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The People That Time Forgot
Caprona 2. Teil - Menschen, die die Zeit vergass
UK / USA 1977
produced by John Dark, Max Rosenberg, Samuel Z. Arkoff (executive) for Amicus, AIP
directed by Kevin Connor
starring Patrick Wayne, Doug McClure, Sarah Douglas, Dana Gillespie, Thorley Walters, Shane Rimmer, Tony Britton, John Hallam, David Prowse, Milton Reid, Kiran Shah, Richard LeParmentier, Jimmy Ray, Tony McHale
screenplay by Patrick Tilley, based on the novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, music by John Scott
Caprona
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Ben McBride (Patrick Wayne) heads an expedition to the Antartica where
his friend Tyler (Doug McClure) went missing in some prehistoric
wonderland - see The Land That
Time Forgot. But of course, while surveying the area by bi-plane,
he and his team are soon downed by a pterodactyl, and while he has
engineer Hogan (Shane Rimmer) to stay behind and make repairs to the
plane, McBride, photographer and later love interest Charly (Sarah
Douglas) and scientist Professor Norfolk (Thorley Walters) go scout the
area for traces of Tyler - and they don't have to search long, as soon
enough they save a girl, Ajor (Dana Gillespie), from dinosaurs, who just
happens to be a good friend of Tyler's. But unfortunately she tells them
Tyler has been captured by the evil Nagas who have massacred most of her
tribe. So our motley crew is off to Naga city, where they at first are to
be sacrificed to dinosaurs, and after their escape, they are recaptured,
and while Charly and Agor are to be made brides of the volcano at the
center of the city (meaning they are to be thrown into hot burning lava),
McBride and the Professor are just locked away - where they against all
odds find Tyler. With him, they overcome their Naga guards, then free the
women and flee through some caves. The volcano starts to erupt, and yet
some Nagas choose to try to recapture our heroes rather than made a dash
for safety, which leads to Tyler saving the others and dying a hero's
death. The others, including Ajor, of course make it to the biplane for a
timely escape ... Now 1977 was the year of Star Wars,
and with it spectacle genre cinema had finally found its permanent
foothold in big budget mainstream Hollywood. And compared to a big budget
production like Star Wars, The People That Time Forgot, done
on a budget too low for what it was trying to achieve, had to look old -
but even without the comparison, this film at hand looked a bit out of
place in the late 1970s and looks much more alike adventure Bs from
roughly a decade earlier. But all that said, The People That Time
Forgot does have definite entertainment value, there's always plenty
going on on-screen, translating the joy of boundless adventure of Edgar
Rice Burroughs' writing as such to film rather nicely, the dinosaurs and
effects work are rather ok, scantily clad Dana Gillespie brings some
sensousness to the otherwise very innocent yarn, and the most is made out
of the film's locations. Of course, on the flip-side there's flat
characters, not all the acting is above just adequate, and Kevin Connor's
direction is very much on the old-fashioned and functional side of things.
But all that only contributes to a nice trip down memory lane that's sure
to please fans of genre nostalgia (like myself).
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