The Mysterious Island (1929)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer sunk four years and nearly a million dollars in filming this Jules Verne tale of the first submarine which glides along the ocean's floor. Ernie Williams invented a deep-sea camera process which knocked technicians cold. Then a company went to the Bahamas but the Florida hurricane defeated them and the film was shelved. Several other false starts were made but something always checked production. Six months ago they tried again, with new cast, sets and director — and the result is an unusual and fantastic spectacle.
The entire production is in technicolor, which gives undreamed-of beauty and clarity to the undersea sequences. The photography is art of the highest order, and the sets bizarre and production lavish. The story is intoxicating fiction. It must be seen to be believed.
Photoplay May 1929
Vintage magazines
Photoplay , February 1929
Photoplay , May 1929
Photoplay , May 1929
Books with substantial mentioning of The Mysterious Island
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John T. Soister and Henry Nicolella American silent horror, science fiction and fantasy feature films, 1913-1929 Jefferson, N.C., 2012 |
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Robert K. Klepper Silent Films, 1877-1996, A Critical Guide to 646 Movies Jefferson, North Carolina and London, 1999 |
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