ALL SCI-FI

[Gord Green]

MIKE OBSERVED;

[Bud Brewster]

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For fifteen years I had a beoved Eskimo Spits named AJ who was smart, obedient, and loyal.

When he was barely older than a puppy, he frightened away a man trying to break into my apartment through the sliding glass doors in the kitchen one night while my young wife was alone. I was at the airport working for Eastern Airlines!

The only time I ever put him on a lease was when we went to the veterinarian — just to make sure the other pet owners knew that AJ would not attack their pets.

AJ was my best friend during my first marriage and for the fist decade of my second. I miss him to this day.



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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Krel]

When they were discussing the soundtrack, Bernard Herman told Harryhausen that he was thinking of using Turkey In The Straw played on a fiddle for the bird attack. He told Harryhausen that to see the look of shock on his face.

David.

[Pow]

AJ was a handsome looking fella, Bruce.

My handsome looking dog, Laddie, was a wonderful & intelligent collie. He was hit by a car in the fall of 1968 and I miss him and think about him to this day. Sometimes my eyes fill over missing him.

When Chris & I first started dating, she owned a Boston Terrier named Rocky. Little dogs don't particularly appeal to me and never have. However, in time, Rocky & I became amigos. We had to put him down in June of 2022. Now I miss 2 fabulous dogs.

[Pow]

The location shooting in Spain offers majestic scenery throughout MI.

I liked that having the castaways cross over a deep chasm on a enormous fallen tree was Ray's homage to a similar scene from King Kong. It was the movie that changed his life.

The set designers did a wonderful job creating all of the cave sets in MI. The Granite House, the giant bees cave, and the grotto where the Nautilus resides, are all realistic looking and impressive.

The Nautilus reminds me of Disney's wonderful Harper Goff design, even though it has its own differences. Charles Schneer & Ray certainly didn't want the awesome might of the Disney Corporations lawyers coming after them on that score.

The interior of the Nautilus is beautifully realized with its steampunk design.

The sunken underwater ancient city is a breathtaking miniature. Ray always loved the idea of such structures; Atlantis was one of his unrealized projects that he would have liked to have produced.

I believe that this is the only Harryhausen film where the title is used in the onscreen dialogue.

I always thought that it would have been fantastic to have TCM schedule a Jules Verne evening. They would begin with Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), followed by Journey to the Center of the Earth( 1959), and finally, Mysterious Island (1961).

[Maurice]

[Bud Brewster]

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Maurice, this is a wonderful way to bring this movie to life in the minds of its fans — like me!

And it appears that the island is located in the general area as . . . Skull Island! How appropriate, eh?



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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[scotpens]

[Pow]

Keep Watching the Skies! Bill Warren.

Despite the usual problems associated with the Ray Harryhausen films produced by Charles Schneer --- underfinancing, pandering to the "appropriate" audience, a slightly cheesy air -- Mysterious Island is one of Harryhausen's most entertaining pictures, holding up well today.

It was one of the best Jules Verne films released in the United States in the 1960s, and there were three others in 1961 alone: The Fabulous World of Jules Verne, Master of the World, Valley of the Dragons. Only The Fabulous World of Jules Verne in this period is better than this adaptation of Verne's sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Like the crab, the flightless bird is another fine Harryhausen creation, one of his few that is both comic and exciting. It's genuinely funny, has its own almost endearing personality --- momentarily tragic when it is killed --- unlike most of the monsters he created. Harryhausen's films could in general have used more of this comic-action material. Usually, when comedy scenes turn up, they're lame. However, the giant bird here is in exactly the right tone.

The bees are excellent, although their wings look wrong because stop-motion animation does not allow for realistic blurring unless very careful precautions are taken.

Unfortunately, Harryhausen has a tendency to try to allow people to think that the monsters they are watching in his films are real, living creatures. I don't think that any but the very naive ever believe that they're seeing reality, so his slavish and painstaking copies of real animals are probably futile. He should have reached more for the fantastic, to include (as he does in some of his fantasies) creatures that no one has ever seen before.

The inherent reality of stop-motion animation makes those "real" animals which we know from life and nature films, look less like living things and more like models --- making the imaginary beasts look less real as well. Harryhausen's work was always more effective in fantasy films than science fiction.

Unfortunately, the battle with a red-eyed giant chambered nautilus is a seriously unexciting sequence. Because it takes place underwater, the movements of everyone concerned, including the tentacled monster, are slowed down. This, plus Bernard Herrmann's very labored theme for the sequence, makes all the action ponderous and dull. It's spectacular in concept, but the execution makes this the least exciting and most enervating animation sequence in the film, especially unfortunate as it is the climax.

The cliched volcanic destruction in the film, plus the ponderous fight with the giant nautilus, occurring as they do at the finish, tend to make audiences disappointed in the film --- they're the last things they see after all --- but the film that precedes these scenes is well above average for Harryhausen and Schneer.

As usual, the faults with the film lie elsewhere than with Harryhausen's effects. The characters are uninteresting, and for the most part are played by dull performers.

Michael Craig's American accent as Captain Harding is acceptable, but although he's built like a hero, he doesn't give a heroic feel to his performance. He's a reasonably good actor in other than adventure films.

Michael Callan, added to appeal to the Youth Market, is pretty good in light films, comedies, and frivolous adventures. He brings much enthusiasm to the part of Herbert, and is lively throughout, but he's never once believable as a Civil War soldier.

The role of war correspondent Spilett, played by Gary Merrill is poorly conceived --- the Voice of Cynical reason --- and Merrill is tiresome.

Percy Herbert is outrageous as the Rebel soldier. He does a broad, thick accent that's not remotely Southern.

Herbert Lom is a strong actor, and he is always more than up to the demands of his roles.

Joan Greenwood is certainly an odd actress to find in a science fiction film with giant bees. Her distinctive voice and delivery make her much more suitable to witty ladies of the type found in Oscar Wilde films, but she enters into the spirit of things in Mysterious Island.

Neither Beth Rogan nor Dan Jackson makes much of an impression; they are merely the Screaming Ingenue and Noble Black Man.

The several matte paintings are handsome, and have a King Kong-like aura, but don't convince us they are reality. Realism isn't as important as a sense of awe and wonder, and intermittently, Mysterious Island gives us that.

Bernard Herrmann's score for Mysterious Island features an excellent title theme, and that for the deserted island is also excellent. Though the themes for the crab and bird are fine, those for the bees and the nautilus are disappointing.

Mysterious Island is pleasant, escapist fare.

[Bud Brewster]

[Pow]

Bill Warren praises MI but also has his share of criticisms of it, some of which I disagree with.

He felt that the undersea battle with the nautilus creature was "seriously unexciting." I felt the complete opposite. The nautilus is one of my favorite Harryhausen creatures, as well as one of his most frightening with its deadly tentacles reaching outwards towards the protagonists. My quibble is that with such an awesome looking creature, the scene was far too short in its screen time. If the budget & time allowed, I'd have had a longer encounter take place nearer the sunken pirate vessel, or the ancient sunken city. And Bernard Herrmann's score was just fine for the scene.

Warren found the volcanic eruption "cliched." Yes, erupting volcanoes are utilized in numerous movies like The Devil at 4 O' Clock, Krakatoa, East of Java. However, the volcano was a key plot element in MI and not just for show. It created the urgency that the characters had to evacuate the island asap. It was also the reason Captain Nemo revealed himself to the marooned islanders in order to form an alliance to work together for survival.

Warren also picks away at the cast. I thought they all did an admirable job. I quite enjoyed Gary Merrill's "Voice of Cynical reason." Warren found him "tiresome," I found him colorful and interesting in his views.

Bill found the matte paintings "handsome," even though Ray was not pleased with them. I have to go with Ray on this issue; the matte paintings vary in quality from not bad to weak.

Even so, Warren does like the film overall. I feel it remains one of Ray's finest movies where the script and the effects dovetailed beautifully together.

[Bud Brewster]

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I totally agree, Pow. I used to think Jason and the Argonauts was a far better movie than Mysterious Island. But after spending three enjoyable days creating my long and picture-filled post for the movie a few years ago, I developed a higher opinion of it.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Gentlemen, after creating posters for imaginary sequels for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and Jason and the Argonauts, it seems obvious that Ray and Charles screwed the pooch a third time by not producing a sequel to Mysterious Island!

Today's Hollywood producers would be flabbergasted by the way Harryhausen and Schneer squandered the chance to create profitable franchises based on these three movies!

In each case, they had a fully equipped production staff in place who could swing into action and begin work on exciting sequels to all three films!

After all. I create beautiful posters for two of them!







And my previous posts on this thread has already suggested ideas for a sequel.

With that in mind, I'll start working a third poster . . . and I charge you gentlemen with the task of suggesting ideas for an imaginary sequel to Mysterious Island.

Gentlemen . . . drop what you're doing and come up with some good ideas. I need your help!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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Here's a few thoughts I have about the sequel to Mysterious Island.

Captain Nemo was developing ways to create giant-sized animals that would provide the world with abundant food. What we see in the movie is a giant crab (which the castaways killed, cooked, and ate), and a giant bird (which the castaways also killed, cooked, and ate).





These prime examples of Nemo's success in creating food animaly obviously pleased him greatly — although I'm not quite clear on why he genetically engineered giant bees.

However, the important question that concerns us is this; what other giant food animals would Nemo have created?

Obviously, the movie was not able to show us Nemo's research facilites somewhere on the island, so we don't know the full scope of his project.

With that in mind, I summit that both the crab —





— and the bird —





— were simply specimens which escaped from confinement in Nemo's research facility. (Or perhaps he released them to see how they would fare in the wild. He did this, of course, before the castaways arrived.)

The question we should consider now (both with regard to the 1963 movie and the imaginary sequel I'm proposing) is this.

What other "giant food animals" would Nemo have created?

We need these animals to be both useful to a global population in need of food . . . AND as good subjects for Ray Harryhausen to create animation scenes in our "imaginary sequel!

The problem, of course, is that the usual food animals which come to mind are . . . pigs, chickens, and cows. We could include deer and buffalo, of course, but giant versions of these just don't stack up against a giant crab and an exotic over-size bird!

One story possibility which does comes to mind is this.

Suppose Nemo's unmanned facility (after the volcanic eruption subsided) ran amuck for a year or two, and his genetic engineering — combined with his use of atomic radiation — produced a large number of highly mutated creatures which invested the island!

What do you think, guys!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]