets with the exception of the pterodactyl,
which comes off rather well despite barely ever
flapping its wings. (It's very adept at riding
those Capronan air currents, apparently.) Model
work is spotty, too; shots involving miniatures
of the airplane range from very good to laughable.
But location filming in the Canary Islands helps
a great deal, providing a suitably primeval looking
world for the characters to explore. (Thus People
isn't hamstrung by cheesy interior sets like At
the Earth's Core.) And the cast is game,
not just going through the motions. The buxom
Gillespie certainly makes for nice eye candy...
Too bad they never found an excuse to get Douglas
in skimpier attire!
A few mild curse words aside,
The People That Time Forgot
is old-fashioned adventure fare suitable for watching
with the kids. Provided the popcorn's extra buttery
and the soda pop (and Dad's brewski) is cold,
there are definitely worse ways to kill an hour
and a half on a rainy Saturday afternoon.
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NOTE:
Watch for a ridiculous blooper near the end of
the film, when Wayne and McClure are holding off
the pursuing Naga war party... Crouching behind
a boulder, Doug is hit square in the head with
an arrow — which harmlessly bounces off!
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| As
with 95% of MGM's Midnite Movie DVDs, The
People That Time Forgot is a bare-bones disc
with only the theatrical trailer as an extra. That
being said, it should also be noted that MGM continues
its excellent track record when it comes to value.
The disc retails for under $15 (actually in the
$12-14 range online and around ten bucks in stores),
boasting exemplary audio and visual quality. The
widescreen presentation is anamorphically enhanced
to boot. 1/05/02 |
| UPDATE
In August 2004 MGM released a terrific double feature
DVD pairing People
with its precursor, The Land
That Time Forgot. The film is on Side B of
the disc and is presented exactly as described here. |
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