Tag Archives: Caroline Munro

IMAGINATOR MAGAZINE’S LOST WORLDS SPECIAL EDITION!

September 5, 2026 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Imaginator is much more like a book than a magazine: it is a journal-type publication that has a thick spine and boasts 116 pages crammed with colour photos, concept art, comic art, illustrations and storyboard panels! It will definitely look great on any bookshelf!

IMAGINATOR ISSUE 13 IS CURRENTLY ONLY AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE FROM THE MONSTER ZONE SITE – THE FIRST 40 ORDERS WILL GET A FREE LIMITED EDITION A4 POSTER BY IMAGINATOR MAGAZINE’S ARTIST ZILLA MAN!

IF YOU LIVE IN THE UK ORDER HERE:

Imaginator Issue 13 – To order if you’re in the UK

An issue devoted to the lost world sub-gentre! Interviews with Caroline Munro, Dana Gillespie, Kevin Connor, Joe Jusko, Brett Piper and more!

£22.99

IF YOU LIVE IN THE EU ORDER HERE:

Imaginator Issue 13 – To order if you’re in the EU

An issue devoted to the lost world sub-gentre! Interviews with Caroline Munro, Dana Gillespie, Kevin Connor, Joe Jusko, Brett Piper and more!

€34.99

IF YOU LIVE IN THE USA ORDER HERE:

Imaginator Issue 13 – To order if you’re in the USA

An issue devoted to the lost world sub-gentre! Interviews with Caroline Munro, Dana Gillespie, Kevin Connor, Joe Jusko, Brett Piper and more!

$42.40

Listen, if you find the cost (because of the postage) a bit too much, you’ll have to wait until this issue becomes available to purchase next month from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.

THIS LOST WORLDS SPECIAL EDITION IS JAM-PACKED WITH GREAT ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS, WITH A BIG SECTION DEVOTED TO EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS’ SAVAGELY FANTASTIC REALM OF PELLUCIDAR! LET’S CHECK OUT WHAT LIES WITHIN THE PAGES…

THE JOY OF LOST WORLDS
This article is an exploration of cinema’s wild and uncharted regions… zones populated by a myriad of exotic perils: Cavemen! Carnosaurs! Despotic queens! Killer plants! Ape gods! Giant crabs! Missing links! Biplane-chewing pterosaurs! Plesiosaurs! Unstable volcanoes! Lava! Lizard Men! Slurpasaurs! And so much more!

THE WILD WOMAN OF TWO LOST WORLDS
Dana Gillespie chats about dealing with killer seaweed, giant scorpions and cave-dwelling dinosaurs, as she recalls starring in The Lost Continent (1968) and The People That Time Forgot (1977)!

THE VALLEY OF GWANGI
Alan Friswell, the skilled conservator for The Ray & Diana Harryhausen Foundation, praises Ray’s rip-roaring fantasy-western, and Alan also explains how he keeps the magnificent stop-motion denizens of Forbidden Valley looking as good as new!

A CONVERSATION WITH A CAVEMAN
Bobby Parr, who played amiable neanderthal Ahm in The Land That Time Forgot, enjoys remembering working with Doug McClure and he explains how he was carried away by a pterodactyl!

THE PERILS OF PELLUCIDAR
An overview of Pellucidar: the savage and timeless domain located at the centre of the Earth. It is a remarkable world inhabited by hostile tribes, lethal beasts from the dawn of creation, man-apes, pirates and cruel reptile rulers known as Mahars… and it all came from the fertile imagination of Edgar Rice Burroughs! Imaginator takes a look at how Pellucidar has been portrayed in novels, magazines, comics, TV series and movies! Look out for Thipdars (pterosaurs), beautiful stone age women, drilling machines and more!

Frazetta's painting for At the Earth's Core

BEAUTIFUL BARBARIAN
Caroline Munro on when she starred as a primitive Pellucidarian princess in At the Earth’s Core, acting alongside Peter Cushing and Doug McClure! She also talks about her movies The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973), Starcrash (1978) and Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974)!

STOP-MOTION ADVENTURES AT THE EARTH’S CORE
Brett Piper chats about his fast-paced, entertaining all-puppet short film from 2025, which was an adaptation of the ERB classic yarn!

AUTHOR OF EPICS!
Win Scott Eckert tells Imaginator what it is like to dream up thrilling adventures and create all-new characters who are officially part of the Edgar Rice Burroughs expanded canon! His novels include Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar and Korak at the Earth’s Core!

AT THE EARTH’S CORE UNFILMED
A look at Jim Danforth’s unproduced movie version of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ first-rate fantasy-adventure!

THRILLING GRAPHIC NOVEL GOODNESS!
Artist Jamie Chase discusses the creation of his action-packed graphic novel At the Earth’s Core – and he talks about his follow-up graphic novel too… Pellucidar!

THE MAN WHO TOOK US TO THE EARTH’S CORE!
This year is the 50th anniversary of the release of At the Earth’s Core, so Imaginator has tracked down director Kevin Connor to quiz him about the making this film. Kevin also speaks about Warlords of Atlantis, plus the production that Amicus didn’t get to make… a John Carter movie!

PELLUCIDAR UNFILMED
Ron Lizorty talks about his unmade project Pellucidar, and he shares with us storyboard panels, behind the scenes pics of Dian the Beautiful and photos of the prehistoric creatures he sculpted for the unproduced film. Ron also chats about working on Galaxy of Terror (1981) and brings along some behind the scenes photos for us to admire! Plus – Ron shares the concept art he produced when he was the Production Designer on David Allen’s sci-fi-fantasy lost world adventure movie The Primevals!

JOE JUSKO AT THE EARTH’S CORE
Legendary fantasy artist Joe Jusko speaks about some of the impactful Pellucidar-themed paintings he has produced over the years, including the superb Tarzan at the Earth’s Core book cover artwork he created for the Edgar Rice Burroughs Authorized Library! Joe shares some in-progress photos he took of his Tarzan at the Earth’s Core cover illustration as it was being painted, plus he lets Imaginator exclusively reproduce an updated version of a Thipdar-themed illustration he originally painted over 30 years ago!

MARVELLOUSLY MYSTERIOUS UNDERGROUND WORLDS
Stepping away from the subterranean world of Pellucidar, Imaginator Magazine checks out other fantasy domains lurking beneath the surface of our world, such as Jules Verne’s famous Journey to the Center of the Earth, the Hollow Earth of Legendary Entertainment’s MonsterVerse movies, the mysterious land of Agartha in the uber-absurd flick Iron Sky: The Coming Race, the Sumerian civilisation residing beneath a mountain in the B-movie gem The Mole People, and other equally fabulous subterrestrial places…

THE HEART OF THE HOLLOW WORLD
Doug Lefler is a writer, a director, a skilled storyboard creator and a gifted artist. Here he explains why he invented a new kind of digital comics format, which allowed him to create a 24-chapter fantasy-sci-fi-adventure comic tale: The Heart of the Hollow World. Lots of yummy illustrations of gorgeous cave girls, robots, dinosaurs and steampunk drill machines are waiting for you to gaze at them!

LOST WORLD FILM REVIEWS
Movies reviewed include The Land Unknown, The Land That Time Forgot and The Last Dinosaur!

RADIOACTIVE REVIEWS
A final mini-review section looks at a film (and its tie-in book) that is not a lost world-themed story!

At The Earth’s Core (1976)

April 5, 2022 Ken Miller 1 Comment

After the success of its Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptation THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT (1974), Amicus decided to give us another Burroughs fantasy adventure with AT THE EARTH’S CORE (1976).

Starring Doug McClure once again, AT THE EARTH’S CORE also added Peter Cushing and the ever-glamorous Caroline Munro (as a beautiful slave girl princess) to the cast list.

The men-in-suit beasts are not as detailed or impactful as Roger Dicken’s rod puppet dinosaurs seen in THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT, and the score is lacklustre, but the nonstop incident and Caroline Munro make it very watchable. Peter Cushing seems to be enjoying himself as the dotty professor (“You can’t mesmerise me, I’m British!”), who gets to shoot a fire-breathing toad-monster with arrows (it explodes!)

My favourite monsters in the movie are the two critters that fight over the dead slave, which look like bipedal versions of the prehistoric mammal Brontotherium (they were referred to as ‘Bos’ in the publicity at the time of the film’s release, as I remember.)

I also like the creature that attacks McClure and a tribesman that seems to be half animal (it has tentacles) and half plant (its mouth looks like a glowing Venus Flytrap).

A 'Bos' chews a victim! — A ‘Bos’ monster chews a victim!

Other monsters in this movie include a beaked, parrot-faced dinosaur-like beast, a big quadrupedal creature that Doug McClure fights in a cave arena, and telepathic pterosaurs called Mahars.

The film also features Sagoths, which are humanoid servants of the Mahars, and the Iron Mole: the drill-nosed burrowing machine that carries McClure and Cushing deep through the Earth’s crust.

A flame-breathed beast — A flame-breathing beast

Mahars: the rulers of this subterranean world

AT THE EARTH’S CORE is a no-nonsense adventure romp, stretching its small budget as far as it can, filling the screen with its series of colourful sets, purple skies and ludicrous beasties.

Here are a whole bunch of posters for the film…

Japanese Chirashi mini-poster - front — Japanese Chirashi mini-poster – front

Japanese Chirashi mini-poster - reverse — Japanese Chirashi mini-poster – reverse

Here are some pages from an AT THE EARTH’S CORE pressbook…

Some DVD covers…

Lobby cards…

Home movie box art…

Finally, here’s a Caroline Munro publicity still for the film…

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973)

November 14, 2021 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Kali: one of Ray Harryhausen's greatest creations! — Kali: one of Ray Harryhausen’s greatest creations!

Sinbad (John Phillip Law), his crew, a Vizier (Douglas Wilmer) and a slave girl called Margiana (Caroline Munro) undertake a voyage to find the legendary Fountain of Destiny in Lemuria, but a master of black arts, Koura (Tom Baker), is also set on acquiring the Fountain’s gifts to conquer the land of Marabia.

Directed by Gordon (SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN) Hessler, this movie was the second of three Ray Harryhausen Sinbad films released by Columbia Pictures (the other two were THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD and SINBAD AND THE EYE OF THE TIGER) and it’s my personal favourite.

Margiana is offered up to the God of the Single Eye... a centaur! — Margiana is offered up to the God of the Single Eye… a centaur!

For me THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD has the best ‘feel’ of the three Harryhausen Sinbad productions: the lighting is great, the sets are marvellous, it has the best dialogue, and the general atmosphere is a satisfying mix of seriousness, fantasy, adventure and humour.

Sinbad fights for his life in a fine-looking Lemurian temple set — Sinbad fights for his life in a moody Lemurian temple set

The score by composer Miklós Rózsa is wonderful, especially during the exciting sword fight between Sinbad’s crew and a statue of Kali. Rózsa had provided the music for THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1940), a favourite film of Ray’s. THE THIEF OF BAGDAD had also featured green-skinned men and this Sinbad adventure has similar green tribesmen.

The main selling point of any Ray Harryhausen production is the chance to enjoy Ray’s stop-motion effects and THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD has a fine selection of animated adversaries, including the aforementioned many-armed Kali. Along with the Kali fight scene, the initial sequence that introduces Kali is also very well-done: the fact that Ray, through his stop-motion skills, imbues the six-armed statue with ‘life’ and then proceeds to show her dancing too is just amazing.

Other stop-motion creations include a wooden ship’s figurehead and winged homunculi. The scene in which Koura creates the second small homunculus from a jar of leaves and chemicals is effectively done, with the tiny creature acting as if it has just been born.

'Birth' of the homunculus — ‘Birth’ of the homunculus

Koura uses his dark magic to animate the figurehead on Sinbad's ship — Koura uses his dark magic to animate the figurehead on Sinbad’s ship

There is also an impressive cyclopean centaur, which kidnaps Margiana, then does battle with a griffin!

Some folks moan that the griffin just kind of strolls into the story to have a fight with the centaur and then gets killed. But this winged creature is performing a role set out in a prophecy told to Sinbad by the Oracle of All Knowledge (played by an uncredited Robert Shaw in striking makeup) and so, for me, the sudden appearance works fine because the griffin is functioning as part of the prophecy (which states “Destiny is a place where both good and evil wait” – the griffin obviously personifies the good) and when we see it get wounded by Koura so that the centaur can gain the upper hand in the battle, the griffin is again playing its part in the prophecy (“for it is the deeds of weak and mortal men that may tip the scales one way or the other.”)

The horned Oracle of All Knowledge is consulted

Lobby card shows Sinbad taking on the centaur

Tom Baker, as Koura, ageing every time he uses his magic, is the best villain in the Sinbad trilogy of films, I think. John Phillip Law is a fine Sinbad (the best!) and the lovely Caroline Munro adds glamour as slave girl Margiana, dripping sex appeal in all her scenes. Douglas (JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS) Wilmer, as the badly burned Vizier, is hidden by a mask for most of the running time, but his voice is a great contribution to the film.

Tom Baker as Koura, surrounded by green tribesmen

The Vizier reveals his scarred face to act as a distraction, so that Sinbad can escape the green men. — Douglas Wilmer as the Vizier reveals his scarred face to act as a distraction, so that the protagonists can escape the green men.

Sinbad offers the Vizier a crown of untold riches

Ultimately, I think this Sinbad film stands out because its story uses the overarching theme of Destiny very well, in a script written by Brian Clemens that includes lots of chat peppered with praise to Allah, humour and colourful aphorisms: “My heart is filled with courage! But I have very cowardly legs.”

“Trust in Allah, but tie up your camel!”