Isla desconocida

Unknown Island is great fun for those of you who love the old jungle adventure films. It boasts classic Hollywood jungle sets, carnivorous dinosaurs (portrayed by men in rubber suits), a giant sloth (played by Ray "Crash" Corrigan of movie gorilla fame), and a few truly chilling moments. Although the special effects seem crude by today's standards, fans of classic jungle serials, old gorilla movies, or dinosaur films will not be disappointed with this fun to watch 1948 feature.

"Unknown Island" (1948) is just the kind of movie that I would imagine thrilled the kids at Saturday afternoon matinees way back when; kind of like a 1940s "Jurassic Park." In this one, scientist Philip Reed wants to explore a seemingly prehistoric Pacific island that he'd once seen from the air, so he and his fiancée, yummy redhead Virginia Grey, hire a tramp steamer captain (Barton MacLane) and his crew of mutinous lascars to take them there. Shanghaied into coming along for the ride is Richard Denning, hunkyman favorite of '50s sci-fi fans, who had washed up on this same island years before and is now an alcoholic wreck as a result. The film, to its credit, wastes little time in getting us to the island and treating us to brontos, herds of T. Rex, spiny-backed lizards AND a giant upright sloth that looks more like a death's-head gorilla. The dino FX, it must be admitted, are so-so at best, but honestly...were you really expecting Spielbergian ILM effects from a 1940s B picture? (I've actually seen worse in Japanese monster movies made 20 years later.) The film is as pulpy as can be--that's its paramount charm--and all the characters in it follow the '40s formula and get precisely what they deserve; no surprises there. MacLane is his usual growling self, and is actually very fine as a villain when alcohol, jungle fever and Virginia lust make him go a tad whacko. "Unknown Island" is a perfect movie to watch with the kiddies or with your 8-year-old nephew, and would make a perfect double feature paired with 1954's "Target Earth," also starring Denning and Grey. The Maltin book calls it boring, but they're wrong again; it never is. And the fine-looking DVD from Image Entertainment that I just watched shows off the 1940s Cinecolor extremely well. Thanks, guys, for rescuing this fun and little-seen flick from comparative oblivion and giving it a nice treatment.

No this is no masterpiece, it isn't even all that good really. But it is entertaining enough to occupy 72 minutes of your time if you have some time to waste. The acting is fine and the special FX have a certain surprising charm except for the disappointing giant sloth. I enjoyed the romantic interest undertone of the film centering around Carole Lane(Virginia Grey) and the three men who desire her. All in all, this is a fun time waster.

Unknown Island is a low budget adventure-thriller in Cinecolor. The acting is creaky, and the prehistoric beasts look ridiculous. An engaged couple charter the ship of a salty captain to sail to a mysterious island rumored to have live dinosaurs. The man chartering the ship (Ted Osborne) says he only wants to take pictures of the beasts he once witnessed as he flew over the island in an airplane (we are then shown a hilarious "photograph" he took from the airplane of one of the dinosaurs), but we soon learn he is a selfish and slimy type of guy. His fiancee (Virginia Grey) is helping finance the expedition, and seems to want to only take a leisurely part in the trip. The salty captain of the ship (Barton MacLane) proves to be a masher to the lady, and a selfish jerk as he decides he wants one of the beasts to take back for the profit. His decision leaves everyone on the island longer, and in constant threat of danger from the wild, prehistoric beasts. Richard Denning has also once witnessed the horrible beasts of the island, and he plays an alcoholic who learns to sober up during the return to the island. A mutual interest becomes established between his character and the woman. Upon nearing the island we get to witness a brontosaurus pair, which are badly animated stop-motion models. The cast is "menaced" on the island by ridiculous carnivorous dinosaurs that make hilarious vocal noises, and by a sloth creature which is a man in a sloth suit (LOL.) There's even a rubber dimetrodon creeping around the island. The salty captain's workers don't always appear to be the ethnic types they're supposed to be, which is funny as a flub in the film. I will say the jungle setting does look nice, and the Cinecolor is interesting. Bad special effects, flubs, and a general ridiculousness make this movie somewhat laughable and fun to watch.

A lot of this movie looks like a re-do of some elements of King Kong, which had been released 15 years earlier. The stop-motion technology of Kong was here replaced by a forced-perspective split-screen approach to animate the ferocious gigantic beasts. Compared to today's CGI, the effects may seem as primitive as the dinosaurs it shows, but it's a fun movie to watch.

There's a bunch of tough sea dogs, one pretty girl, and some others introduced in pre-adventure bar room brawls and so on. Some explorer guy hears legends of the existence of the mysterious uncharted island, where prehistoric life has somehow avoided extinction, and books the sea dogs for a voyage to the island. Sound familiar? Apparently, this guy had heard about horrible deaths in the earlier film, and had aspirations to get killed in the same way.

I love the creatures in this film. They're not as scary as others you've seen, but they're certainly a novelty to see. They move slowly and stare with curiosity at panicky human characters who like to shoot at them. In a couple of scenes, one of the grinning dinosaurs even looks like he's about to sing the Barney song, "I Love You, You Love Me." Be on the lookout for Kong's toothy cousin, who stages the obligatory rematch with one of Barney's more vicious relatives.

It's all some good dinosaur fun, which was probably quite cool for its time, and it certainly can still entertain today, if you look past the cheap effects. The actors approach their characters with enthusiasm, and there is a good balance of character development, action, and plot development. A decent watch, for some fun drive-in nostalgia.