Evening star., 1952-01-26

WudI tLley saw uldy nave UCe
spectator in the higher year brack-
cts. lost Continent" might bet
ter have remained lost. Much more
dramatic than the picture to the
latter was the credit list which
showed the film to have been pro-
duced by Sigmund Neufeld and di-
rected by Samuel Newfeld. He
kept wondering more about the
kinship of these two characters
than about what was happening
to Cesar Romero and his COM
panions on the screen.
Such people probably should
stay away from Lost Continent"
and leave at least one more seat
for the Superman set.
Carroll Young, who may be the
Thomas Mann of science fiction
for all this reviewer knows, is the
writer who imagined the stuff that
Romero and the others act in
'Lost Continent" That he has an
unfettered Imagination is more
than intimated in the fact that
his story pits a bunch of atom
scientists against a prehistoric
herd of Brontosaurus at the climax
of the film.
Obviously, this is spectacle one
does not run across every day and.
to give it its due, it suggests that
things are going on in science
fiction that are funnier than Mil
ton Berle thinks he is.
What it might do to the i'm
mature mind, of course, is some
thing else whose meaning will not
be clear until Albert Einstein
enters thoroughbred Diplodoccus
in the next Santa Anita handicap.
X 4 r
Despite the fantastic material
of Lost Continent, Producer
Neufeld's director, Newf1eld, is un-
able to make it look either very
real or exciting. The fact is that
the first 20 minutes of his film
are devoted to a dull airpla1ne
ride toward the lost continent on
which a misguided rocket missile
has found a landing place.
Once this continent is found, a
frightened native woman dressed
somewhat like a female on tele-
vision, tells the mission that the
rocket has landed on the noun
tain of the Gods" This requires
approximately 80 minutes OF
mountain climbing which, unless
you are doing the climbing can be
q dull spectacle.
This leaves SO minutes of the
86-minute film and into this area,
they do bring the Brontosaurus
and another prehistoric animal
which is not identified but which
looks larger than a dirigible. Be-
fore they can get to the rocket
and recover a secret mechanism
that should never fall into the
hands of a prehistoric animal,
the scientists and Army flyers
have to either outwit or kill the
monstrous mammals.
It turns out, naturally, that
the atom scientists are smarter
than any Brentosaurus. which, as
every one knows, died because 1t
was so brainless.
After licking the gigantic mem
bers of the Lost Continents ZOO,
however, it develops the scientific
mission has another battle on its
hands. This is with the gods OF
the mountain, a mysterious group
that seems to know enough about
nuclear physics to blow UP the
whole mad world. The explosion
they set off in a huge field OF
unadulterated uranium is not
enough, however to keep hero
Romero from getting back to the
date he broke the night the mis-
guided missile disappeared.
Thus endeth the story OF Lost
Continent" or how it would be if
the Atomic Energy Commission
should ever be over run by Bron-
tosaurus, or is it Brontosauri?
4 4 y
Bulletin board: First of the
three performances of the Ballet
Russo de Monte Carlo with the
National Symphony Orchestra will
be given tonight at $3.50 at Con-
stitution Hall. Featured
dancers with the group this sea-
son include the famed French
Ballerina Yvette Chauvier, Fred
eric Franklin, Leon Danielian,
Nina Novak and Yvonne Chou
teau. Moliere's "The Intel
lectual Ladies" will be presented
in three performances. January
29-31 inclusive, at Theater Lobby