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Mysterious Island (1961)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
20 December 1961 (USA) moreTagline:
adventure! mystery! excitement! morePlot:
During the US Civil War, Union POWs escape in a balloon and end up stranded on a South Pacific island... more | add synopsisNewsDesk:
(9 articles)
Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: March 15, 2009 (From Screen Rant. 15 March 2009, 6:41 PM, PDT)
'Journey to the Center of the Earth' gets sequel
(From screeninglog. 13 March 2009, 8:32 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
Jules Verne Meets King Kong moreCast
(Complete credited cast)| Michael Craig | ... | Capt. Cyrus Harding | |
| Joan Greenwood | ... | Lady Mary Fairchild | |
| Michael Callan | ... | Herbert Brown | |
| Gary Merrill | ... | Gideon Spilitt | |
| Herbert Lom | ... | Captain Nemo | |
| Beth Rogan | ... | Elena Fairchild | |
| Percy Herbert | ... | Sgt. Pencroft | |
| Dan Jackson | ... | Cpl. Neb Nugent |
Additional Details
Also Known As:
Jules Verne's Mysterious Island (UK) (complete title)L'île mystérieuse (Belgium: French title) (poster title) (France) [fr]
La isla misteriosa (Argentina) (Spain) [es]
Den hemlighetsfulla ön (Sweden) [sv]
Den hemmelighedsfulde ø (Denmark) [da]
Die geheimnisvolle Insel (West Germany) [de]
Het geheimzinnig eiland (Belgium: Flemish title) (poster title) [un]
I mystiriodis nisos (Greece) [el]
L'isola misteriosa (Italy) [it]
Salaperäinen saari (Finland) [fi]
more
Parents Guide:
View content advisory for parentsRuntime:
101 minLanguage:
EnglishColor:
Color (Eastmancolor)Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 moreSound Mix:
Mono (Westrex Recording System)Certification:
Australia:PG | Iceland:12 | Netherlands:12 | Argentina:Atp | Finland:K-8 | Sweden:11 | UK:U | USA:Unrated | West Germany:6Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Ray Harryhausen has related the story of watching a cut of the film with composer Bernard Herrmann. In a sequence involving a giant bird, Herrmann told Harryhausen that he was going to score it with "Turkey in the Straw" (he was only kidding). moreGoofs:
Continuity: When the pirate ship arrives, it is a three masted vessel with square sails on the first mast and fore and aft sails on the other two masts. The sunken pirate ship shows square sails on all three masts. moreSoundtrack:
Toccata and Fugue moreFAQ
Where did the goats come from?Where did the women come from?
Why did Nemo hide from the castaways, then aid them, and finally reveal himself to them?
more
more
Message Boards
Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Mysterious Island (1961)| Recent Posts (updated daily) | User |
|---|---|
| Giant Bees | RNE |
| So no one read the book?! | alien426 |
| searching for unique Verne movie | larue-5 |
| Mysterious Accent! | LCShackley |
| Shaving goof | DrWu |
| Civil War Scene | Hammerfanatic46 |
Recommendations
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Harryhausen crossed Jules Verne with King Kong in his version of Mysterious Island, giving the author's Civil War castaways something really mysterious to look at for a change. The result is a Skull Island-style adventure with a nifty 19th century set-up, and one of the stop-motion maestro's most satisfying films. Harryhausen movies are at their best when Harryhausen is unabashedly the star-as he is here in Mysterious Island. From this high-water mark in the early Sixties, Harryhausen's films slowly began to shipwreck on two constantly reiterated movie-making clichés. First, writers began to tell Harryhausen that his effects ought to be better integrated into the overall plot, that they ought not to be isolated set pieces sprinkled through the picture like plums in a fruitcake. Secondly, critics continued to repeat the old film music legend that movie scoring is best when it fades unnoticed into the background. Both of these old saws were, in fact, horrible lies. And Mysterious Island is great because Harryhausen and his composer were still refusing to take any notice of them. The effects sequences in Mysterious Island aren't plums in a fruitcake, they're solos in a symphony, they're like the soliloquies in Shakespeare. And Bernard Herrmann's scoring for these episodes is in your face as it should be. It jumps up and screams "THIS IS A SET-PIECE AND A GREAT ONE. KICK BACK AND ENJOY IT!" And this, once again, is as it should be. The truth is, that stop-motion isn't an effects technique. It's an art form. If you can't enjoy it for it's own sake, then you can't enjoy it. Every attempt Harryhausen later made to "integrate" his stuff just encouraged people to take it seriously--as a serious attempt, that is, to duplicate reality. Which it isn't. We go to a Harryhausen film for Harryhausen, just as we go to a Chaplin film for Chaplin. If you came in for some other reason, then you picked the wrong movie. That said, Mysterious Island really does work, I think, as a 60s "Jules Verne" picture. The period atmosphere is some of the best in any of those movies and the interesting Nautilus variation we see here is fun to look at in its own right. The acting is quite good also, and Cy Endfield is one of the better Harryhausen directors. But the Verne elements are really just the frame around the picture. Like I said, go for Ray's monsters--then go out and tell the world.