Mysterious Island (1961)

Minor SPOILERS BELOW

I must have seen Mysterious Island as a kid, because a lot of it looked familiar. Or maybe I'd just seen lots of clips from Ray Harryhausen tributes. Either way, I can't believe I made it this long into adulthood without watching it (again?).

Yay for Turner Classic Movies though. And it feels kind of appropriate to watch it now since I've just watched 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It would've been even more appropriate to watch after the Disney 20,000 Leagues, which is a lot closer to this movie in tone and look than the Richard Crenna movie, but oh well. It was still cool catching up with Captain Nemo. And a much cooler version than Crenna's pal, too.

If you haven't seen it, Mysterious Island is the story of some Union soldiers and a reporter who escape from a Confederate prison camp in a hot air balloon towards the end of the Civil War. A Confederate guard jumps into the basket to try to stop them and ends up stuck with them too. Unfortunately, there's a huge storm going on and it blows them clear across the continent and over the Pacific Ocean. Eventually they come down on the titular island and have to learn to work together to survive giant crab attacks and pirates. It's pretty awesome.

The group is prettied up when a couple of English women are stranded on the island after their ship wrecks. They're a rich woman and her niece, and at first they come across a bit entitled, but they integrate with the camp pretty quickly. And lucky for the men, the aunt can sew, so she makes jungle clothes for everyone including a skimpy outfit for her niece.

I won't spoil how Nemo shows up or what role he plays, but he does show up to add an extra helping of awesome to the plate. He's played by Herbert Lom (Chief Inspector Dreyfus from the Pink Panther movies) who's doing his best to equal James Mason's version from the Disney film. He doesn't quite make it, but he comes close. His goofy seashell diving gear hurts him, but he's much more animated and exotic than Ben Cross' version in the Crenna film). Lom even plays Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (but then, so did Cross, which was the coolest thing about him).

The Nautilus is also clearly ripped off from the Disney version, just as it should've been.

According to IMDB, the original concept for the movie was to shoot it as a straight survival story (inspired in part by the success of another Disney movie, Swiss Family Robinson), but the producers thought that was boring and ordered some giant monsters. So, yay, producer meddling!

Speaking of previous versions, there's a giant bird attack at one point that was held over from an early draft that featured prehistoric beasts. As much as I like dinosaurs, I'm more than okay with the giant crab, bees, and nautilus in this movie. Part of what made it so cool and interesting is that I never knew what to expect next. Dinosaurs are great, but I don't think I would have thrilled to a T-Rex half as much as I did to that crab.

My only complaints about the movie have to do with the ladies' not kicking enough butt and there not being enough Nemo in general. It could have been just a little bit more awesome than it was.

Four out of five giant crab dinners.