MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (1961)

During the Civil War, three Northern soldiers (Capt. Cyrus Harding, young Herbert Brown, and Black soldier Neb Nugent) escape a Confederate military prison in Richmond during a ferocious storm and head for a hot air observation balloon to escape. War correspondent Gideon Splitt joins them, and they are forced to take a Confederate guard, Pencroft, to pilot the balloon. The poor weather forces them to stay in the clouds for days and they end up over the Pacific Ocean, crashlanding on a small deserted island. Well, it's mostly deserted in terms of people, though the men soon find two British women, the high-toned Lady Mary and her young niece Elena, the sole survivors of a shipwreck. But it's also got giant critters galore. First the men deal with a huge crab which they kill and which Gideon cooks. Then they face a giant bird-chicken thing on the rampage. Herbert and Elena get stuck briefly in a huge bee hive with a gigantic bee threatening them. The group finds shelter in a large cave they call Granite House up on a cliff. There seems to be an unseen presence who occasionally intercedes on their behalf in small ways, and when a pirate ship attacks, the presence appears and blows up the ship. Their savior is Captain Nemo, creator of the famous submarine the Nautilus (see 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA), who has been assumed dead for years but has been living in his disabled submarine and using the island for experiments on "horticultural physics" that might help fight world hunger, hence the huge animals. Together they work on refloating the pirate ship to sail for New Zealand, but the island's volcano suddenly becomes active. At the same time, the Nautilus comes under attack from a huge sea creature. Can they work fast enough to escape natural disaster?

This film's basic plot is based fairly closely on a Jules Verne novel which was something of a sequel to 20,000 Leagues, though the sci-fi-fantasy giant creatures were added by the filmmakers, with effects created by Ray Harryhausen, and his work, in both creature creation and combining the effects with live action, make this worth watching. It may all look a bit shabby to modern viewers, but if you turn off your expectations of glossy CGI, you'll find these effects quite compelling. As weirdly fun as the bird thing is (Harryhausen meant it to be an actual ancient being but budget concerns changed his plan), the giant beehive and bee were my favorite effects with Herbert and Elena caught in a giant hive cell, ready to either be stung to death or drowned in honey (picture at right). Exciting incidents happen often enough so that things don't bog too much. Oddly, once Nemo presents himself, the pace slows down and the excellent actor Herbet Lom is mostly wasted as Nemo who is neither terribly friendly nor terribly manic. The other actors are fine. Michael Craig makes a nicely stoic and low-key hero; Michael Callan is handsome and energetic as young Herbert and Beth Rogan is fine as his love interest Elena. It feels like Margaret Lockwood, as Lady Mary, wants to cut loose and be a little campy in her privileged position, but she's been restrained. Gary Merrill (Gideon) is not an inspiring action hero type. Percy Herbert (Pencroft) and Dan Jackson (Neb) are bland in smaller roles. The film's trailer calls the sea creature a "prehistoric devil fish" but my husband identified it as a monstrous cuttlefish. It's probably the least effective of the creatures but it helps make the climax exciting. Pictured at top left are Craig and Callan. I reviewed a silent movie version of the book here. [Blu-ray]