MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (1961)

Giant Crab attack!

MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (1961). Director: Cy Endfield. 

Near the end of the Civil War, a group of Union soldiers, one rebel, and a war correspondent wind up in a balloon that gets caught in a major storm and dumps them on a large deserted island. On this mysterious island the men -- including Captain Harding (Michael Craig), young Herbert (Michael Callan), Sgt. Pencroft (Percy Herbert), Cpl. Neb Nugent (Dan Jackson) and Gideon Spilitt (Gary Merrill) -- encounter giant animals such as crabs and bees, and discover an unseen benefactor who turns out to be the infamous Captain Nemo (Herbert Lom). Jules Verne's novel has undergone a great many changes -- including the addition of the outsized monsters -- but it was a partial sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. 

Michael Craig and Michael Callan

The big animals, of course, give FX wizard Ray Harryhausen a chance to exploit his stop-motion expertise, and we have very fluid crabs, bees, a big kind of chicken, and a bad-tempered squid with beady eyes. And then there's that outstanding score by Bernard Herrmann who brings every sequence vividly to life with his exciting music. Along with the aforementioned actors we have two shipwrecked ladies played ably by Beth Rogan and Joan Greenwood. Craig makes a handsome and authoritative captain, Merrill is amusing and adept as the newspaperman, and the others are all generally on target as well. 

Verdict: Very entertaining and colorful action-fantasy film. ***. 

IMPULSE

Constance Smith and Arthur Kennedy

IMPULSE (1954). Director: Charles de Latour (Cy Endfield.)

Alan Curtis (Arthur Kennedy) is an American real estate man with a British wife named Elizabeth (Joy Shelton). Alan feels that his life is in a rut, and asks Elizabeth to forget her plans to go see her mother and go off for a second honeymoon in Paris on impulse. Elizabeth refuses, making Alan more susceptible to the charms of a pretty songstress with car trouble named Lila (Constance Smith), whose brother, Harry (Bruce Beebe), is in some kind of dire straits. Alan keeps doing whatever Lila asks and he gets wound up in some crooked business Involving diamonds, police inspectors asking questions, and a few bad guys who are up to no good. 

Constance Smith

Impulse features a typically good performance from Kennedy but the movie -- another bad British so-called suspense film with an American lead -- never really catches fire. As I've said before, this is the kind of movie that fades from memory even while you're watching it, and nothing of great import and excitement ever happens even when Alan becomes convinced that he's killed someone. A scene that almost becomes amusing occurs when the nosy, horse-faced neighbor, Miss Birchington (Jean St. Clair), comes calling when Lila is parading around Alan's house in a towel. The life of Constance Smith, who showed much promise in the beginning but wound up being thrown in jail more than once and tragically died an alcoholic, would undoubtedly been more interesting than this mediocre picture. Smith also appeared in Otto Preminger's 13th Letter. 

Verdict:  The very definition of "minor." **.