Lost Continent | |
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Directed by | Sam Newfield |
Produced by | Jack Leewood Robert L. Lippert Sigmund Neufeld |
Written by |
Orville H. Hampton Richard H. Landau Carroll Young (story) |
Starring |
Cesar Romero Hillary Brooke Chick Chandler Sid Melton Hugh Beaumont John Hoyt |
Music by | Paul Dunlap |
Cinematography | Jack Greenhalgh |
Edited by | Philip Cahn |
Distributed by | Lippert Pictures Inc. |
Release date
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Running time
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83 min |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Lost Continent is a 1951 American black-and-white science-fiction film from Lippert Pictures, produced by Jack Leewood, Robert L. Lippert, and Sigmund Neufeld, directed by Sam Newfield (Sigmund Neufeld's brother), that stars Cesar Romero, Hillary Brooke, Chick Chandler, Sid Melton, Hugh Beaumont and John Hoyt.
An expedition is sent to the South Pacific to search for a missing atomic-powered rocket in order to retrieve the vital scientific data recorded aboard. On an uncharted island they discover more than their rocket, now crashed atop a mysterious plateau, they find a lost jungle world populated by prehistoric dinosaurs.
Maj. Joe Nolan (Cesar Romero) is the head of an expedition to the South Pacific to retrieve an atomic-powered rocket that vanished without a trace. He had previously lived in a South American jungle, as has fellow serviceman and pilot Lt. Danny Wilson (Chick Chandler), who is also on the expedition. Aircraft mechanic Sgt. William Tatlow (Sid Melton) is also recruited for the expedition, which includes the three scientists who helped build the rocket.
Their transport aircraft mysteriously crash-lands on a remote, unknown tropical island in the area where the rocket was lost on radar. They find only two occupants left on the island, a native woman (Acquanetta) and her young brother. The woman indicates something fell from the sky atop a forbidding, cloud-shrouded plateau that dominates part of the island. The rocket's fiery arrival caused the rest of the native population to abandon the island.
Expedition member Stanley Briggs (Whit Bissell) is accidentally killed on the steep ascent of the escarpment. After long stretches of tedious rock climbing, the expedition finally closes in on the top. Emerging from what turns out to be a toxic gas cloud cover, they discover a lush, prehistoric jungle inhabited by various dinosaurs and a large field of uranium, which is what has disabled their electronic tracking equipment.