Unknown Island (1948) – movie review

Rare and Obscure Dinosaur films

Unknown Island (1948)

Directed by Jack Bernhard and shot in Cinecolor while most films were still in B&W, Unknown Island boasts some class actors. This is basically a King Kong movie in color without the Kong. The dinosaurs were a bit funky looking in this one, but it had a decent enough plot. Virginia Grey, Richard Denning, Phillip Reed and Barton Maclane provide above average acting for this kind of film albeit melodramatic at points. I was swooped up into the story drama and characters.

An airforce pilot, Ted, veered off course by a typhoon, spotted an island in the Pacific that had strange giant beasts living on it during WWII. Now, after the war, he and a well-to-do fiancé, Carole, are in Singapore to hire Captain TarnowskI, a hard-ass, womanizing, ship owner, to help them find this uncharted island. TarnowskI has heard of this island from a drunk, John Fairbanks (Richard Denning) and brings him along for his knowledge of the mystery. They find the island and have to battle a mutiny from the crew, dozens of Tyrannosaurus and a big ape looking thing they call a giant sloth.

They come ashore in a lagoon studio set that looks an awful lot like the set in Gilligan’s Island. Early scenes of Brontosaurus in a swamp look decent enough and several Dimetrodon look okay, until they start walking and its clear they’re being dragged by a rope. The T. Rex are men in costume and crappy ones at that. In early scenes, the crew are shooting at them from afar. As the film goes on, we get close-ups of the beasts and, oh boy, they are terrible costumes. The giant sloth/ape thing is clearly a modified gorilla costume. The sloth and a T. Rex have a ridiculous fight at the climax of the film which amounts to the two costumed actors bumping into each other over and over. It’s kinda‘, hilarious.

While Ted is interested in the discovery of the dinos and capturing them on camera, The captain is only interested in Carole and getting a piece of that action. He makes several blatant and unwelcome advances on her. Late in the film he attacks her and is saved by Fairbanks. Carole and Fairbanks fall in love. When they tell fiancé Ted, he is totally okay with it and wishes them luck ???? Anyway, with all this ridiculousness going on you may wonder why I like this film at all. I really can’t tell you for sure, but I suspect it’s the simplicity of the plot and a nostalgia for that 1940’s style storytelling. Or maybe it’s just Virginia Grey.

Can’t recommend it except for the completist dinosaur film fans.

Fun facts:

Barton Maclane would later star in I Dream of Jeannie as General Peterson (1965-1969)

Even though they are calling them T. Rex in the film, these dinos have a horn on their snouts, which indicates they are Ceratosaurus.

In one scene, they throw grenades at the dinos and one falls over dead. In actuality, the guy in the dino-suit fainted from heat exhaustion and they left the shot in the scene.

Cinecolor was not true full color. Colors such as bright green, purple, and yellow could not be rendered properly using this process.

 

 

Creature Features revisited – Giant Robots

Creature Features revisited – Giant Robots

A look back at the golden age of sci-fi, the 1950‘s. Our subject today…Giant Robots
One would think and associate the 1950’s sci-fi age with giant robots. Surprisingly there are very few giant robots in film during this time period. Here are my top picks:

Kronos (1957)
Ya’ know, leaving the terrible pseudo-science and phony looking flying saucer aside, this film takes an hour to really get to its namesake. The ‘robot’ is the weirdest looking thing, rectangular metal blocks stacked on columns. And forget about its means of locomotion, even at seven years old (the first time I saw the film) I knew that those alternate pumping pistons would not be an effective mode of transportation. So, what do I like about it? It’s massive, it shoots lightning from its antennae, and it soaks up all the power from a nuclear blast to redistribute it in a calculated path of destruction (I’m really stretching it here). Besides, one of the scientists was played by George O’Hanlon who later became voice of George Jetson (The Jetson’s cartoon). The other scientist was played by Jeff Morrow.

The Colossus of New York (1958)
The Colossus of NY was directed by Eugène Lourié, a name that should be much more famous in the sci-fi community than it is. Ross Martin stars as Jeremy, a scientist and humanitarian, who is killed in a car crash on the night he was to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. His Father transplants Jeremy’s brain into a 12 foot tall robot. This reborn version of Jeremy is kept in seclusion and away from his wife and child, who are picking up the pieces of their life after his death. From the sealed off lab he works with his father and his assistant to solve the problems of the world. But, the lack of contact with his family and a suspicion that his partner is secretly seeing his wife drive him mad. He decides the world is not decent enough to be saved by his work, so they should die by his work. He sets out on a rampage in NYC to attack a convention honoring the scientific community. In the end it is only the love for his son, who is also at the convention, that allows him to be destroyed before causing any further damage. The only score in the film is the piano composition of Van Cleave (who also did music for White Christmas, Robinson Crusoe on Mars, and episodes of the Twilight Zone) The film is mostly a sad melodrama until the short-lived Robot-attack at the conclusion of the film. But it is worth seeing for sci-fi fans of this era.

The Mysterians (1957)
Aliens land in Japan and their giant spacecraft burrows into the ground. They have two simple requests in their alien ultimatum. “We want two acres of land, and all of your women!” When the leaders of earth say, “No” (everyone except Jack Benny, that is) the Mysterians release the Giant Robot, Mogera. He shoots radioactive rays from his eyes and stomps small towns. Flying Saucers come down from space and zap any military attempt at combating the alien takeover. However, the Japanese military has been working on a secret weapon to combat the onslaught of Robot and Saucers, thus, the first appearance of the Maser Cannon is seen in a Toho film. The Maser Cannon shoots a laser beam that looks like lightning and would be put to combat in many future Toho films releases. By far the best giant robot film of the era.

Target Earth (1954)
A young woman, Vicki, (Virginia Grey), wakes up to find the city of Chicago abandoned. The film does a great job at showing her running through the deserted city streets, and portraying her panic, which had to be an influence on the opening of 28 Days Later. She eventually stumbles upon three more people who were down and out and missed the evacuation. The alien invasion consists of robot sentinels roaming the city and zapping anything that moves. Squirrels? Gone. Pigeons? Gone. People? Zap! Zap! Extra crispy. The robots are only 8 to 10 feet tall so I don’t know if they should be considered giant, but like I said, there wasn’t nearly as many films in this category to choose from as I would have thought. This film is heavy on drama but seriously lacking in robot combat. The robots are only seen in a few scenes. They shoot an electric ray from their TV screen faces and a couple of people disappear. The robots are decent looking and the story is really well written, so I‘d give it a thumbs up, anyway. Also stars, Richard Denning.

Honorable mention:

Of course, we got GORT from The Day the Earth Stood Still, but he only zapped a few things then stood immobile for most of the movie. Besides, I’m going to feature this film in my Alien Ultimatums list in the future…

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