by Ryan Lewellen
Near the end of The Civil War, three Union soldiers and a war correspondent break from prison and escape on a hot air balloon with the reluctant aid of a confederate. They float for days before a series of mechanical failures and a violent storm force them to crash land on the titular island of mystery. There, they battle enormous animals, discover shipwrecked English noblewomen, and create a new way life while crafting an escape boat. That is, until an unseen benefactor finally reveals himself, bringing the unhappy news of the island’s volcano’s imminent eruption. How can the gang of castaways escape the doomed landmass in time?
As I’m sure the images have indicated, this is one of the awe inspiring pre-digital special effects extravaganzas brilliantly rendered by Ray Harryhausen. The late wizard created some of his most life-like monsters in this film, included a giant crab, which was crafted from a real crustacean’s exoskeleton (one, in fact, eaten by the artist, himself), which accounts for its boiled orange coloring. All the creatures, devoured into existence or not, make up some of his most detailed puppets, and finest animating, and Mysterious Island is the perfect screenplay for his talents.
Playing like a kind of stationary version of The Odyssey, with one larger-than-life event running directly into the next, the crew handily forgets the dangerous proportions of the island’s fauna. Despite recent encounters with the aforementioned crab, a giant bird, and femur-length oysters, a younger pair of adventurers hastily scurries up a hill where they have discovered honey dripping as if from a mountain spring. As you might have guessed, giant bees appear, and the two of them muster enough brains to make an escape, only to be caught in the crossfire exchanged between their comrades and a band of pirates. Nearly every move in the plot is designed for no other purpose than to introduce a new threat. This film is adventure for adventure’s sake, and frankly, I couldn’t be more obliged to smile at every thrilling set piece.
Whatever the script has lost in plot mechanics, it gains tenfold in wit and characterization. The cast boasts an appealing range of characters, cowardly, myopic but brave, cynical, adventurous, and high class. Some tension is created between the Union captain and the war journalist, threatening mutiny, but all the small turmoil, even that found in fighting monsters, is abruptly undercut but the appearance of their mysterious aid (SPOILER ALTERT): Captain Nemo!
Based on Jules Verne’s sequel to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, the controversial captain appears in the third act of Mysterious Island as the clever explanation for the cyclopean creatures. He has devised a solution to all war: breed animals ten times their normal size to end hunger, and therefore, all human strife. That’s a rather cool idea, especially as a move for this character (who killed so many at war in the previous chapter). The only problem is… that’s a little naïve. It’s an interesting concept, and might have been more appropriate had the film not taken place during a war over slavery, culture… railroads, and so much more complexity than basic human needs.
But hey, it’s a big fantasy adventure, with a bigger, brassier score by the illustrious Bernard Hermann. Many consider the music featured in Mysterious Island some of his finest work, and I would have a hard time disagreeing. His dark, intense, and, dare I say, “mysterious” tones featured here are complex enough to provoke, and catchy enough to penetrate. His intense horns blast the emotion, characterization, and action up to a higher level, making this one of the most entertaining films Harryhausen, and director, Cy Endfield, ever created.
