Unknown Island (1948)

Little-known 'prehistoric monster' flick whose sole distinction (much more, in fact, than the actual creatures, which are quite shoddy!) is the fact that it was shot in pleasant Cinecolor. Incidentally, the plot is so similar to genre prototypes THE LOST WORLD (1925; the expedition to an uncharted modern-day dinosaur-infested location) and KING KONG (1933; an ape battles a prehistoric beast) that I assume the film-makers of this one were not sued only because it went under everybody's radar! On the other hand, the later THE LAND UNKNOWN (1957) would not only do so once again but it even had a very similar title to the movie under review! Anyway, I had previously watched two noirs from director Bernhard, the bizarre DECOY (1946) and the more ordinary BLONDE ICE (1948). Indeed, here we have one woman contended by a trio of potential suitors (again, creating more tension than the dinosaur footage itself!), with much hard-boiled dialogue and male/female sparring (especially between her and nominal hero Richard Denning, a young man whose experiences while stranded on the island had driven him to drink and is subsequently recruited to act as a guide). The other man in the equation is a photographer, the heroine's fiancé, who had seen the island from a plane during the war and became obsessed with the idea of checking it out and 'capture' the wild-life with his camera (and neglecting his girl in the process). More trouble arises when the crew, comprised of superstitious natives, rebels and/or runs away – especially after they begin to fall prey to the carnivorous monsters.Apart from the afore-mentioned Denning, the more notable cast members are leading lady Virginia Grey and Barton MacLane as the burly steamship captain who fancies himself a lady-killer(!) and also determines to catch one of the creatures (which even sees him arguing with his first-mate, who gets a knife in the back from one of the 'sailors' actually intended for the captain!). Surprisingly, the girl is not coveted by the ape (which looks a bit like the alien from TV's ALF!), nor is she menaced in any particular manner by the other monsters – MacLane and company do get to fight them off with hand-grenades, downing a few dinos in the process. As is to be expected, MacLane is killed, the photographer eventually contents himself with his shots (some of which were destroyed in a fire), while Grey and Denning have settled their differences enough to hook up for the finale.

1948 color film about thrill-seekers who row their way to a spooky island inhabited by T-Rex dinosaurs.After debating in a local bar their chances of surviving a visit to the mysterious atoll, Richard Denning, Barton MacLane, and pretty Virginia Grey sober up and pile into a dinghy (which looks like it was designed by Gilligan) to take them to the island where they roam around just long enough to realize that they want to get the hell out of there as quickly as they can. Adventuresome early sci-fi/horror offering from director Jack Bernhard.P.S. The dinosaurs are cute.

For 1948, "Unknown Island" is pretty good: shot in colour which was not going to be possible for most monster movies of the next decade, the only problem is the men in monster suits. They move slowly and clumsily and never seem more dangerous than the Muppet Show critters, but then again, also stop-motion and especially "enlarged" lizards have their disadvantages and nothing else was possible at the time.The story goes like this: a photographer wants to visit an island full of dinosaurs he spotted from a plane. His fiancé agrees to charter a ship. The only man who ever returned alive from the dinosaurs encourages them with the words: "I'll blow my brains out first before I go back to that island!" However, not the creatures become the biggest danger, but the conflicts between the crew, the captain, the photographer, his fiancé and the above mentioned adventurer. Shall they just take pictures, capture one of the monsters - or just run for their lives? "Unknown Island" does wisely not just to rely on the dinosaurs, but also create serious reasons (love, greed, superstition) for arguments and fights between the human beings. Thus it becomes an adventure still worth watching 60 years later even if the effects don't impress anyone anymore. Today we have many movies whose effects do impress - but nothing else does, and that's hardly better.

The year was 1948 and by this time Willis O'Brien had already had much success with the prehistoric special effects in "King Kong." Wasn't he around during this filming? The dinosaurs in this film look like mechanical toys with licorice for arms. Actually they were men in rubber suits with licorice for arms. Man, what a waste of time and money! And the "sloth man!"(?) When he appeared for the first time I said, "What the hell...?!"Was this Richard Denning's encore film or something? He must've been actually drunk to play this part (he plays a drunken, trauma-stricken sailor who is hired by horny drunk Barton MacLane to sail to this Unknown Island with a reject from the Three Stooges shorts, an air-headed photographer and an equally air-headed female accomplice (couldn't they have chosen a cockatoo instead?).The only sensible characters in the film were the "native" crew, and they all sounded like they had Brooklyn accents. They sail to the island, find these brand-X dinosaurs and this excuse of a cross between the abominable snowman and the Cyclops in "Sinbad," called a "sloth-man." Whatever it was supposed to be, the makeup sucked. I wasn't born at the time, but when I was old enough to see monster flicks at the movies, I certainly wouldn't have wasted my time with this junk. I caught it on American Movie Classics (I thought they showed classics, not crap) because I got tired of the early morning news (all bad); when I saw Richard Denning I thought it would be a pretty good horror flick on the lines of "The Creature from the Black Lagoon." It was worth a few giggles, though. I guess all wasn't wasted. But next time I'll opt for Johnny Bravo on the Cartoon Network.