This is one shoddy piece of work. Not hateful, because it doesn't actively promote antisocial behavior, and not bad enough to be unintentionally amusing either. It's a straightforward attempt to cobble together a cheap movie, while putting no time or effort into it, and drawing in enough patrons to make a profit.<br /><br />A handful of archaeologists, led by John Agar, are digging up and decoding plaques with "cuneiform" writing on them, though what we see bears no resemblance to any cuneiform that a Sumerian might have seen. The other scientists look over John Agar's shoulder while he reads a particularly puzzling plaque and rattles off allusions to The Gilgamesh Epic. This prompts them to climb a mountain that looks like K-2 in order to search for more clues. Near the peak, an avalanche almost buries them, but it also exposes a ruined Sumerian city.<br /><br />So far, so typical of Warner Brothers' 1950s SF/fantasy flicks, and not without interest. But then the ice breaks under the feet of one of the scientists and he plunges into a hole so deep that Agar, peering in behind his flashlight, can't see the bottom.<br /><br />I ask you -- the experienced mountain climber -- what would you do under these circumstances? A member of your team has fallen into what appears to be a bottomless pit. Here's what THEY do. With no more than a flashlight and a bit of climbing equipment, one by one, they lower themselves "hundreds of feet" into the black pit with no way of getting back up except by hoisting themselves hand over hand. How John Agar expects to do that is left unexplained -- never mind chunky Nestor Paiva.<br /><br />The handful of middle-aged men find their colleague's dead body. Nobody bothers to mourn or comment on the loss. They don't have much time anyway because, before you know it, they discover a lost civilization of pale Sumerians who live on mushrooms, except for one beautiful babe (Cynthia Patrick, the best actor in the bunch) who looks reasonably human and has something resembling a tan. The Sumerian king assigns her to be Agar's consort. When Agar retires, she goes with him and he must gently fend her off because, after all, he's a man of principle. It turns out that the Sumerians decide all their visitors must die -- BUT -- they are afraid of "the fire of Ishtar," meaning the flashlight.<br /><br />But why go on? It deteriorates into one of Edgar Rice Burroughs' half-schizophrenic novels. "Tarzan Goes to Mars," or something. Lots of scenes of beastly half-hominids laboring among the lava pits and being whipped by their Sumerian masters. Sumerian soldiers chasing the archaeologists waving swords but being held back by the fire of Ishtar.<br /><br />I don't know how it ends. I own the DVD and I can't bring myself to finish watching it. I really tried to find it ridiculous enough to raise a smile but I couldn't generate any feeling except a fierce boredom.<br /><br />It's hard to imagine that this was intended to be seen by anyone over the age of nine or ten.