Atlantis, The Lost Continent (1961) George Pal

1961 Color 90 Min

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Atlantis, the Lost Continent is a 1961 science fiction film, directed by George Pal and starring Anthony Hall aka: Sal Ponti, about the destruction of Atlantis during the time of Ancient Greece.


Plot
A Greek fisherman named Demetrios (Sal Ponti, under the screen name of Anthony Hall) and his father rescue Princess Antillia (Joyce Taylor) from a shipwreck without knowing that in fact she is from the technologically advanced civilization of Atlantis. Upon returning her to her civilization, Demetrios is placed into slavery. It turns out that the King Cronus (Edgar Stehli) is being manipulated by an ambitious usurper, Zaren (John Dall), using an evil sorcerer (Frank DeKova) who wishes to use the resources of Atlantis to take over the world. The slaves of Atlantis have been mining crystals which absorb the sun's rays and can then be used to fire heat rays. Through the help of a kind, spiritual high priest named Azar (Edward Platt), Demetrios is able to rescue the princess from the wicked spells of the sorcerer and his malicious pretender to the throne, and escape from the spectacular destruction of Atlantis in the climactic finale.

Cast
Actor Role
Anthony Hall aka: Sal Ponti Demetrios
Joyce Taylor Princess Antillia
John Dall Zaren
William Smith Captain of the Guard
Edward Platt Azar the High Priest
Frank DeKova Sonoy the Astrologer
Berry Kroeger Surgeon
Edgar Stehli King Cronus [Kronos]
Wolfe Barzell Petros, Demetrios' Father
Jay Novello Xandros the Greek Slave
Paul Frees Narrator/multiple voices

Production notes
The film is notorious for its inclusion of stock footage material from other movies, including Quo Vadis and The Naked Jungle. Props from other productions were also reused, including a large statue at the temple from The Prodigal and Krell gauges from Forbidden Planet. The spectacular special visual effects work of Atlantis, the elaborate miniature work of ancient Greek and Roman-style buildings, landscapes, temples, the volcano, the destruction of Atlantis, and the giant crystal ray machine, were the work of the special effects production company Project Unlimited, supervised by Gene Warren, Wah Chang, and Jim Danforth, along with the MGM production staff supervised by A. Arnold Gillespie. They coordinated their work with George Pal, who worked closely with the production designer and art director George W. Davis and William Ferrari.

The film's prologue, describing the legend of Atlantis, features stop motion animation, often used by producer George Pal earlier in his career.

Reaction
The film has generally received poor reviews and was described by film critic Leonard Maltin in his 2002 Movie & Video Guide as "Pal's worst film", saying that it had "poor effects" and that it was: "Occasionally funny – but not on purpose." [1]

Science fiction author David Wingrove also had similar criticisms in his science fiction film source book: "No expense was spared in buying up footage from Quo Vadis to give it true period flavour. Avoid." [2]

At a preview screening of this film, questionnaires were handed to the audience asking what their favorite scene was. One person, apparently recognizing the footage taken from Quo Vadis, replied, "The scene where Robert Taylor saved Deborah Kerr from the fire."[