Customer Reviews

Unknown Island

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I first saw this movie around 1950, and in my opinion it still holds up well today. The dinosaurs are not up to computer generated standards, but at least they are not lizards. And the movie avoids my least favorite cliche, that of an exploding volcano. The movie does follow the template for a lost world story, with the deliberate buildup, being stranded, character conflicts, attacks by monsters, etc, but it has a good script within these limitations and the characters are well acted. I was also pleasantly surprised by the tape quality, the colors especially not being faded. All in all, a classic movie of its type.

I really enjoyed this film, although I never saw it in my youth. It was shot in Cinecolor which, I think, must have been a "two-strip" process. As a result you see a lot of cheesy pastels but the skin tones are great. Now granted, the monsters are pretty hokey in this one and it's clear that the "beach" is a studio one... but, somehow, I still liked it. This flick is sort of a King Kong rip-off with no central monster to love or to hate. So, the principals shoot at darn near every one that they see. There are some cool weapons and the casting is near perfect, even though there are no big stars here. All in all, as a baby boomer and horror/sci-fi film nut, I find this film a nice nostalgic return to the good old days.

This was the first dinosaur movie I saw as a kid. I still think it's a great flick. It helped kindle a life long interest in dinosaurs. So what if the monsters are fakey.

If you're a fan of Harryhausen, O'Brien, and movies like Mighty Joe Young, The Lost World, and Valley of The Gwangi, this one is a must to complete your collection. I'm not sure how the monsters were done - some look like men in suits, but better.

The plot's similar to King Kong - a sea voyage to a monster island. I believe it's the first feature film about dinosaurs in color. One of the monsters is a giant sloth that looks like a modified gorilla suit - certainly not as cute as the sloth in Ice Age. But scarier than many movie monsters.

The stars are much better than in the typical "B" monster movies - Virginia Grey, Richard Denning, and Barton MacLane were respected actors in their day.

This is your typical dinosaur movie. A lost island that time has stood still and prehistoric (most of the time dinosaurs) animals still roam this world. Several people get eaten by the dinosaurs. It's sort of predictable. The animals look very fake but it's still a good movie. There are four animals in the movie. A brontosaurus,dimetrodons,giant sloths (they look more like giant apes), and many t.rexes. I especally like the t.rexes. They look more like ceratosaurus than a t.rex but who cares! Overall it's a good movie to see. It's apporpreate enough for childern. No bad words but some violence. The violence isn't too intense but it's mild. By this movie with Lost Continent (the one with Cesar Romero). It makes a great double feature!

A tyrannesaurus with a spike on its nose? Well, I guess all the old movies got it wrong. We now know that if these meat eating dinosaurs walked upright they would break their backs. Here they do so with no trouble, in a lumbering walk fashion, and make nasty faces at visitors to the island. Would there be enough food for these monsters on an island ten miles square? Ah, real science is ruining these movies for me.

Unlike most films of this genre from the 40's and 50's, it is filmed in expensive CINECOLOR. Not rated, it was released in 1948 by Albert Jay Cohen Productions Inc. The DVD is released through Image Entertainment and runs 72 minutes with no extras.

It is a picture reminescent of King Kong with the sea journey and an island of jungle and prehistoric beasts.

Stereotypes abound in the characters and the plot is totally predictable. Viewers may recognize scenes that were salvaged for the film, HORROR OF THE BLOOD MONSTERS (1970) with John Carradine.

The plot is simple. Philip Reed, played by Ted Osborne and Virginia Grey, played by Carole Lane hire Captain Tarnowski, played by Barton MacLane, to take them by steamer to an uncharted island. During the war, Reed flew over the island and caught sight of prehistoric creatures. He wants to return and take photographs to prove his discovery. They are introduced to John Fairbanks, played by Richard Denning, the lone survivor from a shipwreck upon its shores. Surviving mutiny at sea, they reach their objective and the native crew become fodder for the beasts and the sea. The captain suffers from malaria, is a drunkard, wants a specimen for the return journey, and also wants the girl. Here is where the real plot tension emerges. Reed shows himself more interested in his photos than in Grey who sponsored the expedition. A romance buds between Fairbanks and Grey. Not giving any more away, that is about it.

Richard Denning has done several films in science fiction/horror, including CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON and THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED. He gives a good performance although his sailor suit is rather silly.

There is a giant sloth on the island that has taken to killing people, looks rather ape-like. The man in the suit was Ray Corrigan, who often dressed up for the movies, i.e. DR. RENAULT'S SECRET, THE WHITE GORILLA, NABONGA, and "It" in IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE. Like the dinosaurs, the costumes look silly, but hey, even Godzilla is a man in a rubber suit.

The script could have used more work. Note these lines from Fairbanks: "It's quicker having your throat cut by a lascar's knife than to be crushed by a monster you don't even see or hear until a shadow as big as a mountain falls on you." Huh? Where's the logic in that? Despite the danger, Fairbanks permits Grey to go off into the jungle by herself (unarmed) saying simply, "Stay on the path." Pleeeeease! Do the dinosaurs avoid the path?

As for the dinosaurs, I liked them, not because they were good, but because they were funny looking. Hey, at least they did not strap ridges and hornes to lizards and pretend they were giants! The dinosaurs get a kill but you would have to be a one-legged stroke victim to really be caught by these guys, they are so slow. The alignment in the mouthes of the creatures is a bit off and they remind me of Henson's early sock puppets.

The full-screen DVD is not too bad and even younger kids can probably watch it in ease.

>No nudity.
>The Captain makes unwanted advances upon Grey.
>Fight scenes and murder (hey even pirate and cowboy movies have these).
>Some hard language but nothing really foul.

They sure dont make movies like this anymore,, and if they did, it would be
pretty hard to secure a budget... Im glad that they did make these movies, as
they were our source of entertainment. I would rather see cheap monster
movies than gangster or war movies that were all the rage in the 60's.
There were much better creature movies out there, but only this one had
those weird dinosaurs. I just got the DvD version, and again am i pleased
with the quality, the color, the music. Its pretty bare bone dvd, without
any bonus stuff....

UNKNOWN ISLAND is the kind of dinosaur movie that you take seriously, even with some pretty cut rate special effects. What elevates this movie above its bottom feeder competitors is the surprisingly strong acting. Virginia Grey and Phillip Reed are a couple who hire a barge captained by Barton MacLane to sail to the "unknown" island of the title because Reed knows that it is full of dinosaurs that have somehow survived from the Cretaceous to the present. They hire Richard Denning, who had actually been on the island before barely escaping with his life, to accompany them as a guide. The idea is for Reed to take pictures which they can sell for a fortune. Up to the point where they actually land on the island, director Jack Bernhard shows considerable respect for the audience as he sets in motion a convoluted four sided triangle between the captain, who clearly lusts after Miss Grey and Reed, who seems strangely unconcerned about the dangers to which he is subjecting his fiance. Complicating things is a growing affection between Miss Grey and Richard Denning, who starts out as a lush but winds up as heroic. After the appearance of the dinosaurs, the director plays overly free with hard science. Now I know that the movie calls for a tropical island full of lumbering beasts of various sorts, but the captain did admit that the island was 10 miles around. This would make it 100 square miles, far too little to support even a fraction of the dinosaurs on screen. Further, as the shrunken wooley mammoths of Wrangle Island proved, that when huge beasts are cut off from the mainland to populate a much smaller land mass like an island, evolution will cause them to shrink to better fit in with a reduced land mass. Further, the island included a Dimetrodon, a fin-backed reptile that became extinct in the Permian, some 100 million years before the Cretaceous. There was also a weird half-gorilloid species that does not fit in easily anywhere in an ecological niche. Putting aside the aforementioned scientific blunders, UNKNOWN ISLAND worked for me because of the intense interaction among the four protagonists. Phillip Reed as the camera man fiance comes off as an insensitive clod who does not appreciate Miss Grey. Richard Denning grows in dramatic stature until the closing credits. Surprisingly enough, it falls to Barton MacLane to provide the dramatic forward movement. MacLane is oily, untrustworthy, and sleazy--but nevertheless a tough guy and courageous for that. It is he who emerges as the film's most round character. UNKNOWN ISLAND is good enough for its genre that it deserves to lose its "unknown" status to take its place as a rightful member of high class big lizard films.

A favorite from my childhood. This movie scared the willies out of me as a 10 year old. Far from an "A List" but better than a "B" movie. The rubber suit dinosaurs are creepy. The sloth looks more like a gorilla but at least there's no iguana's with things glued on. The women are 1950's almost Betty Page trashy hot. A great lazy afternoon treat. Don't be too critical. Just enjoy.

Cool movie and actors..great plot...fun and worth the cost if only to see the dinosaur fight with the giant gorilla...yea!