The Mysterious Island (1929 film)

The Mysterious Island is a 1929 American science fiction film directed by Lucien Hubbard based on Jules Verne's 1874 novel L'Île mystérieuse (The Mysterious Island). It was photographed largely in two-color Technicolor and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a part-talkie, with some scenes that featured audible dialog and some that had only synchronized music and sound effects.[1]

The Mysterious Island
Lobby card
Directed byLucien Hubbard
Screenplay byLucien Hubbard
Based onThe Mysterious Island
by Jules Verne
StarringLionel Barrymore
Jacqueline Gadsden
Lloyd Hughes
Montagu Love
Harry Gribbon
Music byMartin Broones
Art Lange
CinematographyPercy Hilburn (*French)
Edited byCarl Pierson
Production
company
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
October 5, 1929 (1929-10-05)
Running time
95 minutes
93 minutes Turner Library print
67 minutes restored version
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$55,000 (estimated)
Box office$1,130,000 (USA)

Plot

On a volcanic island near the kingdom of Hetvia rules Count Dakkar, a benevolent leader and scientist who has eliminated class distinction among the island's inhabitants. Dakkar, his daughter Sonia and her fiance, engineer Nicolai Roget have designed a submarine which Roget pilots on its initial voyage just before the island is overrun by Baron Falon, despotic ruler of Hetvia. Falon sets out after Roget in a second submarine and the two craft, diving to the ocean's floor, discover a strange land populated by dragons, a giant octopus and an eerie undiscovered humanoid race.

Jane Daly (Jacqueline Gadsden) prepared for a scene in The Mysterious Island

Cast

Production

According to an article in the original Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, production was actually started in 1926. There were various problems, including weather and the advent of talkies, which slowed/halted production several times before the film was finally completed and released three years later. The article included stills showing the original 1926 undersea denizens and the redesigned version which actually appeared in the film. Footage directed by Maurice Tourneur and Benjamin Christensen in 1927 was incorporated into the final 1929 version.

Adaptation

The film is loosely based on the back-story given for Captain Nemo in the novel The Mysterious Island, and might more properly be thought of as a prequel to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. It is the story of Count Dakkar (Captain Nemo's real name is revealed to be Prince Dakkar in The Mysterious Island), how he built his submarine, how he was betrayed, and how he became an outcast seeking revenge.

Preservation

Until recently only one reel with a color sequence was thought to have survived, in the collection of the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

In 2013, Deborah Stoiber from the George Eastman House film archive visited Prague to examine the sole existing color copy of The Mysterious Island. The U.S. film experts, in cooperation with the Czech National Film Archive, restored the color print of The Mysterious Island.[2] After the complete Technicolor print was discovered in Prague in December 2013, a new print of the film premiered at the 33rd Pordenone Silent Film Festival in October 2014.[3]

The film is available March 26, 2019 on MOD from Warner Archive collection, but only in an unrestored black and white print.[4]

See also

References
  1. Progressive Silent Film List: The Mysterious Island at silentera.com
  2. U.S. film historians find treasure in Czech archive, Radio Praha December 13, 2013
  3. 2014 Pordenone Silent Film Festival
  4. WB Shop; WarnerArchive.com


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