Search - Unknown Island on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Suitable for Children Movie Release: 1948 DVD Release: 04/27/1999 Format: DVD SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 16 mins Studio: Image Entertainment Members Wishing: 5 Genres: Action, Adventure, Prehistoric Fantasy

In this science fiction adventure, John Fairbanks (Richard Denning) is a former Marine who, while on duty, discovered a previously unknown island in the Pacific where dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals have somehow managed to escape extinction and live as they did millions of years ago. Still traumatized by the experience, Fairbanks is persuaded to return by Ted Osborne (Philip Reed), a photographer who thinks that a few shots of some real live dinosaurs could shift his career into high gear. Accompanying John and Ted are the latter's sweetheart Carol (Virginia Grey) and Capt. Tarnowski (Barton MacLane), the ship's pilot -- who is not a man to be trusted. Ted and his crew soon find out that John's story is true, and they discover why the danger has taken such a toll on him, as they soon find themselves on the run from hungry dinosaurs. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Virginia Grey - Carole Lane
Phillip Reed - Ted Osborne
Richard Denning - John Fairbanks
Barton MacLane - Capt. Tarnowski
Dick Wessel - Sanderson

Unknown Island was one of those low-budget, science-fiction adventure movies that were a staple on programs with titles like Shock Theatre, Chiller Theater, and Panic Theater in the early '60s. Back then, however, most of us couldn't appreciate the fact that it was shot in Cinecolor. Thanks to this DVD, boasting a glorious new digital transfer, viewers can appreciate just how beautifully it was lit and shot by Fred Jackman Jr., given the obvious budgetary restrictions under which he and everyone else concerned were working. This is like seeing the movie for the first time, and astonishingly enough, as a kind of bargain basement King Kong, it holds up. Barton MacLane is a commanding presence as a Wolf Larsen-type character, a raging, sadistic brute of a man captaining a ship hired to journey to a Pacific island reputed to be inhabited by dinosaurs. Richard Denning is the hero (who doesn't show up until 12 minutes into the movie, long after the Phillip Reed character, whom we think will be the hero), an ex-Marine captain haunted by his experiences on the island. Virginia Grey, who photographs like a prettier Virginia Mayo, is the one female in the party of explorers, who don't fare much better than the crew in King Kong. There's not much to say for the special effects, except that the dinosaurs do look about how one would expect them to in a low-budget movie of this vintage, and the giant ground sloth (which plays a vital role in the plot) is as convincing as the dinosaurs aren't. The source material has held up well and transferred better -- some of the color does vary in tone and texture in a few spots, beginning about 28 minutes in, but apart from that very intermittent problem, as well as scratches in some of the second-unit footage of the ship, and a "wow" in the audio at the very opening of the credits, there aren't any real flaws, and some of the night scenes are extraordinarily well lit for non-Technicolor shooting of this vintage. The sound is clean, and the disc has been divided up into 14 well-chosen chapters. One wishes a trailer were included, but the reproduction of the original poster and lobby card art on the packaging is a good substitute in its way. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide