''The Isle of Lost Ships'' is a 1929 talking film released in an alternative silent version with a Vitaphone track of effects and music. The picture was produced by

Richard A. Rowland Richard A. Rowland (December 8, 1880 – May 12, 1947) was an American studio executive and film producer. Career Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Rowland was the head of Metro Pictures Corporation from 1915 to 1920, a studio he founded in ...

and distributed by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

Irvin Willat Irvin V. Willat (November 18, 1890 – April 17, 1976) was an American film director of the silent film, silent film era. A short biography reprinted from ''Blue Book of the Screen'' (1923). He directed 39 films between 1917 and 1937. Early i ...

was the director with Jason Robards Sr.,

Virginia Valli Virginia Valli (died September 24, 1968) was an American stage and film actress whose motion picture career started in the silent film era and lasted until the beginning of the sound film era of the 1930s. Early life Born Virginia McSweeney in ...

and Noah Beery Sr. in the leads. It is based on the 1909 novel ''The Isle of Dead Ships'' by Crittenden Marriott, and is also a remake of Maurice Tourneur's now

lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

1923 classic of the same name. This film is preserved at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

Cast

* Jason Robards Sr. as Frank Howard *

as Dorothy Whitlock/Renwick * Noah Beery Sr. as Captain Peter Forbes *

Clarissa Selwynne Clarissa Selwynne (26 February 1886 – 13 June 1948) was a British stage and film actress.Kear & King p. 143 She settled in the United States, working in Hollywood where she appeared in around 100 films. Partial filmography * '' Hearts in Exi ...

as Aunt Emma/Mrs. Renwick *

Robert Emmett O'Connor Robert Emmett O'Connor (March 18, 1885 – September 4, 1962) was an Irish-American actor. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1919 and 1950. He is probably best remembered as the warmhearted bootlegger Paddy Ryan in '' The Public En ...

as Jackson *

Harry Cording Hector William "Harry" Cording (26 April 1891 – 1 September 1954) was an English-American actor. He is perhaps best remembered for his roles in the films '' The Black Cat'' (1934) and ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1938). Life and career ...

as Gallagher *Margaret Fielding as Mrs. Gallagher *Kathrin Clare Ward as Mother Joyce/Burke *

Robert Homans Robert Edward Homans (November 8, 1877 – July 28, 1947) was an American actor who entered films in 1923 after a lengthy stage career. Life and career Robert Homans was born November 8, 1877, in Malden, Massachusetts. Although he studied ...

as Mr. Burke *Jack Ackroyd as Harry * Sam Baker as Himself

Critical reception

A contemporary review in ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' reported that "the originality of the story ..shares honors with the weird effect established by sets and the camera angles at which they are focused," that "the sets and atmosphere ..keep an audience ever interested and tense," and described the scene in which the character Howard is "shot through a torpedo tube" as sufficiently quick and active that it "helps lessen the impossible." A contemporary review of the film in

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

reported that "the weird story is the strongest point and the acting negligible," that " is queer tale, while not particularly helped by the addition of sound, appears as a relief from the musical films and those audible photoplays in which dialogue holds the centre of the screen," that the character Howard "not only knows all about ships, radios and women, but who also can man a submarine and teach a crew its operation in three minutes," and that "Virginia Valli does not do much more than scream a little now and then."

References

External links

* * *
German language release poster
1929 films American silent feature films Films directed by Irvin Willat Films based on American novels Remakes of American films 1929 drama films American black-and-white films Transitional sound films Films about survivors of seafaring accidents or incidents American drama films 1920s American films Silent American drama films Silent adventure films 1920s English-language films {{1920s-silent-drama-film-stub

Cast

Critical reception

See also

References

External links