The End of Nemo

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American Civil War prisoners escape in a balloon only to find themselves stranded on an island populated by fantastic monsters in 1961's Mysterious Island, based on the Jules Verne novel. Among lively and lusty adventure films of the '50s and early '60s, this one has a strangely gloomy, sepulchral tone I really liked.

The biggest star in the film is Herbert Lom, playing Captain Nemo, but the true star power is in the special effects and score, courtesy of Ray Harryhausen and Bernard Herrmann, respectively. The most memorable scene, to my mind, is an underwater fight with a gigantic ammonite, its inexorable tentacles striking to Herrmann's mercilessly doleful score.

It's a patently fun yet archly grim movie, a tone appropriate for an adventure film that's about the fatal end of one adventurer. But that's no reason not to put the most attractive young stars in skimpy goat skin attire.

Sorry, no screenshots to-day. Turbify's (my web space provider) upload utility routinely malfunctions. I'd complain but according to the web site the issue has been resolved and therefore I'm not truly experiencing it.

It's lucky she brought along her frequently visible 1960s undergarments.

I also liked the tough guy camaraderie of the soldiers which isn't far off from the chemistry between the ensembles of The Guns of Navarone or Dark of the Sun. It makes it all the more fun watching them deal with a gigantic crab.