Fifty years ago, I was five years old, and at that tender young age I dreamed of "lost worlds of fantasy," as I call them as a critic now. In particular, I loved movies and TV shows about discovering lost worlds like Skull Island, Caprona, Pellucidar, and the like.
For my fifth birthday, I believe, my parents took me to see the newest entry in this fantasy sub-genre, The Island at the Top of the World. Then, and now, I love this film, whatever its perceived failings may be.
The film's story commence in 1907 as an archaeologist, Professor Ivarsson (David Hartman) is unexpectedly recruited for an unusual expedition. Sir Anthony Ross’s son Donald has disappeared in the Arctic, near a mythological island that is reputedly a burial ground for whales.
Ivarsson accepts the invitation, and along with Ross travels to that distant destination in a technologically-advanced dirigible, the Hyperion, commanded by eccentric French captain, Brieux. The group also teams up with an Eskimo and friend of Donald’s, Oomiak (Mako).
The expedition soon finds a lost world separated from the rest of modernity, known as Astragard. It is peopled by primitive Vikings, who view the visitors as intruders and plan to execute them.
Donald and his Viking lover, Freyja, are rescued by the expedition, but Ivarsson wants to learn more about the lost world of Astragard…
As noted above, he “lost world” premise (or trope) was one frequently depicted in the disco-decade fantasy cinema, in films like The Land That Time Forgot (1975), King Kong (1976) and At The Earth's Core (1976).
This type of film often expresses the desire to experience something new, natural or different in the increasingly mechanized/computerized, buttoned-down era of the 1970s, an age when it felt like the whole world was explored and known. The discovery of a lost world meant a return to excitement, an opportunity for adventure, and the opportunity to interface with creatures, peoples and lands one forgotten.
One of the decade’s early variations on this format was The Island at The Top of the World, a Disney film which depicts the story of a fantastically-advanced dirigible, the Hyperion, as it heads north to a forgotten world of dangerous and martial Vikings.
Roughly the first half of the film involves the trip to this lost world -- which is quite dangerous since the Hyperion is untested -- and the second half involves the twentieth-century crew interfacing with a culture that is a relic from an era long gone. Escape is not easy, and the film throws in an active volcano for good measure.
Seeking to appeal to the same audience that loved 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), with the wondrous Hyperion filling in for the wondrous Nautilus, The Island at the Top of the World features solid miniature work as the Hyperion navigates through the clouds, and between jagged, craggy cliff-faces. The volcanic island, which boasts a hidden, green valley at its center, is also well-depicted in 1970s movie terms, with evocative matte paintings and the so on.
As for the story, it is definitely pitched to children, but nonetheless features a strong emotional pull since it revolves around the efforts of a father to rescue his son. The characters are all colorful and memorable, particularly the French captain, though it is perhaps unusual that a newscaster, David Hartman, plays the film’s lead role. I remember him from Good Morning America!
Although The Island at the Top of the World lacks the overt story appeal of a monstrous nemesis like a giant ape (Kong), dinosaurs (The Land That Time Forgot), or even ancient statues come to life (The Golden Voyage of Sinbad) it is nonetheless a lost world film of startling and impressive vistas. The Astragard lands feature ice caves, a graveyard of giant whale carcasses, volcanic lava flows and other wonders, and then pits a wonder of modernity, the Hyperion, against all of them.
Although the Hyperion is seen as a sanctuary in the film, as well as a “modern marvel” (of the year 1907), the land of Astragard is also contextualized in positive terms. “The day may come when this land is man’s last refuge,” one character importantly notes, and that observation ties-in directly to a primary fear of the 1970s, that pollution and environmental rape would render man extinct in short order. The Viking land here is an unspoiled “time capsule” of a time before technology, when man could live off the land, but not harm it. Again, it seems no coincidence that this tale of exploration is set right before first "technological war," World War I, a time seen by many as the dawn of the Anthropocene, man's technological age.
Although it won my heart as a would-be adventurer and five year old, this "lost world" film failed at the box office and the intended sequel, The Lost Ones was never produced, The Island at the Top of the World is a solid and inoffensive family adventure film, and today seems very innocent compared to fantasies of the modern era. Now, as fifty years ago, I would have loved to see the Hyperion soar once more.
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