Atlantis: The Lost Continent

1961
Approved
1h 30m

IMDb RATING

5.5/10

2.2K

YOUR RATING

Play trailer2:51

1 Video

33 Photos

Adventure Sci-Fi

Welcome to Atlantis, where royal guardsmen wear uniforms that could easily be from the wardrobe of Ming the Merciless and some unfortunate slaves are turned into bovine-headed beasts.Welcome to Atlantis, where royal guardsmen wear uniforms that could easily be from the wardrobe of Ming the Merciless and some unfortunate slaves are turned into bovine-headed beasts.Welcome to Atlantis, where royal guardsmen wear uniforms that could easily be from the wardrobe of Ming the Merciless and some unfortunate slaves are turned into bovine-headed beasts.

Director
- George Pal
Writers
- Daniel Mainwaring
- Gerald Hargreaves
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.5/10

2.2K

YOUR RATING

Director
- George Pal
Writers
- Daniel Mainwaring
- Gerald Hargreaves
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Demetrios
(as Anthony Hall)

Joyce Taylor

Antillia

John Dall

Zaren

William Smith

Captain of the Guard
(as Bill Smith)

Edward Platt

Azor

Frank DeKova

Sonoy
(as Frank De Kova)

Berry Kroeger

Surgeon

Edgar Stehli

King Kronas

Wolfe Barzell

Petros

Jay Novello

Xandros

Paul Frees

Narrator
(voice)
…

Nina Borget

Noblewoman
(uncredited)

Chet Brandenburg

Citizen
(uncredited)

George Bruggeman

Guard
(uncredited)

Alan Callow

Norseman Slave
(uncredited)

Charles Cirillo

Slave
(uncredited)

Phyllis Douglas

Girl
(uncredited)

Dennis Durney

Norseman
(uncredited)

Director
- George Pal
Writers
- Daniel Mainwaring
- Gerald Hargreaves
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Following a preview of the film, a questionnaire was distributed among the viewers asking what scene they liked. One person answered, "The scene where Robert Taylor saved Deborah Kerr from the fire." This was in reference to the fact that much of the stock footage used in the film came from Quo Vadis (1951).

Goofs
Obvious stunt double for Demetrios during the Ordeal of Fire and Water and the rope-hanging scene.

Quotes
[first lines]
Narrator: When Columbus discovered America, a series of mysteries arose to confound the scholars of Europe. Here are two continents, completely isolated from each other, yet they simultaneously developed similar cultures. For example, the Mayans measured time on the same principle as the Gregorian calendar of Europe. They used the same signs of the zodiac, the same decimal and mathematical system. They valued silver and gold, using both for jewelry and barter. Another mystery was the banana plant, a native of Asia that cannot be grown from seed, yet Columbus found it thriving in the New World. Elephants at that time did not exist in the Americas, yet their likenesses were cleaved on the walls of prehistoric caves in Peru. The pyramids in Mexico and in Egypt were built on identical architectural principles. Then there was the striking resemblance of a witch of Spain, and the witch depicted in the New World. But the most significant of all, Mayan and Aztec legends shared with Greek and Hebrew and Assyrian literature an account of a terrible deluge, a deluge many believe had destroyed the link, the mother empire, that had spread her civilization to both sides of the Atlantic. The Greek scholar Plato recorded this theory first, over two thousand years ago. There was once another continent: Atlantis: The Lost Continent.

Crazy credits
For once in his life, Paul Frees gets an on-screen credit for a voice-over job, the narration in the opening and closing sequences. Strangely, he is billed not in the cast list, but in the technical credits.

Alternate versions
When originally released theatrically in the UK, the BBFC made cuts to secure a 'A' rating.

Connections
Edited from Quo Vadis (1951)

User reviews55

Review

Featured review

5/10

Catch of the day

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.