207-Lost Continent

Film Year:  1951
Genre:  Adventure
Director:  Sam Newfield
Starring:  Cesar Romero, Hugh Beaumont, Hillary Brooke, Chick Chandler, Sid Melton, John Hoyt
MST Season: 2

The Movie

Heavily padded but not entirely dull film features Caesar Romero leading an expedition to an uncharted island searching for a missing atomic rocket.  There he finds a bunch of rocks to climb.

Oh and dinosaurs I guess.  But mostly rock climbing.

But yeah, the movie gets a lot of flack for its lengthy rock climbing sequences, but once you get past the fact that it’s a sixty minute movie pretending to be an eighty minute movie, the movie delivers a bit of B-movie goods.  The stop motion dinos are a bit primitive of the type but it’s fun watching the technique at work regardless.  Even still, there might not be enough dino action the satisfy most creature feature fans, though it might be enough to save this film from becoming a bit too tedious.

The Episode

The riffing is a bit laid-back and relaxed during this episode, probably because the movie is a bit “rainy day watch if nothing else is on.”  The episode becomes exceptionally fun when stop-motion are on-screen doing their thing and Joel and the Boys let themselves off the leash.  But as everyone in the episode is quick to note, the movie features a seemingly endless sequence of rock climbing, which is akin to riffing a brick wall.  The movie gives them so much silence to let them riff but barely any material.  However the boys seem to play it smart and turn it into a bit of a sketch.  By pointing out the tedium in the early host segments the episode builds up anticipation and even a sense of dread.  Once it gets there we witness Joel and the Bots slowly becoming engulfed by the sequences to the point they break down because of them.

“Why do we have to watch this dull mountain climbing sequence, Joel?”
“Because it’s there!”

Host segments seem to underline that while they’re playing up the tedium of the film, they seem to get something of a kick out of it.  They target Hugh Beaumont early on, as Mike appears as the actor in his Leave it to Beaver persona and introducing himself, bizarrely enough, as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.  He teaches them a valuable lesson and states cheerfully enough “Time to die!”  Later on the mock the film’s post-rock climbing sequence where characters stare in awe of the “Lost Continent” while the audience only gets to see their reaction.  Joel and the Bots stare outside the window at something “really cool” without showing us what it is.  This inspires a contest where viewers send their ideas of what the “cool thing” is, where select entries were read on the air during Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster.  The Invention Exchange amuses, as Frank invents a treadmill with wheels that you can use outside.  A frustrated Dr. Forrester points out that the user could just walk, but Frank pushes more ideas including a motionless stairmaster that you can climb up and down on (AKA a staircase) and a rowing machine you can use on water (AKA a rowboat).  Because of Frank’s ironic brilliance, Joel is unable to show an invention this week (the invention in his hand will be showcased in Hellcats).

In comparison to later MST, Lost Continent might be a bit too leisurely and not enough of a laff riot.  I would argue that the leisure works well for the movie they’re watching and adds to the charm of the episode.  It’s not a great episode, but like the movie itself it’s a fun watch during a rainy day.

Good

The DVD

Lost Continent hit DVD stands in Shout Factory’s Volume XVIII collection.  Unfortunately the transfer elements to this episode were damaged at some point and the video has huge flaws present, largely during the Invention Exchange segment, while staying with the episode a to a lesser extent as the episode goes on.  Audio becomes a bit flawed with certain tape hits as well.  Lost Continent is quite possibly the worst presentation of a MST3K episode on home video.

Extras-wise, we start off with an introduction by Frank Conniff.  Frank discusses the film, the notable actors (he’s more interested in people other than Romero and Beaumont), and why he thinks it’s good MST fodder.  Concluding the disc is a trailer for the film.