Mysterious Island (1961 film)

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For the Jules Verne novel, see The Mysterious Island. For the Tokyo DisneySea land, see Mysterious Island.

Mysterious Island
Theatrical poster to Mysterious Island (1961)
Directed by	Cy Endfield
Produced by	Charles H. Schneer
Written by	Jules Verne (novel L'Île mystérieuse) John Prebble Daniel B. Ullman Crane Wilbur
Starring	Michael Craig Joan Greenwood Michael Callan Gary Merrill Herbert Lom Beth Rogan Percy Herbert Dan Jackson
Music by	Bernard Herrmann
Cinematography	Wilkie Cooper
Editing by	Frederick Wilson
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	December 20, 1961
Running time	96 min.
Language	English
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Mysterious Island (UK: Jules Verne's Mysterious Island) is a film made in 1961 by Morningside Productions. Based upon the book The Mysterious Island (L'Île mystérieuse) by Jules Verne, it was produced by Charles Schneer and Ray Harryhausen. Directed by Cy Enfield, the film was released through Columbia Pictures. It was filmed in Shepperton, England using SuperDynamation, which was a showcase for Harryhausen's animation effects. Like several of Harryhausen's classic productions, the soundtrack was provided by Bernard Herrmann.

The film, moderately loyal to Verne's novel, centers around escaping Union soldiers from a Confederate prison camp during the American Civil War in a hot air balloon. They end up crashing in the ocean, only to find themselves washed up on an unknown island where gigantic animals abound. It would later be revealed that the animals were experiments of the presumed-dead Captain Nemo, who is an unknown benefactor to the castaways as they struggle to survive on the island. After a skirmish with pirates, the stranded group manages to escape from the island on the pirate's ship.

The highlights of the movie were Ray Harryhausen's animation sequences. The different animated "monsters" that the castaways encountered were: a giant crab, a giant flightless bird (a prehistoric bird called a Phororocaus) which most viewers thought was a chicken, giant bees and a giant cephalopod called a Chambered Nautiloid.

[edit] Cast

Michael Craig .... Capt. Cyrus Harding
Joan Greenwood .... Lady Mary Fairchild
Michael Callan .... Herbert Brown
Gary Merrill .... Gideon Spilitt
Herbert Lom .... Captain Nemo
Beth Rogan .... Elena Fairchild
Percy Herbert .... Sgt. Pencroft
Dan Jackson .... Cpl. Neb Nugent