Unknown Island

"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.

This minor little prehistoric monster flick used to be shown on local TV quite often back in sixties when I was a kid. It was the first monster flick I saw in colour on TV. I enjoyed it back then when I was a kid and I've have seen it on video a couple of time recently. (Several badly transfered copies with faded colour have been around for years, but my favorite video store recently got in a newly restored version with excellent quality colour.) I have to admit I still enjoy watching this lively, island full of prehistoric monsters flick.

The monsters, with exception of a pair of what looks stop motion brontasaurus shown briefly, are men in suits, ala Godzilla. I didn't think that they looked all that bad when I was a kid, but seeing them today they look awfully stiff. The creature often called an ape monster, is supposed to be according to the press kit from this film, a giant sloth. Whatever it was supposed to be, I thought it was pretty creepy when I saw this film as a kid. One major complaint I have about the use of men in suits as they are used here, is that unlike stop motion dinosaurs or photographically enlarged lizards, it could be very easy using this method, even in a film of this budget level, to have dinosaurs interact with the actors. The cast never seems directly menaced by the dinosaurs. In fact, with exception of the giant sloth, most of the time they never get near them! In fact I have always felt that the only advantage to using this method (along with full scale models ala THEM!)is that allows easy interaction with the actors with out any expensive split screens, traveling matte etc. that would jack a films budget up.

UNKNOWN ISLAND has a decent cast, including Barton MacLane, who is quite entertaining as the lecherous sea captain. Director Jack Bernhard keeps things moving. The film also avoids one of the most often over used plot contrivances that often turn up in these "lost world" type films; the island doesn't suddenly blow up and then sink beneath the waves.

Overall, I still find UNKNOWN ISLAND an entertaining, enjoyable monster romp. Perhaps because the film has "quaintness" about it that I still find appealing today, despite the derision voiced in this forum by cheap cynics. Despite its faults, I'll take this over most of todays over produced CGI special effects films any day.

See Ya! Youroldpaljim

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.

"Unknown Island" is a horror/fantasy film made in Cinecolor. I mention this because Cinecolor is not a true color process but one made up of two colors instead of the three colors in Technicolor. The colors were much more garish and intense than Technicolor and over time, the films tended to look very orangy-red and greenish-blue....and many colors in the spectrum simply weren't present at all (such as yellows and purples). So why did folks use this inferior two-color process? Price! It was cheap to buy...about the same price as black & white film....whereas Technicolor was very expensive by comparison. I mention this because you might wonder why "Unknown Island" looks the way it does.

The story begins in Singapore. A young couple (Phillip Reed and Virginia Grey) approach Captain Tarnowski (Barton MacLane) with a strange proposition. They want to hire him and his boat to take them to an island which supposedly has living dinosaurs!! Apparently, Ted (Reed) saw dinosaurs when he flew over the island during the war...and now he wants to return to capitalize on this. Naturally, bad things are gonna happen, as the story is quite similar to "King Kong"...and you know it's best they leave these creatures alone!

So is it any good? Well, yes and no. The actors are quite good and the moments when they aren't encountering dinosaurs are also good. But the dinosaurs themselves are pretty limp. Many look like plastic dinosaurs and others are folks wearing clumsy dinosaur costumes...and they all look pretty bad. With a bigger budget might have come better looking creatures. Because of this, while the movie is worth seeing, the film is uneven and the dinosaurs pretty lame.

By the way, early in the film a sailor points out Tarnowski for the couple. That sailor is played by Snub Pollard, a gifted silent comedian whose career changed dramatically when the sound era arrived. Now in the talkies, he was no longer a star or co-star but made a career out of playing various bit parts...possibly because he was an Aussie and perhaps his accent stood in his way...though when he spoke, I never noticed his accent being all that strong.