The Mysterious Island (1929)

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 ... See full summary »

Directors:

Lucien Hubbard, Benjamin Christensen (uncredited)

Writers:

Jules Verne (from the book by), Lucien Hubbard (screen play)

Stars:

Lionel Barrymore, Jacqueline Gadsdon, Lloyd Hughes

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Lionel Barrymore	...	Count Andre Dakkar
Jacqueline Gadsdon	...	Countess Sonia Dakkar (as Jane Daly)
Lloyd Hughes	...	Nikolai
Montagu Love	...	Baron Falon
Harry Gribbon	...	Mikhail
Snitz Edwards	...	Anton
Gibson Gowland	...	Dmitry
Dolores Brinkman	...	Teresa

Storyline

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, engineer Nicolai Roget have designed a submarine which Roget pilots on its initial voyage just before the island is overrun by Baron Falon, despotic ruler of Hetvia. Falon sets out after Roget in a second submarine and the two craft, diving to the ocean's floor, discover a strange land populated by dragons, giant squid and an eerie undiscovered humanoid race.

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Plot Keywords:

island | submarine | fiance | giant squid | scientist | 

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Taglines:

Actually filmed at the bottom of the ocean off the Bahamas, imperiled by hurricane and storm.(Print Ad-Granby Leader-Mail,((Granby, PQ)) 20 December 1929)

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Genres:

Adventure | Romance | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 October 1929 (USA)

Also Known As:

La isla misteriosa

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,130,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$55,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min 93 min (Turner library print)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric System) (musical score and sound effects) (talking sequences) Silent (original version)

Color:

Color (2-color Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Although the entire film has always been available in black and white prints, film historians long believed that no complete color print of the film had survived - until 2013 when experts from the George Eastman House in the US discovered that such a print had been preserved in the Czech National Archive. Until this discovery, it was thought that the only surviving Technicolor fragment of the film was a ten-minute reel reposing in the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

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Goofs

During the initial test run of the ship, one brief scene shows it upside down.

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Connections

Version of Tainstvennyy ostrov (1941)

User Reviews

Amazing when seen today.

I am a history teacher and sometimes use films to discuss American history. In particular, we discuss and learn about the earliest films and historically important films. While some of these films are just brief little snippets (like the very early Edison films) and some are extremely dated and dull by today's standards (THE JAZZ SINGER comes to mind), some of the films we discuss have aged very well and are still great entertainment. One such important but still entertaining early films is THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND. It was intended as a silent film, but with the success of "talkies", the studio decided to add dialog and very loud sound effects to this very early sci-fi film taken from the Jules Verne novel. At times, the sound works very well--such as in the beginning when there is a lot of dialog (provided the record of the sounds was timed perfectly--fortunately on video and DVD this isn't a problem). At other times, it looks like a silent movie with a few tacked on sounds (similar to what happened with Harold Lloyd's WELCOME DANGER). However, despite this "hybrid" nature of the film, it is still very entertaining--and a lot of fun to see sci-fi done in the old fashioned way. The undersea sequences are of course dated, but not really that bad for 1929--in fact, I found them to be pretty charming. An interesting and entertaining film even today with a good performance from the great Lionel Barrymore.