Harryhausen Week, Day 2: Mysterious Island

One of the soldiers attempts to strike the Giant Enemy Crab's weak point in order to inflict massive damage.

In this second article in a planned serious of 7, I'm taking a look at 1961's "Mysterious Island". Although it is only loosely based on Jules Verne's significantly less monster-filled novel, it still manages to touch on the themes of exploration, resourcefulness and cooperation which were the hallmarks of the book. It also gives a chance for stop-motion maestro to animate some devilish monsters. Hmmm... well... they're not really "monsters" in the mythical sense. More like over-sized animals. There's a giant (dare I say enemy?) crab, a prehistoric flightless bird, and BEES, as well as a Giant squid. In any case, it's one of the more believable of Harryhausen's movies, when it comes to the actual monsters.

The story concerns a troop of Union soldiers who escape from their confederate prison during the siege of Virginia in 1865, taking to the skies in a hot-air balloon. However, they and a confederate soldier who was brought aboard during the escape are unable to land due to a ferocious storm which blows them off course and all the way into the Pacific. Here they crash land onto a Island, which turns out to be pretty mysterious. *cue eerie Bernard Herrmann music* Here they find a few other cast-aways and try to survive. It's an interesting concept, and of course we get to see some pretty good animation by Mr. Harryhausen. The last 40 minutes has some pretty decent twists and manages to keep up a certain amount of momentum.

Overall, a good early fantasy effort. Tomorrow, I'll check out "One Million Years B.C."

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