It's a Prehistoric Panic When a Wayward U-Boat Surfaces in "The Land That Time Forgot"!

1939 called, and they want their U-boot back!

As Sven noted, production for _The Land That Time Forgot_ used a World War II U-boot for a movie that was s’posed to take place during World War I. That was most certainly the case, using models and mock-ups based on a WWII U-boot and dressing them up with paint and details from a WWI vintage craft. The result was much like a project undertaken by a high school acquaintance of mine and his dad: they “reconstructed” a WWII German Kubelwagen by painting a VW Type 181 “Thing” (the model driven by Adrienne Barbeau in _The Fog_) with the same color scheme and markings as a Kubelwagen. The result passed at first glance, but the more you looked at it, the more you could see it was not the authentic article.

In _The Land That Time Forgot_, we see four aspects of the U-33: 1) a view of the U-boot cruising at the surface, created with a scale model; 2) a view of the U-boot below water, also created with a model; 3) a life-size mock-up of the conning tower, deck, and upper hull, for use when the actors are filmed with the exterior;and 4) sets of the interior, for use when the actors are filmed inside the U-boot. I will compare the U-boot in the movie with those the Kaiserliche Marine and the Kriegsmarine put to sea and attempt to determine which U-boot type was used for the movie.

The shots of the U-boot interior are the least helpful so I will dispense with them first. The interior of the U-33 was largely a fantasy, signifying the 1910s with what would now be called “steam punk,” with plenty of shiny brass and polished wood. A hanging glass lampshade is not a submarine accessory, even in the captain’s wardroom. At least the art department stopped before the interior resembled Captain Nemo’s _Nautilus_. It’s been noted that the interior was overly spacious, especially for a WWI U-boot. This was prob’ly to permit filming without expensive camera tricks.

According to IMDb, the U-boot used in the movie was a Type IX, variations of which were in production from 1939 to 1944. This does not appear to be the case, however, at least below the waterline. Here is an aft view of the movie U-boot...Here is a similar view of the U-37, a Type IXA, dry docked at Lorient...The Type IX boats had two rudders, unlike the movie U-boot. Also the stern torpedo tubes are located together on the underside of the hull, between the rudders, unlike the movie U-boot, where they are on either side of the hull.

Of the remaining WWII U-boote, some had a single rudder: All variants of the Type II U-boot had a single rudder, however, none of this class had stern torpedo tubes. The Type VIIA boats had a single rudder, but also a single stern torpedo tube in the midline. From VIIB onward the Type VII was equipped with dual rudders.

The dual rudder appears to be an innovation of the mid-1930s, so WWI U-boote were only built with single rudders. Dual stern torpedo tubes were a common configuration for WWI U-boote, as were L-shaped, _balanced_ rudders—like that of the movie U-33—and there were a several WWI boats with both features. Unfortunately, detailed images of the usually submerged parts of WWI U-boote are uncommon on the internet, making the location of of the stern torpedo tubes difficult to ascertain. The shots of the hull below the waterline could be based on a WWI U-boot model, but at this point I’m uncertain which one.

The most obvious tell that the movie U-boot was not of WWI vintage is the conning tower. The conning tower of WWI U-Boote were smaller and shorter those of WWII. The tower proper was barely taller than a man, and the bridge on top was protected only by a canvas weather skirt fastened to the railing. The leading face of WWI conning towers was often stepped, and most—if not all WWI U-Boote—were equipped with a secondary wheel for the helmsman, sometimes outside and forward of the tower.
In contrast, WWII U-boot conning towers were taller and more spacious, metal all the way up, including the protective skirt around the bridge. Aft of the bridge on the conning tower was a railed section—later enlarged for the placement of anti-aircraft guns. This is sometimes called the _Wintergarten_ altho’ _Wintergarten_ properly referred to a second, larger anti-aircraft platform abaft the conning tower. The leading face of WWII conning towers was straight, with the exception of the addition of a spray deflector midway up. (A very few of the VIIC were equipped with what amounts to a second Wintergarten forward of the tower, with additional AA guns to provide cover for other U-Boote as the left and returned to bases on the Atlantic coast. There were only four of these U-Flak boats in operation, and in November 1943 the modifications were removed and they converted back to attack boats.) On the deck, at the foot of the conning tower was a rounded bump-out, which was around knee-high. This was the housing for the magnetic compass, and it was a distinguishing feature of WWII diesel-electric U-Boote, at least until late 1942 when they began to be replaced by the freestanding Askania compass housing.
In the still below, you can see Dietz (the rat!) on deck next to the conning tower of the U-33, which displays characteristics of a WWII U-boot: The conning tower is relatively tall and metal all the way up. The leading face is straight, and the tower is provided with a spray diverter. The magnetic compass housing is present, altho’ the art department must’ve misread the diagram and left oval openings unclosed, with nothing inside.
The art and special effects department didn’t entirely drop the ball when trying to trying to convince us that their model was a WWI U-boot: When underway at the surface, the U-33 sometimes sports an exhaust stack, sometimes even smoking.The now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t aspect of the exhaust stack is not a slip-up on the part of special effects: WWI U-Boote were equipped with air intake and exhaust stacks that were raised when the boat ran on the diesels in a rough sea or cruised on the surface at high speed and lowered flush into a trench in the hull when the U-boot submerged and ran on the electric motors. The stacks were usually mounted on a pivot, altho’ some U-Boote were equipped with telescoping stacks. WWII U-Boote dispensed with the intake-exhaust stacks, mixing and cooling the exhaust with seawater and venting it below the surface, taking in fresh air through air intake vents in or on the conning tower, until Schnorchel were later fitted to some U-Boote.

Other than sticking the WWI exhaust stack on a boat with a WWII conning tower, the stack is problematic in other ways. Pointing them out may seem to be nitpicking, but after researching U-Boote of both wars I feel compelled to report. I have seen photos of WWI U-Boote with both one and two.When the U-boot had two stacks, they were bound together but distinguishable: the air intake stack had a wider diameter and was about 3/4 as tall as the exhaust stack. When there was a single stack, it was always the narrower exhaust stack. From what I’ve seen in the movie and the stills, the movie’s U-33 has a lone exhaust stack that is the same dimensions that the air intake stack should’ve been.

You may also notice that the exhaust stack of the movie U-33 is angled slightly backward, like the funnels found on many cruise ships. Of the photos I’ve seen so far, only one shows the stacks tipped like that and it is a photo of the U9 in a storm…All the other photos depict the stacks perpendicular to the deck.
Determining which U-boot type was used as the basis for the U-33 in _The Land That Time Forgot_ is a process of elimination. Because of the configuration of the conning tower and the presence of a magnetic compass housing, we can eliminate WWI U-Boote, even tho’ that is ostensibly the time the story takes place. Of WWII U-Boote, we can eliminate mini-submarines as they were too small. In the movie, the U-33 fired four torpedoes from the bow tubes, two to sink the English boat carrying Taylor et al., and two to sink the German supply ship. Therefore, we can eliminate the Type XB mine layer because it had no bow torpedo tubes, the Type XXIII because it carried only two torpedoes, and the Type XIV “Milchkuh” supply boat because it had no torpedoes at all.
Mounted on the deck of the movie U-33, forward of the conning tower, was a naval gun. Based on that, the remaining candidates would be the Type VII (all variants excepts the VIIC/42) and the Type IX (all variants).

When the movie U-33 is riding on the surface or submerged, a distinct shoulder is visible where side tanks join the outer hull, frequently marked by seawater flowing out a line of free-flooding vent holes. Of the Type VII and Type IX U-boote, only the Type VII exhibited such a shoulder, the junction between the side tanks and the outer hull of the Type IX boats was a more or less smooth curve rising up the meet the deck.

                                                            Type VIID plans


                                                  Type IXC plans, cross-sections

Knowing that the movie U-33 is a Type VII, we can determine what sub-type and its approximate time range by examining the design and and armament of the conning tower. The fore-to-aft dimension of the movie U-33’s conning tower is on the shorter end of the range of conning towers used on Type VII U-boote. The trailing edge of the tower slopes slightly forward from the main deck to the railed deck at the aft of the conning tower. There were no anti-aircraft guns or their mountings visible on the railed deck. This configuration was known as “Turm 0” that is “Tower 0,” and it was the earliest design used on production U-boote.

The reason there were no guns on the Turm 0 was that the anti-aircraft guns were originally placed on the rear deck of the boat, aft of the conning tower. This created a “dead-zone” for anti-aircraft fire, which was corrected first by moving the guns to the railed deck of the conning tower, and then adding the Wintergarten, resulting in a series of conning tower (Turm) remodels. The VIIAs and VIIBs were refitted for 20mm anti-aircraft guns in the winter of of 1939/1940. The VIIC were refitted from 1940-1942, with some boats retaining Turm 0 as late as 1943.

So the movie U-33 bore an early “unarmed” conning tower, however the art department realized that no WWI U-Boote were equipped with dedicated anti-aircraft guns and thus removed the anti-aircraft gun in an attempt to pass their work as a WWI U-boot. To this end, double jumping wires were also added from the conning tower forward to prow, essentially continuations of the aft jumping wires. WWII Uboote had only a single forward jumping wire.
In summary, the U-33 seen in _The Land That Time Forgot_ was based on a model of an early Type VII U-boot from WWII, prob’ly from before 1942, certainly no later than early 1943. This is about a quarter century than the setting of the movie. Above the waterline, the anti-aircraft gun was removed, an exhaust stack was added, as were double jumping wires forward of the conning tower, to give the boat the guise of a WWI U-boot. Below the waterline, the configuration of the rudder and torpedo tubes does not match that of a Type VII (or any other WWII U-boot). It is possible the underwater views used a model of an as yet undetermined WWI U-boot.

Finally, there actually was a U-33 in WWI and WWII. Unlike its movie namesake the WWI U-33 survived the war. It surrendered January 1919 and was broken up at the Blyth shipyard in England 1919-1920. The WWII U-33 did not fare was well: it was sunk by depth charges in the Firth of Clyde, early February 1940.

A tip o’ the Kaleu’s Schirmmütze to:
uboat.net
naval-encyclopedia.com/
akpool.de/kategorien/33204-ansichtskarten-u-boote-deutschland-bis-1945 and
uboatarchive.net, especially the modeling resources from Dougie Martindale.

My son sent me pictures of the aurora from his place on the mountain.
All I get are rain clouds.

We’re getting some great pics of the lights tonight!

Speaking of program interruptus, we in Chicagoland lost about ten minutes of TLTTF due to thunderstorms. At least we get a chance to see it again Saturday morning.

Frida and Maria , no im Maria shes Frida !

I don’t do the race for the blog change, but I sense some of you are getting ready…

Wanted to see Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes tonight, but had to put it off until tomorrow. Going to the first showing. Noon. Should make it home in time for Sven!

Movie Snack Ideas for tomorrow:
Anything with LOTS of ice
Jello made in a Brain mold

Evening group I'm spending the weekend up in laconia, New Hampshire at my sister and brother in law's looking forward to house of Frankenstein tomorrow night it's one of my favorites also looking forward to Metv toons launching in 1 months and 15 days

Northern lights Hmmmm i better check for my zone .

Geez…no comments for 4 hours?? Did the Blog break?🤔🤔

Mariette Hartley on Bonaza

Maybe some Godzilla movies soon Sven! Or "The Birds" again! Know Sven tries to keep it fresh, however their are movies that haven't been shown in a while! Q

Anton Diffring's dubbing all of John McHenry's dialogue in THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT has been far from the only example of this practice. Sometimes, it has been done if the performer just cannot speak the required language for the role, as was the case with two classic James Bond movies.

German actor Gert Frobe (first photo), who played the titular super villain in GOLDFINGER, couldn't speak English, so he mouthed his words in German while British actor Michael Collins dubbed his voice in post-production. Similarly, italian actress Daniela Bianchi, who played Bond's love interest, Soviet Consulate cypher clerk Tatiana Romanova in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (second photo) took crash-course English-language lessons for her role, but producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli soon decided that dubbing her voice would be more cost-productive, so they gladly hired a British stage actress named Barbara Jefford for the job.

At other times, dubbing might be employed if the producer(s) or director feels that a performer's voice is just not suitable for the part, as was the case with McHenry. Another example would be Roger Corman's decision to later dub the voice of British actress Barbara Steele, who played the unfaithful and conniving Elizabeth Medina in PIT AND THE PENDULUM (third photo). According to Wikipedia, Corman believed that "her working-class English accent" would be "too big a distraction."

For those of us who love our beloved Vincent Price, here is a wonderful episode of Huell Howser when he interviews VP and then interviews his daughter in the Vincent Price Museum:
https://youtu.be/3YpPjN2yXO8?si=ObZLorT42JSjHtwf

OK…I’m ready for Toon In👍. Oh geez, that was 2hrs ago😣😢

Quote of the Week:
"Do not save what is left after spending but spend what is left after saving."
-- Warren Buffett

Great Tweetie, Sylvester spoof of "Red Riding Hood!"😆