The People that Time Forgot starts aboard a Royal Navy icebreaker named the 'Polar Queen' as it sails towards the snow covered cliffs of a lost continent called Caprona, well it's not lost anymore is it? Anyway on-board is American Major Ben McBride (Patrick Wayne, son of John Wayne by the way) who intends to find his close friend Bowen Tyler (Doug McClure) who went missing & the only clue to his whereabouts was a cannister found floating in the Sea just off the coast of Scotland containing various prehistoric specimens & Tyler's location, travelling with McBride is a photographer named Charlotte Cunningham (Sarah Douglas, complete with Princess Leia buns hairdo) who has been sent by the newspaper that is funding the expedition, a scientist named Dr. Edwin Norfolk (Thorley Walters) who intends to study the continent & a mechanic Hogan (Shane Rimmer). Captain Lawton (Tony Britton) wishes them luck & the four set off in their amphibious plane, before they know it they're over the snowy cliffs & are suddenly attacked by a pterodactyl which damages their plane & forces them to make a crash landing. Hogan says he'll need a few days to fix the plane, McBride decides to leave him to it & sets off with Charlotte & Edwin in search of his friend Tyler. Soon they meet a scantily clad (horay!) cave-woman who luckily speaks perfect English named Ajor (Dana Gillespie) who is one of the last remaining survivors of the Galu tribe, she says that she knew Tyler & that he taught her & the Galu much before the evil Naga kidnapped him & slaughtered most of the Galu. The Naga wanted the intelligent Tyler for themselves, they also worship the volcano god Naga Mata by offering human sacrifices in their city called the Mountain of Skulls. All four set off to try & rescue Tyler all the while having to dodge other hostile tribes, various dinosaurs & monsters who want to eat them & eventually the King of the Naga's a big fat bald green guy called Sabbala who wants to chop they're heads off as a sacrifice...
Directed by Kevin Connor this was the third 'lost world' film he made with Doug McClure for British production company Amicus that started with The Land that Time Forgot (1975) continued with At the Earth's Core (1976) then this one & finally Warlords of Atlantis (1978) which rounded the loose series of films off. I must admit that The People the Time Forgot isn't my favourite of the four films, far from it in fact. The script by Patrick Tilley based on the novel Edgar Rice Burroughs contains all the necessary ingredients that one would expect, swashbuckling action & adventure, fantasy, Sci-Fi, monsters, cave-women showing lots of cleavage off, a race against time to get to safety, an erupting volcano & two waring tribes one good & one evil but somehow I didn't like it as much as the others. The People that Time Forgot moves along at a reasonable pace & is generally entertaining but there are plenty of plot holes in this one that you could drive a tank through, the one that bugs me the most is that Tyler has seemingly taught the entire population of Caprona to speak perfect English as mentioned several times. The monsters barely interact with the expedition this time & really do look awfully cheap & not in a charming innocent kind of way either, probably the worst in the series & they even reuse one monster from At the Earth's Core & looking at these things can get a bit embarrassing at times. Some of the other, well most actually, special effect's are also not exactly brilliant & in particular the miniature's of the plane & boat & the matte paintings of the Mountain of Skulls which looks pretty fake as they walk towards it. The locations were also another disappointment compared to the other films, most of The People that Time Forgot takes place in a very real forest somewhere & a rocky wilderness that's both bland & unimaginative. Although they were hardly convincing themselves when compared to the sets of the other films I felt this came off as second best & seemed a little too 'real' & suffers as a lost world film because of it. The Naga city is depicted by one throne room & a dungeon cell both of which actually looked quite cool especially the dungeon with it's skull, bone & cobweb strewn walls & floor, the Naga are depicted wearing what looks like Japanese Samurai costumes & they felt strange to me. There's a cool shot when McBride takes one of their masks off though & reveals what's underneath. The acting is OK, Wayne makes for a bland hero but he's alright I guess & I'm surprised McClure has nothing more than a cameo in this one. Douglas does a good job of being attractive throughout so I've no complaints there & Gellespie is just OK as the native cave-woman. Overall I liked The People that Time Forgot but it's definitely not my favourite Connor/McClure monster film, that honour goes to Warlords of Atlantis. If you liked the others then I'm positive you'll like this & it's still good fun to watch for all ages regardless but there's just something about it that doesn't work for me that I can't quite put my finger on...
Directed by Kevin Connor this was the third 'lost world' film he made with Doug McClure for British production company Amicus that started with The Land that Time Forgot (1975) continued with At the Earth's Core (1976) then this one & finally Warlords of Atlantis (1978) which rounded the loose series of films off. I must admit that The People the Time Forgot isn't my favourite of the four films, far from it in fact. The script by Patrick Tilley based on the novel Edgar Rice Burroughs contains all the necessary ingredients that one would expect, swashbuckling action & adventure, fantasy, Sci-Fi, monsters, cave-women showing lots of cleavage off, a race against time to get to safety, an erupting volcano & two waring tribes one good & one evil but somehow I didn't like it as much as the others. The People that Time Forgot moves along at a reasonable pace & is generally entertaining but there are plenty of plot holes in this one that you could drive a tank through, the one that bugs me the most is that Tyler has seemingly taught the entire population of Caprona to speak perfect English as mentioned several times. The monsters barely interact with the expedition this time & really do look awfully cheap & not in a charming innocent kind of way either, probably the worst in the series & they even reuse one monster from At the Earth's Core & looking at these things can get a bit embarrassing at times. Some of the other, well most actually, special effect's are also not exactly brilliant & in particular the miniature's of the plane & boat & the matte paintings of the Mountain of Skulls which looks pretty fake as they walk towards it. The locations were also another disappointment compared to the other films, most of The People that Time Forgot takes place in a very real forest somewhere & a rocky wilderness that's both bland & unimaginative. Although they were hardly convincing themselves when compared to the sets of the other films I felt this came off as second best & seemed a little too 'real' & suffers as a lost world film because of it. The Naga city is depicted by one throne room & a dungeon cell both of which actually looked quite cool especially the dungeon with it's skull, bone & cobweb strewn walls & floor, the Naga are depicted wearing what looks like Japanese Samurai costumes & they felt strange to me. There's a cool shot when McBride takes one of their masks off though & reveals what's underneath. The acting is OK, Wayne makes for a bland hero but he's alright I guess & I'm surprised McClure has nothing more than a cameo in this one. Douglas does a good job of being attractive throughout so I've no complaints there & Gellespie is just OK as the native cave-woman. Overall I liked The People that Time Forgot but it's definitely not my favourite Connor/McClure monster film, that honour goes to Warlords of Atlantis. If you liked the others then I'm positive you'll like this & it's still good fun to watch for all ages regardless but there's just something about it that doesn't work for me that I can't quite put my finger on...