Customer Reviews

Mysterious Island

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

However, what movie versions of literature usually are? Instead of criticizing the liberties taken, let's just look at the points of merit of the film: great special effects by way of the stop-motion master Ray Harryhausen, a stirring score by legendary Bernard Herrmann, superb scenery, a tale of survival, and lots of action.

Of course the acting is a little wooden but there are decent performances from Herbert Lom as "Captain Nemo", Joan Greenwood as "Lady Fairchild", and Gary Merrill (the former MR. Bette Davis) as "Mr. Spillet".

The real highlight for this viewer upon the film's release was the inclusion of a pivotal character portrayed by a black man, Dan Jackson as "Neb". The character is in the novel but he is younger and a bit too "subservient," reflecting the times of the book's publication. In 1961 it was notable to see a black man in a fantasy film, portraying an "equal" to his fellow castaways.

The DVD extras, including the documentary "The Harryhausen Chronicles", are adequate but the film holds its own as a wonderful excursion into the fanciful and makes for a fine family film.

The picture is clear and the colors are sharp and vibrant to say the least. My only complaint is that the sound isn't in 5.1 Dolby Digital, but it's still really good. Bernard Herrmann's score is excellent and in my opinion it brings the film to another level. Mysterious Island is based on the work of Jules Verne and considered to be the sequel to 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. While Jules Verne's novel didn't include any gigantic creatures this film took some liberties and allowed Ray Harryhausen to give us wonderful creatures such as giant oysters, bees, Phororhacos , undersea cephalopod and a giant crab.

What is a Prehistoric Phororhacos? A giant chicken like bird! you'll have to see it to believe it. Only the legendary special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen could come up with such an imaginative and colorful creature. Once again Harryhausen's incredible imagination and stop-motion dynamation process brings to life creatures we could never ourselves imagine. They used to show this movie every so often on Saturday afternoons, it was always a fun filled journey into escapism and a treat to watch.

Fill up the popcorn bowl, close the blinds and turn out the lights. Now sit back and take a journey to the "Mysterious Island". Fans of Ray Harryhausen won't be disappointed with this movie. Thanks to Columbia Pictures for putting "Mysterious Island" on DVD. Its solid entertainment and pure fun for the whole family!

DVD Features Include:
-Digitally mastered audio & anamorphic video
-Remastered in high definition
-Photo gallery
-The making of Mysterious Island
-The Harryhausen chronicles
-This is "Dynamation" featurette
-Widescreen presentation
-English audio
-English, French, and Spanish subtitles
-Theatrical trailers
-Interactive menus
-Scene selections

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.

Mysterious Island was always a favorite Harryhausen film of mine as a kid. The screenplay and direction (like those for The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and Jason and The Argonauts)is top notch. Director Cy Endfield has a solid cast and the pacing along with Bernard Herrmann's classic score creates an eerie and, well, mysterious feeling for most of the movie. The stand out in the cast is, of course, the marvelous and under rated Herbert Lom as Captain Nemo. If you haven't seen the film, I'd rather not spoil the third act of the film for you so won't go into too much detail.

The Civil War is tearing America apart. A small group of Union soldiers and a reporter escape a military prison during the seige of Richmond, Virginia. They also have a There's a scouting balloon just outside the prison walls. As the attack rages, the prisoners escape in the balloon. They are washed up ashore on an uncharted island with a brewing volcano.

It's not ordinary island (no surprise)though as they discover a giant crab and later, giant bees, chickens and other creatures. They're joined in their Robinson Crusoe adventure by a couple of women who are later washed ashore from a shipwreck. They soon discover the origin of the giant beasts and some nasty news about the volcano as well.

The cast gives a good performance. Gary Merrill (best known for All About Eve and former husband of Betty Davis) and Michael Callan are the most recognizable faces. Callan was a regular in a number of movies and television shows as a supporting actor. Joan Greenwood also gives a convincing performance as well. Still, the stand out here is the brooding performance as Herbert Lom. Lom always managed to raise the bar in any film he appeared in.

The screenplay (for those that are interested)isn't all that faithful to Verne's novel. The basic premise is drawn from his novel.

The transfer is pretty good although not stellar. Given the use of traveling mattes, matte paintings and other optical effects the image is occasionally grainy and indistinct. There's quite a bit of compression artifacts due to the grainy stock that was used to shoot the film and the multiple exposures for optical effects. Still, over all, the print looks pretty good. There's also some analog artifacts as well but these are mostly in the war sequence at the beginning which were clearly drawn from stock footage in the Columbia library (much as Jason used stock footage for the attack at the beginning and Sinbad for the longshot of the ship passing in the fog. In the latter film its pretty clear as the crew can be seen wearing 18 century sailor garb if one looks carefully).

As it has been noted in previous reviews the soundtrack is in mono and sounds a bit flat. My guess is that, perhaps, Columbia used a different master for the video version of Mysterious Island or just compressed the heck out of it and boosted the bass to make it sound acceptable for video. The sound is quite good but Herrmann's score is in mono here. It would be nice if Columbia could go back to the original orchestral masters to remix and master this but I'm not sure if the original elements are event available.

The extras are quite nice. The Making of Mysterious Island is quite informative as is the vintage "This is Dynamation" featurette included. The photo gallery and theatrical trailers are an improvement over previously issued Harryhausen DVDs. While this isn't quite up to the quality of, say, the Criterion Jason and The Argonauts laserdisc released a decade ago, it's an improvement over many of the vintage films being dumped onto the market for DVD.

All told this is a pretty good (although not perfect) package from Columbia and a noble effort to release vintage films with extras on DVD.

After "JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS", this has always been one of my favorite pictures by special effects guru RAY HARRYHAUSEN. The story is great, the monsters (especially the giant crab) look fantastic and HERBERT LOM is wonderful as CAPTAIN NEMO ("Contact with my species has always disappointed me"). The picture and sound on the DVD is most pleasing. My only complaint (and its a minor one), is I'm tired of seeing the hour long special "THE HARRYHAUSEN CHRONICLES" as a bonus feature. I think its on every Harryhausen disc except "JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS". Its a nice feature (don't get me wrong) but does it have to be on EVERY DISC? But the movie is what's most important and this is a very enjoyable film given a nice presentation on this DVD. Buy it and enjoy!!!

C'est comme ça qu'on dit au Québec!
Voici un film que je "spotte" depuis longtemps: le hic c'est que j'aimerais bien le voir en français. Impossible! Essaie de trouver "L'Échelle de Jacob" (Jacob's ladder) en français: impossible! "Labyrinthe": impossible!
Et je suis un admirateur de Mr. Harryhausen depuis fort longtemps. Encore chanceux de posséder "Le 7ème Voyage de Sinbad" en français (et son 5.1 en plus). Ça fait un bail que je n'ai pas visionné "L'Île Mystérieuse" mais je ne peux oublier la scène de l'abeille géante: image par image c'est du sport mais combien efficace! Bravo Mr. Harryhausen! C'est toujours un pur délice de savourer vos films mais aussi de nous faire regretter le "bon vieux temps".

I recently purchased Mysterious Island and The 3 Worlds of Gulliver, two of my favorite Ray H. movies. Gulliver, albeit full screen, is a marvelous Dvd transfer and well worth the price. However, I cannot state the same praise for Mysterious Island. The transfer is disappointing, lacking clarity and crispness. Colours and close ups are quite acceptable but generally many far off scenes are not much better than VHS quality. There is a great deal of grain and dirt throughout the entire film. Columbia did not spend a lot on this DVD transfer. So the great story gets 5 stars easily....the transfer 3 stars, for an average of 4 stars. The movie is watchable and enjoyable with incredible special effects......I just feel I was short changed on the transfer...I expected better.

this is one of my favorite jules verne movie along with 20000 leagues...but my only complaint as with all columbia harryhausen movies on dvd is sound..my vhs tape is 4 times better sound than this dvd..i'm asking if ray reads any of these or someone from columbia dvd please do better a better job on sound...my dvd list on chapter and extras has better sound than the movie..it would mean so much to all fans if these were redone and done right with at least surround sound on all ray's movies on dvd.

Well I can't say that Colombia/Tri-Star make the best DVD's. Sometimes they put really boring bonus features on the DVD and a lot of forgetable film trailers added to make up for the lack of bonus features, but the DVD of Mysterious Island is an exception. The print of the movie is very good. Rather exceptionle picture and sound quality, including an informative making of featurette hosted by Ray Harryhausen on how the movie was made. And also a bonus, hardly any boring film trailers were put on it. One of the better Colombia/Tri-Star DVDs.

one of the better sci fi flicks in the early 60's and a must for all fans of jules verne. this movie has a great storey line and a great adventure tale to boot.
maybe a re make will make this a better movie, this is the kinda movies..kids should see on saturday afternoon.