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Plot summary
Bowen Tyler is a passenger on a British ship that a German U-boat torpedoes during World War I, and Lisa Clayton is aboard. The two are among the few survivors, and Tyler persuades the other men to take the submarine when it surfaces, since it offers their only chance. The British overpower the Germans on deck and seize the boat, and Tyler takes command with the aim of reaching a British port. Captain von Schoenvorts has his crew steer for a safe harbor, but the German officer Dietz damages the radio. Low on fuel and off course in the South Atlantic, the U-boat reaches Caprona, an uncharted land of thick vegetation where dinosaurs and primitive people live. Crude oil lies there, and refining it could carry both crews away from the island, so the two commanders reach an understanding.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Land That Time Forgot (1974)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Amicus wanted Doug McClure for the lead but he refused, so they signed Stuart Whitman. When Samuel Z. Arkoff of American International Pictures joined as co-financier providing the bulk of the budget, he insisted on McClure, who changed his mind and agreed.
- The dinosaurs were hand puppets rather than stop motion, chosen for a more fluid look, with Roger Dicken creating them. The crew also shot dinosaur background plates with a small VistaVision camera, whose exposed frame is twice the size of 35mm, and shot everything front projection.
- The landscapes of the prehistoric land Caprona were not shot abroad but in a disused claypit in Reading, Berkshire, while Shepperton Studios were used for filming during the 16-week shoot.
- The U-boat and ships were models, and the speaking part of von Schoenvorts was later dubbed in post-production by the German-born actor Anton Diffring.
