I recently started an "Adventure Classics of Western Literature" group on Facebook and the first book we read through was Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island (1874). And, by the way, the book is over 140 years old, so it's long past its Spoiler date. I'm not gonna even worry about spoiling it for anyone.
Anyway, its a sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea--Captain Nemo turns out to be a mysterious benefactor who saves the lives of the castaways on several occasions and otherwise helps them out. It's also a sequel to In Search of the Castaways, since the villain in that one (a pirate named Aryton) turns up after being stuck alone on his own island. He's a bit on the nutty side for awhile, but then turns out to be repentant and eager to join the good guys.
The book involves five guys escaping from a Confederate prison camp towards the end of the Civil War, stealing an observation balloon to make their getaway. A hurricane blows them clear across the U.S. and into the Pacific, where they end up on a remote, uninhabited island. They are later joined by Aryton and gradually build their own miniature version of civilization on the island.
The book drips with Verne's usual enthusiasm about men exploring, learning and using their intelligence to improve their lives. The adventure aspects of the novel are also excellent, especially a sequence in which the castaways have to face off against a ship-full of heavily armed pirates.
The novel does have its flaws, though. What many of us in the Adventure Classics group agreed upon was that the characters were flat, without the sort of distinctive personalities that Verne gave his protagonists in other novels. This is especially true of Cyrus Harding, a Captain of Engineers in the Union Army and the leader of the group. Harding's entire reason for existence is to be smarter and more capable than everyone else. He simply doesn't have any significant character traits beyond that.
In 1961, an extremely fun movie version (titled Mysterious Island without the "The"), with special effects by the great Ray Harryhausen, was released. It's interesting to read about the history of the film in Ray's book Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life.
It turns out that the film was originally supposed to be a straightforward adaptation of the novel, with Nemo and the Nautilus providing the only science fiction elements. But when Ray and his partner Charles H. Schneer got hold of it... well, this is Ray Harryhausen we are talking about. Of course there's going to be giant creatures in it.
At first, the idea was to have the island inhabited by dinosaurs and giant carnivorous plants. This is an idea so breathtakingly cool that its amazing the world didn't explode from pure disappointment when it didn't happen. Instead, it was decided to have the island contain more mundane types of creatures enlarged to giant size. So the castaways in the movie encounter a giant crab, giant bees and a giant baby chicken. Despite not being dinosaurs, these creatures manage to add a lot of fun to the movie. (The crab, by the way, is not a model, but a real crab bought live at a local market, eaten by the crew and cleaned out on the inside so Harryhausen could insert the armatures needed to use it for stop-motion.)
There was talk of getting James Mason to reprise his role as Captain Nemo (having brilliantly played him in Disney's version of 20,000 Leagues a few years earlier). In fact, the design of the Nautilus in this movie is obviously influenced by the Disney version. But Mason was too expensive. Herbert Lom, though, does an excellent job with the role. It's tempting to consider this movie a direct sequel to the Disney movie, but since Mason's Nemo unquestionably dies in that one, we can't quite swing that.
Nemo, by the way, provides a reason for the existence of the giant animals on the island. I won't spoil that reason for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.
The rest of the cast is fine as well. In his book, Harryhausen makes a point of praising the performance of Gary Merrill as newspaper reporter Gideon Spillett--and he's correct in doing so. Merrill brings a cynicism to the reporter that doesn't quite cross the line into making us dislike him. And he does rapidly become more a team player.
Other castaways, including Harding (played by Michael Craig), are given more personality as well. In this sense, the film can be legitimately said to have improved upon the book.
There are other changes. Originally, Aryton was supposed to still be there--found on the island and (in at least one early script) turned green from something he'd been eating. But budget and script reasons mean that, in the end, Aryton only appears as a pile of moldy bones. (Which, unlike other Harryhausen films, do not come to life.)
In the book, the castaways had a dog named Top, but dogs and stop-motion animation don't mix. Actors, remember, have to use carefully rehearsed, exactly timed movements in filming any scene in which stop-motion creatures will later be added. That would be hard for even a well-trained dog, so poor Top doesn't make it into the film.
The book, by the way, is an all-male affair. Not surprisingly, the movie has a couple of ladies wash up on the island to join the castaways.
Despite all these changes, the movie is actually a pretty faithful adaptation of Verne's novel. The basic bones of the story are still there and the movie still manages to celebrate man's ingenuity in surviving and even prospering in a difficult situation. And none of the additions are jarring or unpleasant.
It probably takes a genius like Ray Harryhausen to insert a giant crab into a story that was meant to be fairly realistic and make it seem so natural.
Posts
