Mysterious Island (1961 film)

Mysterious Island
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Cy Endfield
Produced by	Charles H. Schneer Ray Harryhausen
Written by	Novel: Jules Verne Screenplay: John Prebble Daniel B. Ullman Crane Wilbur
Starring	Michael Craig Joan Greenwood Michael Callan Gary Merrill Herbert Lom Dan Jackson
Music by	Bernard Herrmann
Cinematography	Wilkie Cooper
Editing by	Frederick Wilson
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	December 20, 1961 (1961-12-20)
Running time	101 minutes
Language	English

Mysterious Island (UK: Jules Verne's Mysterious Island) is a 1961 film released by Morningside Productions. Based very loosely upon the novel The Mysterious Island (L'Île mystérieuse) by Jules Verne, the film was produced by Charles H. Schneer and Ray Harryhausen. Directed by Cy Endfield, it was released through Columbia Pictures. The motion picture was filmed at Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, England as a showcase for Harryhausen's stop-motion animation effects. Like several of Harryhausen's classic productions, the musical score was composed by Bernard Herrmann.

Synopsis

The film centers around Union soldiers escaping in a gas balloon from a Confederate prison camp during the American Civil War. They end up crashing in the ocean, only to find themselves washed up on an unknown island where gigantic animals abound. It would later be revealed that the animals were the result of experiments by the presumed-dead Captain Nemo. He has been an unknown benefactor to the castaways as they struggled to survive on the island. The island's volcano threatens to erupt. After a skirmish with pirates, the stranded group manages to escape from the island on the pirates' ship as the volcano destroys the island.

The highlights of the film were Ray Harryhausen's animation sequences. The different animated "monsters" that the castaways encountered included a giant crab, a giant flightless bird (a prehistoric species called a Phorusrhacos), giant bees and a giant cephalopod resembling a prehistoric ammonite.

Origins

The book on which the film is based is a sequel to two other books by Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and In Search of the Castaways. The latter of these featured a character named Tom Ayrton, who does not appear, but is referred to, in this film. The only connection with the former is the presence of Captain Nemo and the Nautilus.

Cast

• Michael Craig as Captain Cyrus Harding
• Joan Greenwood as Lady Mary Fairchild
• Michael Callan as Herbert Brown
• Gary Merrill as Gideon Spilitt
• Herbert Lom as Captain Nemo
• Beth Rogan as Elena Fairchild
• Percy Herbert as Sergeant Pencroft
• Dan Jackson as Corporal Neb Nugent

See also

• List of stop-motion films

External links

• Mysterious Island at the Internet Movie Database
• Mysterious Island (1961) at DBCult Film Institute
• Mysterious Island at AllRovi