At the height of his career, George Pal directed The Time Machine (1960) and Atlantis: The Lost Continent back to back; possibly his two best films as director. Both are perfectly crafted sci-fi/fantasy spectacles, making use of a mix of special effects techniques, and told in a concise, focused way that keeps them from falling victim to the bloated pretentions that afflict many other such films. As he had with The Time Machine, Pal undertakes Atlantis as an excuse to contrast vastly disparate times and cultures, which happens when a simple Platonic-era Greek fisherman rescues a mysterious woman from the sea and is persuaded to take her home to a hidden land beyond the horizon called Atlantis; which is portrayed as a technically advanced empire bearing Romanesque politics, Catholic-style theocracy, and science based in equal parts paganism, alchemy and Dr. Moreau-caliber human experimentation. When Atlantis first comes into view, a massive volcano looms in its skyline, and it should come as little surprise that it will play a decisive role in the continent’s cataclysmic fate. The film is a fun fantasy thriller by Pal, who – like his contemporary Ray Harryhausen – merrily indulged every whim in creating his visions, fusing sword-and-sandal silliness with darker themes derived from Verne and Wells.
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