The Land That Time Forgot (1975) Amicus

The Land That Time Forgot (1975)

Directed by Kevin Connor

Produced by John Dark / Max Rosenberg

Written by Michael Moorcock / James Cawthorn

Based the novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Narrated by Doug McClure

Music by Douglas Gamley

Cinematography; Alan Hume

Edited by John Ireland

Production: Amicus Productions

Distributed by American International Pictures

Release Date 13 August 1975

Running Time;  91 min.

Country; United Kingdom / United States

Cast

Doug McClure as Bowen Tyler

John McEnery as Captain Von Schoenvorts

Susan Penhaligon as Lisa Clayton

Keith Barron as Bradley

Anthony Ainley as Dietz

Godfrey James as Borg

Bobby Parr as Ahm

Declan Mulholland as Olson

Colin Farrell as Whiteley

Ben Howard as Benson

Roy Holder as Plesser

Andrew McCulloch as Sinclair

Ron Pember as Jones

Grahame Mallard as Deusett

Andrew Lodge as Reuther

Brian Hall as Schwartz

Stanley McGeagh as Hiller

Peter Sproule as Hindle

Steve James as First Sto-Lu

Plot

The movie begins with Doug McClure as Bowen Tyler narrating the events, much as we see in many Edgar Rice Burroughs novels. A sailor throws a bottle with a written manuscript inside it into the sea, hoping for it to be discovered later.

The story is set during World War I and involves the survivors of the sinking of a British merchant ship who are taken on board a German U-boat.

Bowen Tyler and Lisa Clayton (Susan Penhaligon) are passengers on the ship torpedoed by Captain von Schoenvorts (John McEnery). Along with a few surviving British officers, Tyler convinces the other men to take over the surfacing submarine, this being their only chance for survival. After confronting the Germans on the deck, a fight ensues and they seize the German U-boat. Tyler takes command hoping to sail to a British port. Von Schoenvorts has his crew steer toward a safe sea port. But German officer Dietz (Anthony Ainley) gets loose and smashes the sub's radio.

Off course and running out of fuel in the South Atlantic, the U-boat and its crew happen across an uncharted sub-continent called Caprona, a fantastical land of lush vegetation where dinosaurs still roam, co-existing with primitive man. There are also reserves of oil which, if the Germans and British can work together, can be refined and enable their escape from the island.

Tyler discovers the secret of Caprona: individuals evolve not through natural selection, but by migrating northward across the island. With the submarine working again, and a sudden outbreak of volcanic eruptions across the island, Deitz abandons Tyler and Clayton in Caprona and attempts to escape, but the U-Boat cannot function in the boiling waters and sinks. Tyler and Clayton are stranded, and forced to move northwards. The movie ends with Tyler throwing the bottle, with the manuscript inside it, as seen in the beginning of the movie.

Gallery

(THE MESSAGE IS WASHED ASHORE)

"I do not expect anyone to believe the story I am about to relate"

"It even seems incredible to me, that all that I have passed through, 
all those weird and terrifying experiences should have been encompassed
within as short a space as 3 months"

"It must of been a little after 3 o clock in the afternoon when it began,,
the afternoon of June 3rd 1916"

"S.S. Montrose, 30,000 tons"

Number 1...FIRE!
Number 2 ..FIRE!

"Add another 20,000 tons to our total!"

(LISA CLAYTON AND TYLER BOWEN, SURVIVING PASSENGERS OF THE S.S. MONTROSE)

"Where's the ship?"
"It looks as though we were torpedoed"

"We may be the only survivors"

"AHOY THERE!"

"We are the only other survivors and we didn't get chance to send an S.O.S.
so as far as they are concerned we are dead!"

"Our only chance is to take that sub, or we will die out here"

(THE BRITISH PARTY BOARD THE U-BOAT)

"We are taking control of this boat"

"I suggest Captain, that you tell your crew that i'm in command now!"

"It's a British warship, I'll signal to her"

"She's firing on us, why can't she see my signals?"

"Let's get below" "Prepare to dive"

DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!

"Our compass has been tampered with, we've been going south!"

(THE GERMANS RETAKE THE U-BOAT)

"I have a rendezvous with our supply ship, within the hour!"

(LISA FREE'S THE BRITISH CREW)

(THE GERMAN SUPPLY VESSEL IS TORPEDOED BY BOWEN)

(THE BRITISH RETAKE THE SHIP)

"Mr Tyler have you ever heard of Caprona, an early Italian navigator sailed here about 1721,
people scoffed at his claims, but I remember reading his book, where he describes a new continent
in the south seas with an inhospitable coastline, he could make no landing,
but called his continent Caprona.....then sailed away!"

"I believe we are looking at the coast of Caprona, uncharted and forgotten for 200 years"

BOWEN: "Well we'll have to do what he couldn't....Find a place to land!,
because if we don't.....We die!"

(THE CAMP IS ATTACKED BY STO-LU WARRIORS)

(JONES IS ALSO KILLED)

"There's a secret to this island and whether we stay or get away may depend on it!"

"It's the same in the microscopic world, creatures at every stage of
evolutionary development, the same with men, the same with animals,
millions of years of evolution embraced on this island"

"We must work together"

"We cannot wait any longer Captain, at least let us get aboard the ship"
"Very well Dietz"

"They must be Galu"

"WE GALU!"

"BRADLEY! CAPTAIN! DEITZ! WAIT FOR US!"

"I don't like the look of the lake, its getting worse every minute"

"How much longer can we give them?"
"As long as we have too"

"LOOK OUT SKIPPER"
(DIETZ SHOOTS OLSON)

"Don't be a fool Dietz!"
(DIETZ SHOOTS VON SCHOENVORTS)

"Take them below"

"Leaving? we are leaving?"

DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!

"WAIT"

"We can't dive, we're overheating!"

"Wiedersehen Mr Tyler, I hope you enjoy your stay!"

"You are too late, Caprona has won,
you cannot go back to the beginning"

(LISA AND BOWEN KNOW THEY HAVE BEEN LEFT BEHIND ON THE ISLAND)

(BRADLEY SHOOTS DIETZ)

(THE  HEAT IN THE SUBMARINE HAS OVERCOME THE CREW)

(LISA WATCHES HELPLESSLY AS THE SUBMARINE SINKS)

(SUBMARINE EXPLODES KILLING THE ENTIRE CREW)

"With the the sinking of the submarine all our hopes of getting away from Caprona have disappeared,
we are alone, spurned by even the highest, The Galu"

"So we have to go on, in the way of Caprona, until we find peace"

"I would rather live here with Lisa than live elsewhere without her,
and she said the same of me"

"If God wills it, we will live our lives here,
however we are determined to move ever northward"

"Ever forward, towards the mysteries that lie ahead, of this...
Land that time forgot"

THE END