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Tarfumes.com - Mysterious Island
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List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $14.80
Your Save: $ 0.15 ( 1% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Columbia Pictures
Starring: Michael Craig, Joan Greenwood, Michael Callan, Gary Merrill, Herbert Lom
Directed By: Cy Endfield
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786302736953
Format: Color
ISBN: 6302736951
Label: Columbia Pictures
Manufacturer: Columbia Pictures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: 1994-06-24
Running Time: 101
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 1961-12-20
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Ray Harryhausen lends his talents to the Jules Verne story
Comment: There was a woefully bad 15-part serial version of Jules Verne's "Mysterious Island" released in 1951 that stupidly gave away the big surprise by listing Captain Nemo's name in the credits. Fortunately a decade later the release of this version of "Mysterious Island" replaced that one in the public's consciousness. The team that put together "Mysterious Island" consisted of producer Charles Schneer, special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen, and composer Bernard Herrmann, which is important because it puts the film more in the tradition of their earlier collaborations, "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" and "Jason and the Argonauts," than it does Verne's novels. Obviously the 1954 Disney film version of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" had an influence on this 1961 film by director Cy Endfield ("Zulu") as well.
During the American Civil War, Union Captain Cyrus Harding (Michael Craig) is being held prisoner in a Confederate prison camp along with young Herbert Brown (Michael Callan), cynical "New York Herald" reporter Gideon Spillett (Gary Merrill), and a former slave named Corporal Neb Nugent (Dan Jackson). During a massive hurricane the group escape by stealing an observation balloon and sailing over the palisade, taking with them a Confederate soldier, Sergeant Pencroft (Percy Herbert). The storm is so fierce that it blows them to an uncharted (and dare I say, mysterious) island somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, where the balloon crashes.
Harding is pulled from the water by unseen figure and the group decides to put the war behind them and work together to survive (I was going to say this is sort of like "Survivor," after the merger, which Nemo playing the Jeff Probst role, but clearly the more relevant television analogy today would be to "Lost"). But beyond the basic requirements of staying alive they learn that they have to contend with monstrously giant crabs, equally giant bees, and a ship full of bloodthirsty pirates. To make things more interesting a pair of shipwrecked female castaways are added to the little band, namely Lady Mary Fairchild (Joan Greenwood) and her pretty young niece, Elena (Beth Rogan). Using the abandoned cliff side cave of the pirates as their new home the castaways settle in for the long haul, all the while receiving timely help from their mysterious benefactor.
I never read the novel, but I still have the "Classics Illustrated" comic book version of "Mysterious Island." For me the big impression was the things the castaways did to bring a touch of civilization to the island, and while that is greatly reduced in the film you do get a least a visual sense of what they have been up to in order to make the best of a bad situation. Of course, the situation proceeds to get even worse, which forces the unseen benefactor, Captain Nemo (Herbert Lom), to reveal himself and his identity, and to help the castaways one last time.
It is a good thing that Lom does not show up until the end of the film, because he overpowers the rest of the cast, just as his character enjoys superiority over them as well. Merrill stands out from the rest as the crotchety reporter, who is almost as smart as he is cynical, and Craig manages to hang on to the hero role throughout, but Herbert and Elena descend to the puppy love phase and are just begging to be eaten by one of the giant creatures on the island, preferably the giant chicken. This is not a great film for this genre, but it certainly holds up as a more than decent Saturday matinee movie.
Harryhausen's stop-motion animation is always fun, even though no one will consider his work in "Mysterious Island" to be up to the finest moments of "Sinbad" or "Jason." The link between the giant animals and Captain Nemo is a bit absurd, since hunger has never been considered one of the causes of the American Civil War, but by the time we learn about these we have already enjoyed the castaways trying to fight the monsters (the crab is the best and the chicken has to be the nadir of Harryhausen's distinguished career). Actually, the balloon journey at the beginning provides the best special effects in the movie, especially given the impressive musical score by Herrmann. This movie is not about political philosophy, but about monsters in an exotic location and the sense of adventure that has thrilled young schoolboys for generations.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good retro fun
Comment: Somehow, everything about this movie screams "Saturday afternoon". It has an improbable plot, effects from a simpler era, and the good winning out over the morally ambiguous.The only fair way to judge this movie is in its own context, now more than 40 years old. At the time, Harryhausen's stop-action creatures were the height of special effects. The giant crab, bee, and other creatures could not have been done any other way. Rays from "electric gun" may have been scratched directly onto the film. Again, it looks unsophisticated to today's eye, but matches the rest of the movie very well. For its time, though, this movie has a few fairly modern features. The one black actor had about as much of a role as the others, even though Jim Crow was still alive and kicking. There was a skimpy-skirted female lead with a habitual need for being saved. The other woman, however, was one of the more competent members of the group. She was used to a life of ease, but quickly showed her competence at handling support functions for the team, and under primitive conditions. Maybe she did "women's work", but she did jobs that needed doing and she got past her aristo background to do them. About the only complaint we ever heard was that her gun jammed at a crucial moment. There's no high moral or deep art here. There is good fun. It's a little dated, but that is just part of its charm.
Customer Rating:
Summary: great family entertainment
Comment: My kids love this movie and my wife and I like it, too. It's not a great movie, both because it has a rather creaky Jules Verne plot, and like most Harryhausen movies it sometimes becomes too enchanted by the "movie magic" to pay enough attention to the actors, but these are not things that your kids will mind, and you probably won't be bothered by them, either. What the movie does have is the same thing that is one of the strengths of Verne's books, which is its "larger than life" feel. I was always transported by his books into a world of high adventure, and this movie does that for my kids (and it takes me back there, too). The performances in this movie are all solid (and Herbert Lom is very good as Nemo), and the special effects are interesting and entertaining. And it might interest your kids in the book, which is even better.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A CLASSIC ALL TIME MASTERPIECE, ON DVD!
Comment: Yes in deed, the great classic as I watched as a kid. A group of people who find themselves stranded on an uncharted deserted island. Wigh gigantic animals, engaging story line. And yes this is out on DVD as I have just purchased it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: So-so fantasy.
Comment: This is an interesting fantasy movie about five men dropped on a desert island during the civil war. It very loosely based on Jules Vernes masterpiece, very loosely. Lots of monsters and women which were not in the book. You might enjoy the movie, but if you want to know the real story, you have to read the book - that will be well worth your time. I wish that someone would produce a movie that really tells the whole story as Verne wrote it; I'd buy that in an instant.
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