The People That Time Forgot [DVD] [1977]

Before Luke Skywalker, there was Doug McClure... His John Dark-Kevin Connor fantasy adventures were a mainstay of Summer holiday movies in the days before Star Wars: they weren't masterpieces, they didn't boast state-of-the-art special effects, but they were exactly what an audience of kids wanted from a film back in the mid 70s. Except for this one, which has always been regarded a bit like the dotty relation nobody ever talks about, and not without good reason.

Despite the success of their first two Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptations, The Land That Time Forgot and At the Earth's Core, The People That Time Forgot was barely released, and it's not hard to see why. Combining the last two novels of Burroughs Caprona/Caspak trilogy and removing almost everything of interest from them, it was filmed on the cheap and looks it. This time round there are few dinosaurs, glove puppet or otherwise, and, either to keep the budget down or because they were too similar to the evil Mahars in At the Earth's Core, the flying dinosaur/human hybrids of the last novel have been replaced by a tribe of human sacrificing volcano worshipping samurai. With McClure reduced to a cameo, the film focuses on the rescue mission to the lost island of Caprona led by Patrick Wayne, Sarah Douglas and Thorley Walters but apart from Dana Gillespie's spectacular cleavage and an okay score from John Scott, there's not much to recommend it as it drags on forever to little effect. Unlike the first film there are no ideas, no plot, no sense of continuity with the original film, just the feeling of an unwelcome contractual obligation that everyone wants to get over as quickly and inexpensively as possible. Failing even to work on the most elementary kids matinee show level and with no fun to be had, this one feels like hard work to get to the end.

MGM's DVD offers an okay widescreen transfer with a trailer the only extra, though the DVD is apparently missing one brief sequence.

Well is the the follow up to The Land That Time Forgot. Not as good as the first film - but it still has loads of fake dinosaurs, action and fun.

Good rainly day film.

As a young boy I loved dinosaurs and when I saw this movie's poster I was determined to see the film. I was 12 or 13 at the time and wanted to see a dinosaur film. My mum took me to a small cinema in Bromley, Kent and we sat through the movie. At my age then I wasn't so interested in dinosaurs that I didn't notice the healthy curves of Ajor (Dana Gillespie) busting (literally) out of a doe skin bikini. Not even Raquel Welch in 1,000,000 Years B.C. had been so sexually charged as this amazing beauty. I loved the film and fell in love with Dana Gillespie. At the time I wasn't even aware of the previous film The Land That Time Forgot and when I did get to see it I was delighted with it too, but it lacked the busty Dana Gillespie and so, despite probably being the better film, I never quite saw it the same as this one.

The dinosaurs weren't very "dinosaur-y", having seen later dinosaur movies, but the actors gave it their all and created a magical world. I have since bought several of these "weird" movies: The Land That Time Forgot, At The Earth's Core, The Lost Continent, The Lost Empire, to name a few and I can safely say that no matter how others might view these films they still have a certain magic that takes me back to 12 or 13 years old and my love of this film and Dana Gillespie.

It was shortly after seeing this film that I was able to see an article in the, then, broadsheet News Of The World interviewing Miss Gillespie and her laughing about another film she starred in where a landslide of rocks bounced off her huge, heaving 44" bosom as she stood on a rocky ledge. I now know this was The Lost Continent, having seen it. What a woman!

I know that Doug McClure became a bit of a joke to the Americans (Troy McClure in The Simpsons, anyone) but I love his old movies and I will always remember him as Trampas in The Virginian. Any guy who got to work opposite Sarah Douglas, Caroline Munro and Dana Gillespie (and her amazing breasts) is all right by me!

As a final note it is probably an indication of this film's (and it's prequel's) appeal to the masses that they still regularly appear in the TV magazines and on TV.