In the Philippines some Americans learn of valuable pearls on a remote island and form an alliance to get the treasure, but they have to deal with the inbred tribe that inhabits the isle. John Ashley, Sid Haig and Patrick Wayne star as the venal team members along with Lenore Stevens as a scientist. Leigh Christian plays an alluring blonde member of the remote society.
"Beyond Atlantis" (1973) is an oceanic adventure that combines "City Beneath the Sea" (1953) with the women-in-skin-bikinis of Hammer's "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth" (1970). Like the latter, it has a barely-a-B-movie vibe, but it's more entertaining due to the superb location shooting and quality cast. The director knows how to tastefully shoot women (no pun intended) and it's one of the flick's highlights.
This could've been as good as "City Beneath the Sea" or "Mysterious Island" (1961), but more time needed spent on strengthening the (obviously) loose script. That takes time and time means money, which the producers regrettably didn't have. While this is a "bad movie," it's entertaining enough to check out.
The film runs 1 hour, 31 minutes, and was shot in the Philippines.
GRADE: C/C-
Beyond Atlantis
1973
Action / Adventure / Fantasy / Horror / Mystery / Sci-Fi / Thriller
Beyond Atlantis
1973
Action / Adventure / Fantasy / Horror / Mystery / Sci-Fi / Thriller
Plot summary
A band of adventurers invade a native island determined to grab a reported fortune in buried treasure.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
July 13, 2024 at 12:49 AM
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Gem-hunting adventure on an isolated isle in the East Indies with Patrick Wayne
A forgettable Filipino adventure.
A group of fortune hunters - diver Logan (John Ashley), pimp East Eddie (Sid Haig), and boat owner Vic (Patrick Wayne) - travel by boat to a remote island where they hope to gather a fortune in rare pearls from the seabed. Also along for the trip: sexy redhead boffin Kathy (Lenore Stevens) who is looking to make an important scientific discovery. However, with the island inhabited by strange mutants who don't take kindly to strangers, will the adventurers and the lady scientist succeed in their missions or die trying?
Beyond Atlantis opens with chubby Filipino Manuel (played by chubby Filipino cult actor Vic Diaz) arriving on a tropical island with beautiful blonde Syrene (played by beautiful blonde Leigh Christian), where the lovely lady hands over a handful of pearls in exchange for supplies. Syrene then strips to a skimpy bikini, and heads for her village, arriving just in time to witness an intruder getting a spear in his back while bug-eyed natives look on.
It's a promising start to what looks set to be an entertaining piece of trashy exploitation; however, it has been my experience that the presence of Vic Diaz is seldom the sign of a great film. Or even a so-bad-it's-good film. More often than not, he appears in virtually unwatchable junk. While Beyond Atlantis isn't the worst film he's appeared in, it definitely goes downhill after the opening sequence, with way too much in the way of boring underwater scenes, and not nearly enough in the way of a decent plot or exciting action.
After much swimming - so much swimming - things do eventually pick up for a rousing final act, in which a native is eaten by piranhas, Haig blows up the islanders' temple, and Syrene and Kathy have a catfight (made all the more entertaining by being set to a piece of library music called The Awakening, best known to UK viewers as the theme to The News at Ten). A dumb final scene sees Manuel and his men trying to make off with the treasure, the box of pearls falling into the ocean during a scuffle (like the ending of The Italian Job, Logan can be heard coming up with a plan to retrieve the loot).
5/10. Haig is always fun to watch, but it was thanks to curvaceous beauties Christian and Stevens that I managed to make it to the end without wanting to hit the off button. And no, it's never explained why Syrene and her father don't have bug-eyes like everyone else in their tribe.
Nice try Eddie, but it didn't work.
Three guys and a gal head off to a remote Island to harvest the peals of the local tribe who all wear swimming googles even while on shore. The first half of the movies is OK but then bogs down with too many underwater scenes.
Sid Haig is perfectly creepy and Big John's kid is adequate. John Ashley gets to play a part that is not the all American boy for a change and does a nice job. George Nader gets to Ham it up a bit and there is a lot of action with Leigh Christian looking quite beautiful while swimming underwater. With all of that said, the movie just dosn't work.