Mysterious Island Overview:

Mysterious Island (1961) was a Adventure - Family Film directed by Cy Endfield and produced by Charles H. Schneer.

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Mysterious Island ( 1961 )

By The Metzinger Sisters on Mar 14, 2021 From Silver Scenes - A Blog for Classic Film Lovers

A world beyond imagination! Adventure beyond belief! A band of Union Army prisoners, a Confederate soldier, and a journalist escape in a hot air balloon during the Civil War and are carried off by a storm to an uncharted island populated with giant creatures. This same storm blows in two ladies who ... Read full article


Mysterious Island

By Barry P. on Mar 26, 2020 From Cinematic Catharsis

(1961) Directed by Cy Endfield; Written by John Prebble, Daniel B. Ullman and Crane Wilbur; Based on the novel by Jules Verne; Starring: Michael Craig, Joan Greenwood, Michael Callan, Gary Merrill, Beth Rogan and Herbert Lom Available on Blu-ray and DVD Rating: ***½ “The original s... Read full article


Mysterious Island (1961)

By Beatrice on Jul 2, 2017 From Flickers in Time

Mysterious Island Directed by Cy Endfield Written by John Prebble, Daniel Ullman and Craig Wilbur from a novel by Jules Verne 1961/UK/USA Ameran Films First viewing/Netflix rental Jules Verne adaptations were a continuing trend during the late fifties and early sixties. This one throws in anoth... Read full article


Mysterious Island (1961)

By Christy Putnam on Apr 9, 2016 From Christy Putnam

Mysterious Island (1961) reverberates in some ways with Disney influences from Swiss Family Robinson, future references in popular television programs, and the frightful, but ever-mesmerizing special effects of stop-motion animation hero Ray Harryhausen. . When I was 9 or 10 years old, I wasn?t ... Read full article


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Quotes from

Neb Nugent: Captain... what language is this?
Captain Cyrus Harding: It's Latin. "Mihi libertas necessest."
Lady Mary Fairchild: "I must have liberty."


[after the men finish eating the giant crab]
Gideon Spilitt: That's the best crab I ever cooked.
Captain Cyrus Harding: We'd be more impressed, Mr. Spilitt, if you'd put it in the pot by yourself.


[finding an unconscious Elena on the shore]
Herbert Brown: She's beautiful.
Captain Cyrus Harding: Better than that, she's alive.


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Facts about

Ray Harryhausen has related the story of watching a cut of the film with composer Bernard Herrmann. In a sequence involving a giant bird, Herrmann told Harryhausen that he was going to score it with "Turkey in the Straw" (he was only kidding).
A real Brown crab was disemboweled, dismembered, cleaned and fitted with an internal armature for Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion animation of the giant crab. Additional live crabs were used for some of the "facial" close-ups, then later cooked for a crew dinner.
The armature for the crab is covered with the shell of a real crab instead of the usual latex. Ray Harryhausen bought three crabs for the production, having one humanely killed by a museum employee as boiling it would have changed the color of the shell. The other two were used for close-ups of the crabs' mandibles, which would otherwise have required a huge amount of time to properly animate. These crabs subsequently served as a dinner entrée for Harryhausen and producer Charles H. Schneer.
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