Mysterious Island

  • Title: Mysterious Island
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Mysterious Island movie reviewGiven the success of Kong: Skull Island, this week’s Throwback Thursday takes look back at the 1961 adaptation of Jules Verne’s novel The Mysterious Island. Set during the Civil War, three Union soldiers (Michael Craig, Michael Callan, and Dan Jackson) escape from a Confederate prison stealing a hot air balloon during a storm. Along for the ride are their Confederate prisoner (Percy Herbert) and a war correspondent (Gary Merrill).

After days in the air the group finally make land on an unknown island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. While exploring the group soon discovers its no ordinary island on which they’ve marooned themselves as they encounter assorted odd creatures (giant crabs, giant bees, and a Phorusrhacos), erupting geysers and volcanoes, a pair of shipwrecked women (Joan Greenwood and Beth Rogan), and a convenient chest of provisions from the lost submarine of the notorious Captain Nemo (Herbert Lom).

Including classic Ray Harryhausen‘s stop-motion effects, the film still holds up. The movie is available on DVD with a short collection of featurettes.

[Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, $9.99]