L'île mystérieuse

I watched this one as a mini-series (one part each weekday) back in ~1976; when it was transmitted again in the weekend back-to-back as a single block, it was the first thing I ever watched on color TV at my aunt's house. It's a very good adaptation of Verne's book, far better than others I've seen. Omar Sharif played a convincing Captain Nemo, and, AFAICR, the rest of the cast provided good acting too. I've been wanting to watch it again ever since, and thanks to the IMdB I was finally able to find out the production details - I didn't even know it had been a Spanish production! Unfortunately, it seems it isn't available for sale on video or DVD... a real pity. I can only hope it will be released during this decade.

This film is extremely rare. I watched it on Danish tv when I was kid - something like 26 years ago! - and have been hunting it ever since. Finally I tracked down a German rental tape, but apparently no English language video exists?? THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND OF CAPTAIN NEMO stays fairly close to the source (in the book Jupiter is an orangutan, not a chimpanzee, ok, that's a very minor detail). However the film adds som weird sci-fi touches. Back then I was very fascinated by the remote rayguns with which Captain Nemo (Omar Sharif!) protects his realm, while today they admittedly look suspiciously like car lights on sticks. But the film is still great fun.

This new rendition about Jules Verne novel is developed during the American Civil war (1861-1865) , Union POWs (Jess Hahn, Philippe Nicaud , Gerard Tichy and a boy , Rafael Bardem Jr) escape in a balloon and end up stranded on a lonely South Pacific island . They must use their ingenious and wisdom to survive risks and dangers , as weird ray-guns and to devise a way to return at home . They also find another island , a shipwrecked man (Gabriele Tinti) who joins the motley group , besides , appearing Captain Nemo (Omar Sharif) and his submarine . Meanwhile , a band of pirates (Rick Battaglia , Mariano Vidal Molina , Victor Israel , among others) attack the island.

This is the following to ¨20000 leagues under the sea¨, containing fantastic adventures , suspense , thrills , shootouts and wonderful outdoors . The cinematic version -two hours approximately- is plenty of flaws , however the overlong miniseries in 6 episodes, being more adequate . The film is marvelously set on location in Lanzarote , natural park of Timanfaya , Canary Islands , Alicante and Cameroon . Captain Nemo is middling played by Omar Sharif , he was very angry because being hired for a cinema production when the picture turned into a TV mini-series . Average special effects with a cheesy submarine made by means of scale model , though interiors are well realized . The film packs a sensitive , touching musical score by Gianni Ferrio , an usual musician of Spaghetti Western (Sledge, Desperados) . Colorful cinematography by cameraman Enzo Sarafian, though being necessary a rapid adjust but the copy is worn-out . The movie was professionally co-directed by Juan Antonio Bardem and Henry Colpi . Bardem is one of the best Spanish directors with various excellent pictures ( Main street , Vendetta , and Comedians) . Henry Colpi was a prestigious editor and occasionally director and here was assistant direction . Other versions about this known story are the following ones : The best version in 1961 directed by Cy Endfield with monsters created by Ray Harryhausen and with Herbert Lom as Nemo and TV version , 2005 , by Russell Mulcahy with Patrick Stewart as Nemo .

I discovered the original mini-series on TV (six 52-min episodes) and this is a treat of an adventure that you would catch on holidays then remember from your youth and for which you're bound to keep a peculiar feeling.

Unfortunately the movie version is not on a par with the mini-series. Well it was dishonest in the first place to think a movie can be edited from various TV episodes. The charm of the series was in its episodic unfolding, which results in a pretty shallow storytelling on the big screen. More so as the regular ellipses required to reduce runtime to feature length (less than half the original footage) are hard to swallow and rip out the little magic still on display in some sequences.

So I'd definitely advise you to find the original TV version which is much close to Jules Vernes mixture of adventure and sci-fi with characters brought to life (which is exactly what you would find lacking if you go back to the books as an adult, or if you watch the movie version where there's no time for you to settle with the castaways). Especially Omar Sharif is a deeply moving Captain Nemo. Fancy thinking he just played it to repay his debts (he is an inveterate gambler). Once again this prominent part is drowned in the action of the movie version whereas it's the climax of the series where the adaptation takes time to build up tension rather than rush to the final sequence.

On the whole a very good TV series and a good example of the difference between two types of storytelling. And type mismatch.

Happily the series is not lost after all. Theatrical versions were released to DVD in France and Italy some time ago.

Now, finally, a Spanish movie magazine has released the complete six-episodes series to limited edition DVD! Bad news for some of us is that only a Spanish language track is included, with no subtitles. (If that is unacceptable to you, well, you'll have track down one of the old VHS releases then - and that'd be of the theatrical version only. No complete release in English is known to exist.) But at least it's available, so get it while you can. I've heard that the initial batch sold out almost instantly, to the complete surprise of the magazine staff.

Anyway, let's hope someone will release an English language version. If necessary, do a brand new dub! (Omar Sharif is still around, after all.)

P.S. Watching the complete series again I marvel at how faithful to Jules Verne the producers were. Well, they did crank up the scifi elements a bit, but then again Verne is considered the grandfather of Science Fiction, isn't he?