Mysterious Island (1941 film)

Mysterious Island, or Tainstvennyy ostrov in Russian, is a USSR film adaptation of the 1874 novel by Jules Verne, The Mysterious Island (L'Île mystérieuse). The story is a follow-up to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

Plot summary

During the siege of Richmond, Virginia, in the American Civil War, five northern prisoners of war decide to escape in a rather unusual way – by hijacking a balloon.

The group eventually crash-lands on a cliff-bound, volcanic, unknown (and fictitious) island, located in the South Pacific. They name it "Lincoln Island" in honour of American President Abraham Lincoln. With the knowledge of the brilliant engineer, the five are able to sustain themselves on the island, producing fire, pottery, bricks, nitroglycerine, iron, a simple electric telegraph, and even a seaworthy ship. They also manage to find their geographical location.

The mystery of the island seems to come from periodic and inexplicable deus ex machinas: the unexplainable survival of Smith from his fall from the balloon, the mysterious rescue of his dog Top from a wild manatee, a box full of equipment (guns and ammunition, tools, etc...), the finding of a message in the sea calling for help, and so on.

A crew of pirates arrives at the Lincoln Island to use it as their hideout. After some fighting with the heroes, the pirate ship is mysteriously destroyed by an explosion, and the pirates themselves are found dead, apparently in combat, but with no visible wounds.

The secret of the island is revealed when it turns out to be Captain Nemo's hideout, and home harbour of the Nautilus. Captain Nemo had been the savior of the heroes, providing them with equipment, sending a message about a fellow castaway, torpedoing the pirate ship and killing the pirates with an electric gun.

Cast

A. Andriyenko-Zemskov ... Pencroft
Yuri Grammatikati ... Herbert
Pavel Kiyansky .... Gideon Spillett
Nikolai Komissarov ... Captain Nemo
I. Kozlov ... Ayrton
Alexei Krasnopolsky .... Capt. Cyrus Harding (Smith)
R. Ross .... Neb
Andrei Sova .... Jupe

Crew

B. M. Chelintsev and Eduard Pentslin (directors) M. Kalinin, Boris Shelontsev, and Jules Verne (writers)

External links

• Tainstvennyy ostrov at the Internet Movie Database