Island of Lost Women

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"Island of Lost Women" is a 71-minute, black-and-white movie -- directed by Frank Tuttle -- which was released by Warner Brothers in 1959.

Its plot seems to borrow from 1956's Forbidden Planet which, in turn, lifted much of its plot from Shakespeare's The Tempest. Jeff Richards plays a radio commentator whose pilot, John Smith, is flying him across the Pacific to a conference in Australia. Engine troubles develop and Smith makes a forced landing on a small, perhaps uncharted island inhabited by Alan Napier. Napier, unfriendly to the point of hostility, orders the intruders to leave immediately but their plane has been too badly damaged to permit this. Napier then grudgingly introduces Richards and Smith to his trio of young, beautiful daughters -- Venetia Stevenson, Diane Jurgens, and June Blair. Richards and Smith soon learn that Napier is a scientist who's fled the civilized world because of his fears of the havor which can be wrought by the discovery of nuclear energy.

Despite Napier's disapproval, two of his daughters fall in love with the two strangers and decisions must soon be made of the do-we-go-or-do-we-stay variety.

Though made on a small budget with only limited ambitions, this movie has a certain "Saturday matinee" charm and never quite wears out its welcome. (Its b&w photography probably holds up better than similar work in color.) Those looking for deeper meanings in this movie's pulp-magazine plot may note that Richards and Smith engage in nothing more than harmless flirtations with the island's women while they spend a lot of time relating to each other in the buddy-buddy manner often found in movies. Both Richards, near the end of his career, and Smith, toward the start of his, take off their shirts and even strip down to swim suits in several scenes, one of which has Smith applying sun lotion to Richards' bare back. For contrast, Richards is the dark one with the hairy chest whereas Smith is blond and smooth.