Directed by Kevin Connor, produced by John Dark, Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky, starring Doug McClure, John McEnery, Susan Penhaligon, Keith Barron, Anthony Ainley, Godfrey James, Declan Mulholland and Bobby Parr. Made by Amicus Productions.

In World War I the survivors of a torpedoed ship manage to take control of the German U-boat that sank their vessel. After finding themselves stranded on the prehistoric continent of Caprona, the two opposing groups form an uneasy alliance to survive in this dinosaur-filled land.

Okay, let’s get the dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles out of the way first: yes, they’re obviously not as good as stop-motion Harryhausen-style beasties, but Roger Dicken’s rod puppet creations are preferable to real-lizards-with-frills or men-in-dino-suits. They at least resemble dinosaurs and are pretty nice to look at.

I was lucky enough to see a couple of these dinosaur puppets when Roger Dicken attended a film festival I co-hosted at London’s legendary Scala Cinema in the early 90s. These lovingly-detailed movie monster models looked really impressive up-close!

The scenes of the puppet critters are augmented with shots of full-scale models, including a plesiosaur (its head and neck) and a pterosaur that glides away with a friendly caveman!

I think the movie’s script, written by Michael Moorcock & James Cawthorn, based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel, is intriguing: the various creatures (including primitive types of human and even bacteria) living in Caprona are continually evolving as they move northwards in this lost world. In the novel (and its sequels) Burroughs included prehistoric mammals like Mammoths (showing them being preyed upon by carnivorous dinos, etc) to illustrate how creatures from different time periods all dwell on the same subcontinent. The movie, maybe due to budgetary reasons, doesn’t include any mammalian beasties, but it does feature tribes of early humans at different stages of sophistication, to visually highlight the concept of evolution advancing as individuals migrate towards Caprona’s northern regions.

Loads of fights with cavemen, shootouts with dinos, some neat Derek Meddings model submarine work, a volcanic eruption, decent acting and a pretty downbeat finale keep this flick interesting.

And, of course, the film stars Doug frickin’ McClure, who would go on to fight more monsters in the movies AT THE EARTH’S CORE (1976), THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT (1977) and WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS (1978), which were all directed by Kevin Connor, and then Doug took on more monsters in HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP (1980). What a dude!

Let’s check out some posters for the movie…

Finally, here’s the cover of the film tie-in rerelease of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel, featuring the likenesses of Doug McClure and Susan Penhaligon.
Doug is shown punching a caveman in the face!