{"id":13465,"date":"2016-04-18T01:59:34","date_gmt":"2016-04-18T05:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=13465"},"modified":"2016-04-18T01:59:53","modified_gmt":"2016-04-18T05:59:53","slug":"ray-harryhausens-mysterious-island-1961","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=13465","title":{"rendered":"Ray Harryhausen’s Mysterious Island (1961)"},"content":{"rendered":"

If I had to choose three of the most thrilling fantasy films from my childhood that still hold their own decades after they were made (and a few decades since I was a kid), they would be (in no particular order) Mysterious Island<\/a><\/strong> (1961), Journey to the Center of the Earth<\/a><\/strong> (1959), and The Thief of Bagdad<\/a><\/strong> (1940).<\/p>\n

\"ThiefBagdad1940Criterion\"I stress the word fantasy because these are tales of fantastical adventures of kids (Bagdad<\/strong>) and adults reduced to feeling as perplexed and fearful as kids (Mysterious<\/strong> and\u00a0Journey<\/strong>), although they all have monstrous creatures, eeevil villains, and normal people encountering weird & wonderful phenomena in parts of the world kept off limits deliberately, or due to\u00a0geological and \/ or oceanic barriers.\"JourneyToTheCentreEarth1959_BR2015\"<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s a cave of giant spiders, an ocean at the Earth\u2019s core, or being blown onto a pirate island where Captain Nemo waits out his own doom, these are stories that transport the child in everyone to a world filled with colour and striking environments rendered in Dynamation, CinemaScope, and Technicolor, respectively.<\/p>\n

The secret to each film\u2019s endurance might reside in timing \u2013 catching the film around the age of 10 \u2013 or the fact each still stands as the most enjoyable version amid silent productions, serial adaptations, remakes, TV series, and genre hybrids.<\/p>\n

In the Bagdad<\/strong> commentary, co-commentator Francis Ford Coppola starts to sing the pirate song composed by Miklos Rozsa; and in the newly recorded commentary\u00a0for their 2015 reissue, Twilight Time\u2019s trio of film historians\u00a0recall their respective bonding moments with Harryhausen\u2019s production of Island<\/strong> in cinemas.<\/p>\n

\"MysteriousIt\u2019s also testimony to Island<\/strong>\u2019s own mystique that Twilight Time\u2019s prior 2012 Blu-ray sold out rather briskly, thereby\u00a0mandating a reissue, this time sporting a new HD transfer, and more extras that pretty much gather everything from prior DVD, Blu, and laserdisc editions.<\/p>\n

You could successfully argue Sony was plain nuts in not releasing the film themselves, given they own the royal line of Harryhausen\u2019s sci-fi and fantasy classics, but then Mysterious<\/strong>\u00a0may not have received the royal treatment from Twilight Time in meeting the needs of Harryhausen, composer Bernard Herrmann, and fantasy film fans with what\u2019s probably the definitive home video edition.<\/p>\n

I mention Herrmann because he also happens to be the composer of the two Jules Verne adaptations, Journey<\/strong> and Island<\/strong>, and these scores rank among his best within\u00a0the fantasy genre. Mysterious<\/strong> holds a special place because it\u2019s so robustly packed with intrigue and delicately arranged passages of calm before a shock cue, and an incredible range of colour wrought from the orchestra. The island fanfare motif is a simple and addictive\u00a0piece of music that should still make every 10 year old sit up, ready to be plunged into weird worlds of creatures and deadly encounters.<\/p>\n

Naturally, as I finish editing this blog, I\u2019m listening to the score, as assembled from the Could Nine CD<\/a>, a bonus track from a related collection, and the isolated music & effects track pulled from the laserdisc. Those who know the music will understand the mania that drove me to stitch together\u00a0the most complete version of the score. Coppola still sings the pirate song, and I\u2019ll keep spinning this benchmark in Herrmann’s remarkable filmography.<\/p>\n

Coming shortly:<\/em> reviews of Adam Rifkin\u2019s amazing documentary Giuseppe Makes a Movie <\/strong>(Cineliciouspics) and James Garner in Burt Kennedy\u2019s classic western satire Support Your Local Sheriff<\/strong> and Support Your Local Gunfighter<\/strong> (Twilight Time).<\/p>\n

Cheers,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review of Ray Harryhausen’s classic version of Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island (1961), new on Blu from Twilight Time, plus thoughts on three perfect fantasy classics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13468,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[97,2562,2563,1337,1104,1071,209,4400],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/MysteriousIsland1961_featured.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-3vb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13465"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13465"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13474,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13465\/revisions\/13474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}