Classics: The Land That Time Forgot

Whatever else can be said about Edgar Rice Burroughs--and he has been the recipient of just about every literary criticism possible--the man knew how to tell a whopping good story. The fact that readers in each new generation manage to find and enjoy his dated little epics is proof. So what if his science sucks, his characters are two-dimensional and his personal prejudices shine through.

It's also no surprise, then, that Burroughs's books tend to end up being translated into film, beginning, of course, with his most famous creation--Tarzan of the Apes. So, too, in 1974, was a bit of paleontological fun called The Land That Time Forgot. The book, published in the 1920's, had all the flaws that make hard science fiction fans sneer. It also lacks the relative depth of the Tarzan series, relying solely on action rather than attempting to offer any explanations for its evolutionary premise.

The script for the film, written by SF veterans James Cawthorn and Michael Moorcock, undertook to correct some of those flaws and give the characters some dimension. There is still plenty of action, lots of F/X and some noteworthy performances under the direction of Kevin Connor. Connor, who specializes in made-for-TV, was a good choice to helm a Burroughs-based script, since the books themselves seem almost made for TV.

Moorcock and Cawthorn stuck as much as they could to Burroughs's original tale, starting with a fisherman's discovery of a vacuum bottle in the surf. Inside the bottle is a manuscript that tells the tale of a small group of survivors of a German U-boat attack who stumble on a strange and wonderful world on a volcanic island in the South Atlantic.

Headlining the cast is Doug McClure as Bowen Tyler, scion of the shipbuilding family who constructed the U-boat that sinks the freighter taking him to England. McClure was sort of the Brad Pitt of the sixties and early seventies, but without the range. He is, however, perfect as a Burroughs hero--strong and fearless, never resorting to violence unless it's necessary.

Adrift in a lifeboat with a lady biologist (Susan Penhaligon as Lise Clayton) and a dozen or so survivors of the torpedoed ship, Tyler lucks out when the U-boat surfaces nearby. They capture it, planning to take it to England. Unfortunately, their plans don't work out too well. The British ships they encounter refuse to believe their friendly signals, and they have a saboteur aboard. Believing they are sailing for the US, they come to discover that saboteur has rigged the ship's compass, and they are lost in the vast South Atlantic, low on food, fuel, and water.

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