Tag Archives: Doug McClure

The Land That Time Forgot (1974)

June 15, 2023 Ken Miller 3 Comments

Okay, now THIS is what you call a movie poster!

Battlin' water beasts — Battlin’ water beasts

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.

Watch out for the Tylosaurus! This is one of my favourite creatures in the movie

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.

Checking out the lost world... — Checking out the lost world…

A brief battle between a Ceratosaurus and a Triceratops…

...and the Triceratops (guarding its eggs) wins! — …and the Triceratops (guarding its eggs) wins!

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!

The life-size Tylosaurus model head in action — A life-size Tylosaurus model head in action

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.

An aquatic reptile roars as the volcanic eruption starts to heat-up the river water

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!

Shoot that Plesiosaurus in the face, Doug!

You can't win a race with a swooping pterosaur, Doug! — Doug, you can’t win a race with a swooping pterosaur!

Let’s check out some posters for the movie…

US poster. It's interesting that the American poster includes a laser beam-firing manta ray, a giant octopus and a cool-looking sub with windows! — US poster. It’s interesting that the American poster includes a laser beam-firing manta ray, a giant octopus, a diving bell and a cool-looking sub with windows (none of which feature in the movie)!

Thai poster: look at Doug’s dark, lustrous hair!

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!

I own this novel still! — I still own this version of the novel!

Warlords of Atlantis (1978)

July 8, 2022 Ken Miller 2 Comments

British archaeologist Professor Aitken (Donald Bisset) and his son Charles (Peter Gilmore) hire Captain Daniels (Shane Rimmer) to take them to a particular area of the ocean so that they can use a diving bell designed by beefy engineer Greg Collinson (Doug McClure) to search for proof that the fabled city of Atlantis exists.

US one sheet. This is a pretty dynamic-looking poster!

Greg, Charles and several members of the ship’s mutinous crew end up deep down in a vast undersea cavern system, where they discover the lost civilisation of the Atlanteans, who are actually Martians that arrived on Earth, via a comet, back in prehistoric times.

Beast-battler supreme Doug McClure and Peter Gilmore — Beast-battler pro Doug McClure and Peter Gilmore

Written by Brian Hayles, who worked on numerous episodes of DOCTOR WHO, this period fantasy film has some quite interesting ideas hidden amongst the pulp-adventure action. The aliens, we discover, are influencing mankind, causing them to edge closer to devastating world wars in order to fast-track scientific advancement: one of the main characters (Gilmore) has visions of events that are yet to be, including marching Nazis, mass warfare, atomic bombs, and so on. A pretty cool scene.

The Atlantean elite try to persuade Charles to join them

There are some crude-but-nice matte paintings and the Atlantean warrior dudes in shiny helms that completely cover their faces look damn cool, but the main reason anyone tunes in to watch WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS is, let’s face it, to see the mutant monsters featured in the movie.

A trek through the (matte painting) caverns

The swamp-dwelling mogdaan, a kind of huge, finned eel-creature, is my favourite beast, bursting up through the muddy waters to menace the heroes.

The mogdaan lurks on the other side of the standing stones — The mogdaan lurks in the swamp on the other side of the standing stones

The lumpy-skinned, club-tailed, ankylosaur-like zaargs are also fun to watch as they attack one of the Atlantean cities.

A zaarg starts climbing up the city-fortress walls — A zaarg starts to scale the city-fortress walls

Zaargs must be good at climbing because these walls are pretty damn steep!

A zaarg gets up close and personal with some of the city's defenders — A zaarg gets up close and personal with some of the city’s defenders

The serpentine plesiosaur-type monster that menaces our heroes in the diving bell earlier in the story works better in close-up, when a full-scale model is used, rather than in long shot, where it looks rather unimposing.

The eel-like plesiosaur creature is far less effective seen in long shot... — The eel-like plesiosaur creature is far less effective seen in long shot…

...but the plesiosaur-beast works better as a full-scale monster when it pokes its head inside the diving bell — …but the plesiosaur-beast works better as a full-scale model monster, when it pokes its head inside the diving bell

There are some snapping fish too, that blast from the water to nibble at the escaping protagonists. These piscine predators are quite rubbery-looking, unfortunately, though there’s a briefly-seen, toothy critter that is also featured during the fish sequence: and that creature, though we only see its head, is rather more effective.

Toothy critter latches onto a character's leg — Toothy critter latches onto a character’s leg

And, of course, there’s the giant octopus that makes several appearances in the film. It has a well-textured skin and ain’t half bad to look at, especially when it attacks the ship at the end of the movie, to retrieve a stolen artefact.

The octopus retrieves the gold artefact…

...and trashes the ship — …and trashes the ship

John Richardson supervised the visual effects, which boast some really quite decent miniature work, and Roger Dicken created the movie’s menagerie of monsters. Actually, you can see Roger in the movie, playing one of the men defending the city’s ramparts during the zaarg assault!

Behind the scenes shot of Roger Dicken with one of the octopus models

A zaarg uses its big foot to smash through the wall — A zaarg uses its big foot to smash through the city wall

Directed by Kevin Connor and produced by Connor and John Dark, WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS also stars Michael (LIFEFORCE) Gothard, Lea Brodie, Robert (ONE MILLION YEARS BC) Brown, John (WARLORDS OF THE 21ST CENTURY) Ratzenberger, Daniel (THE VAULT OF HORROR) Massey and Cyd (BRIGADOON) Charisse. This modestly budgeted flick may not be a fantasy-adventure classic, but the film is definitely one of the better examples of the 70’s series of John Dark/Kevin Connor lost world-style productions (all of which featured Doug McClure): the others were THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT, AT THE EARTH’S CORE and THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT.

Here are some posters…

French poster. I love how the octopus is portrayed in this composition

German poster... featuring Harryhausen's Beast from 20,000 fathoms! — German poster… featuring Harryhausen’s Beast from 20,000 Fathoms!

A nice lookin' Thai poster — A nice lookin’ Thai poster

UK quad poster: Arabian Adventure/Warlords of Atlantis double bill

Belgian poster... featuring a giant crab, a spike-backed sauropod, the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms... and an Aztec temple! — Belgian poster… featuring a giant crab, a spike-backed sauropod, the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms… and an Aztec temple!

Some lobby cards…

VHS and DVD covers…

German VHS cover, partly based on Tom Chantrell's artwork created for the UK VHS cover — German VHS cover, partly based on Tom Chantrell’s artwork created for the UK VHS cover

Some publicity shots featuring Lea Brodie and the octopus…

She's a sucker for octopi — She’s a sucker for octopi

A tentacle-tastic duo — A tentacle-tastic shot of a girl and her octopus

Finally, here’s some pre-production art created for the film…

Production designer Maurice George Carter produced watercolour concept art for WARLORDS OF ATLANTIS (in 1976).

Initially, it seems, a squid was going to attack the ship, rather than an octopus. But even after the squid was replaced with an octopus in the movie, this squid imagery was used in some of the artwork for various posters and VHS covers (including Tom Chantrell’s UK VHS cover painting).

This watercolour concept of an Aztec-style pyramid-temple ultimately never found its way into the final film, but it did find its way onto some of the poster artwork, including the Belgian poster…

Maurice George Carter's painting of an Atlantean temple — Maurice George Carter’s painting of an Atlantean temple

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 pretty shoddy (compared to Roger Dicken’s rod-puppet dinosaurs in THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT) and the score is lacklustre, but the nonstop incident and Caroline Munro make it 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

Let’s be honest: AT THE EARTH’S CORE is never going to be considered a fantasy classic, but it’s 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…