Wednesday, July 18, 2012

MYSTERIOUS ISLAND - Bernard Herrmann - "Deep Regrets" (1961)

Wow! How's that for a trilogy of heavyweight champions? Well, that's the amazing array of talent that this 1961 version of "Mysterious Island" brings to the table, so you know there's going to be a great story, grandiose music, and killer special effects!

The balloon prison escape that starts the film will well make you wonder if anybody got hurt during the filming, it's that wild!

These paintings might look fake as Hell to the discerning eye, but no matter what, they sure are visually stunning! Whenever I see a scene like this, I'm always expecting a very large monkey to show up sometime soon!

You've got five guys stranded on a deserted island, so what could be better than having a couple of good lookin' women wash up on the beach, and one's a seamstress!! Joan Greenwood and Beth Rogan are Lady Mary and Elena Fairchild!

All the Harryhausen creations are awesome as always, but "The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad" will always remain my favourite Harryhausen film!

I'm pretty sure this was the most exciting film that Joan or Beth ever appeared in, although Beth did make one more small appearance in "Salt and Pepper!"

The best thing about having to deal with extra large species of animals, is that after you kill them, there's a bountiful harvest of food to go around! Too bad they didn't have a freezer, because that looks like a bunch of cooked crab that's going to go to waste!

What a great way to get all five guys in one shot! Left to right, here's Percy (Enemy From Space) Herbert as Sergeant Pencroft, Dan (Exorcism At Midnight) Jackson as Corporal Neb Nugent, Gary (Destination Inner Space) Merrill as Gideon Spilitt (what a handle), Michael (13 West Street) Callan as Herbert Brown, and last but not least, Michael (Elephant Gun) Craig as Captain Cyrus Harding! What a crew!

It's pretty obvious I had problems picking out pictures on this film, there was just so much eye candy to choose from!

Herbert (Phantom Of The Opera) Lom as the extraordinary Captain Nemo, shows off his best side on more than one of the sets!

Break out the wine, and everything starts getting kinky, and this is supposed to be 1865, shouldn't Elena have some bloomers on?

The soundtrack was written and conducted by Bernard Herrmann, and performed by the London Symphonic Orchestra, and like everything else in this film, is bigger than life itself! Here's just a taste to whet your appetites, and make you thirsty for what's left to come!

This version of "Mysterious Island" has some of the best underwater footage I've ever seen, and as you can well see, is truly fantastic!

This reminds me of a shot from our "Silver Angel" movie, only underwater, maybe it's because I worked about a week to create a few seconds of ray gun flash!

There's something you don't see much any more, all seven of the cast members made it, but I will bet they all felt pretty silly getting into costume for this final shot!

11 comments:

  1. Eegah!! failed to mention that this was a flick we saw together when it came out in '61!

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  2. Glad to see this movie get good recognition.

    This is definitely a quality movie.

    London Symphony Orchestra?...Whoa!!

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  3. Hey wait a minute I forgot--

    CONGRADULATIONS!

    I just noticed you guys re-uploaded
    all your previous posts!

    Have A Good One!

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  4. Hey Randy, thanx! It's been a lot of work, and if you dig deep enough, you'll see we're still not out of the woods yet! What I don't understand is that some people's profile pics like yours come out with the triangle with the exclamation point in it, because that's something we have no control over, and in this comment window, it's there! Weirdsville!

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  5. Saw this as a child on Thanksgiving night, after the meal. It has stayed in my mind ever since.
    Thanks for again digging up great childhood memories.

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  6. Thanx Lace,
    As always, it's our plowed pressure!

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  7. There's actually a Blu-ray version of
    this movie and the screenshots
    are awesome to say the least:

    http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReview/myst-isle.htm

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  8. Wow RW!
    It's hard to imagine what our site would look like if all the pictures were THAT big! Thanx!!

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  9. Werz is th link please UPloade a link for this OST


    Thanks a lots.

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  10. I Just saw this movie again and thought I'd look around for the incredible sound track-What a jackpot! I bought a Herrmann lp when I was 14 and would love to upgrade to clean & mean. So can I play w/ the keys to the dungen? Big thanx!!

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  11. Sure Flav, come on in and look around, we'll let you play with the keys all right! Just be very careful, cause one of them has a hair trigger!

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