''The Mysterious Island'' is a 1929 American

science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interste ...

directed by

Lucien Hubbard Lucien Hubbard (December 22, 1888 – December 31, 1971) was a film producer and screenwriter. Biography Hubbard is best known for producing the 1927 film ''Wings'', for which he received the first Academy Award for Best Picture. Lucien produc ...

, based on

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;'' Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

's 1874 novel '' L'Île mystérieuse'' (''The Mysterious Island''). It was photographed largely in

two-color Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

and released by

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

as a

part-talkie A part-talkie is a partly, and most often primarily, silent film which includes one or more synchronous sound sequences with audible dialog or singing. During the silent portions, lines of dialog are presented as "titles"—printed text briefly ...

feature, with some scenes with audible dialog and some that had only synchronized music and sound effects.

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, chief engineer Nicolai Roget, have designed a submarine boat which Roget pilots on its initial test voyage shortly before the island is overrun by Baron Falon, once Daggar's friend, and now the new despotic ruler of Hetvia. The Baron has Dakkar and his daughter tortured so that Dakkar will reveal all his discoveries. Dakkar is able to escape with the intervention of his loyal men. But Falon sets out after Roget and Dakkar using the Count's second submarine. The two underwater craft dive very deep to the ocean floor, where they discover a strange land populated by

dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

s, a giant

octopus An octopus ( : octopuses or octopodes, see below for variants) is a soft-bodied, eight- limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlef ...

, and eerie, undiscovered humanoid race. The Mysterious Island 1929 Jane Daly

Cast

Lionel Barrymore Lionel Barrymore (born Lionel Herbert Blythe; April 28, 1878 – November 15, 1954) was an American actor of stage, screen and radio as well as a film director. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in ''A Free Soul'' (1931) ...

as Count Dakkar *

Jacqueline Gadsden Jacqueline Gadsden (August 3, 1900 – August 10, 1986) was an American film actress during the silent era. A native of Southern California, she was born in Lompoc to Gerald F. and Jessie H. (Salter) Gadsden and is probably best known to mode ...

as Sonia Dakkar * Lloyd Hughes as Nikolai Roget *

Montagu Love Montagu Love (15 March 1877 – 17 May 1943) was an English screen, stage and vaudeville actor. Early years Born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, Love was the son of Harry Love and Fanny Louisa Love, née Poad; his father was listed as accountant ...

as Falon *

Harry Gribbon Harry Peter Gribbon (June 9, 1885 – July 28, 1961) was an American film actor, comedian and director known for ''The Cameraman'' (1928), ''Show People'' (1928) and '' Art Trouble'' (1934). He appeared in more than 140 films between 1915 ...

as Mikhail *

Snitz Edwards Snitz Edwards (born Edward Neumann, 1 January 1868 – 1 May 1937) was a stage and character actor of the early years of the silent film era into the 1930s. Biography Born into a Jewish household on New Year's Day 1868 in Budapest, Hungary ( ...

as Anton *

Gibson Gowland Gibson Gowland (4 January 1877 – 9 September 1951) was an English film actor. Biography Gowland was born in Spennymoor Spennymoor is a town and civil parish in County Durham, England. It is south of the River Wear and is south of D ...

as Dmitry * Dolores Brinkman as Teresa *

Karl Dane Karl Dane (born Rasmus Karl Therkelsen Gottlieb, 12 October 1886 – 14 April 1934) was a Danish-American comedian and actor known for his work in American films, mainly of the silent film era. He became a star after portraying “Slim” ...

(uncredited) * Robert Dudley as Workman (uncredited) * Angelo Rossitto as Underwater Creature (uncredited) * Carl 'Major' Roup as Underwater Creature (uncredited) * Billy Schuler (uncredited) *

Pauline Starke Pauline Starke (January 10, 1901Some sources say she was born in 1900. – February 3, 1977) was an American silent-film actress. Early years Pauline Starke was born on January 10, 1901, in Joplin, Missouri, the daughter of George W. Starke ...

(uncredited) * Jack Stoutenburg (uncredited) *

Harry Tenbrook Harry Tenbrook (born Henry Olaf Hansen, October 9, 1887 – September 4, 1960) was an American film actor. Henry Olaf Hansen was born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. His family migrated to the United States in 1892. Under the stage nam ...

as Workman (uncredited) * Robert McKim (uncredited)

Production

According to an article in the original ''

Famous Monsters of Filmland ''Famous Monsters of Filmland'' is an American genre-specific film magazine, started in 1958 by publisher James Warren and editor Forrest J Ackerman. ''Famous Monsters of Filmland'' directly inspired the creation of many other similar publicat ...

'' 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 Maurice may refer to: People *Saint Maurice (died 287), Roman legionary and Christian martyr *Maurice (emperor) or Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (539–602), Byzantine emperor * Maurice (bishop of London) (died 1107), Lord Chancellor and L ...

and

Benjamin Christensen Benjamin Christensen (28 September 1879 – 2 April 1959) was a Danish film director, screenwriter and an actor, both in film and on the stage. As a director, he is best known for the 1922 film ''Häxan'' (aka ''Witchcraft Through the Ages'' ...

in 1927 was incorporated into the final 1929 version.

Adaptation

The film is loosely based on the back-story given for

Captain Nemo Captain Nemo (; later identified as an Indian, Prince Dakkar) is a fictional character created by the French novelist Jules Verne (1828–1905). Nemo appears in two of Verne's science-fiction classics, ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' ( ...

in the novel ''

The Mysterious Island ''The Mysterious Island'' (french: L'Île mystérieuse) is a novel by Jules Verne, published in 1875. The original edition, published by Hetzel, contains a number of illustrations by Jules Férat. The novel is a crossover sequel to Verne's ...

'', and might more properly be thought of as a prequel to ''

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' (french: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne. The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre-J ...

''. 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 The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Also a nonprofit exhibition venue, the arch ...

. In 2013, Deborah Stoiber from the

George Eastman House The George Eastman Museum, also referred to as ''George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film'', the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in ...

film archive An archive is an accumulation of Historical document, historical records or Historical source, materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumula ...

visited

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a tempera ...

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''. 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 Le Giornate del cinema muto (referred to in English as Pordenone Silent Film Festival) is an annual festival of silent film held in October in Pordenone, northern Italy. It is the first, largest and most important international festival dedicated ...

in October 2014. The film is available March 26, 2019 on MOD from Warner Archive collection, but only in an unrestored black and white print.WB Shop; WarnerArchive.com
/ref>

References

External links

* * * *
Lantern slide
(archived) {{DEFAULTSORT:Mysterious Island 1929 films 1920s science fiction films 1920s color films American science fiction films 1920s English-language films Films directed by Maurice Tourneur Films directed by Benjamin Christensen Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Films based on The Mysterious Island 1920s rediscovered films Science fiction submarine films Transitional sound films Rediscovered American films 1920s American films