Simply A Masterpiece

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Like this film greatly. A late 40's B-grade adventure with good actors, not a bad story, and in color which was unusual for a film of this type at the time. A conglomeration of characters go on a photo safari to a lost island chock full of Z-grade, sluggish dinosaurs. The characters are a selfish obsessed photographer, his moneyed fiancé, a traumatized survivor of the island, a lecherous out of control ship's captain, and a shipload of blood-thirsty Lascars. The best part is when the crazed captain gets his from what is called a giant sloth but is best described as a gigantopithecus. The color is surprisingly good. At 73 minutes it doesn't wear out its welcome. The Image Entertainment DVD is very good. Probably the best quality that's available. Highly recommended.

Unknown Island (1948) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Carole Lane (Virginia Grey) agrees to finance her fiancés (Philip Reed) trip to a tropical island where there are rumors of prehistoric monsters. They hired Captain Tarnowski (Carton MacLane) to take them there but he forces an alcoholic (Richard Denning) into going with them because at one point he claimed to have been on the island and saw the monsters.I stumbling into this movie because I was looking for Unknown WORLD but this one came up. I'm really shocked that I hadn't seen it before since I had seen a lot of these KING KONG inspired movies but I'm glad I got around to this one because it was a lot better than I was expecting it to be. Obviously they were working on a very small budget but the screenplay offered up some entertaining character and the rubber monsters are certainly fun as well.The main reason people are going to be watching this movie are for the monsters and for my money they certainly delivered. The monsters were played by actors in rubber suits and this is quite obvious as the movements are very slow and it's obvious that the people inside are having trouble walking in them. There's also a large ape, which is obvious a rip of KING KONG but I actually liked the costume and its rat face. Again, the rubber suits are rather laughable but there's plenty of action with the ape and the dinosaurs, which help keep the entertainment high.When the monsters aren't on the screen we're also entertained by the very good cast. Bruce is certainly as lovely as ever and MacLane is perfect as the snake Captain who I'm sure people hissed at when this was first released. The supporting players are strong as well. With all the silly action and good characters, UNKNOWN ISLAND is a real winner for such a low-budget movie.

A lousy movie, but one that scared the hell out of me as a 10 year old. Paid 25 cents to attend a Saturday Matinee to see this, + 6 cartoons and a serial (something about Tim Tyler and his jungle car?). Spent most of my time peeking between my fingers, at what I now realize, having recently viewed it again, is truly a terrible excuse for a movie!

The year was 1948 and by this time Willis O'Brien had already had much success with the prehistoric special effects in "King Kong." Wasn't he around during this filming? The dinosaurs in this film look like mechanical toys with licorice for arms. Actually they were men in rubber suits with licorice for arms. Man, what a waste of time and money! And the "sloth man!"(?) When he appeared for the first time I said, "What the hell...?!"Was this Richard Denning's encore film or something? He must've been actually drunk to play this part (he plays a drunken, trauma-stricken sailor who is hired by horny drunk Barton MacLane to sail to this Unknown Island with a reject from the Three Stooges shorts, an air-headed photographer and an equally air-headed female accomplice (couldn't they have chosen a cockatoo instead?).The only sensible characters in the film were the "native" crew, and they all sounded like they had Brooklyn accents. They sail to the island, find these brand-X dinosaurs and this excuse of a cross between the abominable snowman and the Cyclops in "Sinbad," called a "sloth-man." Whatever it was supposed to be, the makeup sucked. I wasn't born at the time, but when I was old enough to see monster flicks at the movies, I certainly wouldn't have wasted my time with this junk. I caught it on American Movie Classics (I thought they showed classics, not crap) because I got tired of the early morning news (all bad); when I saw Richard Denning I thought it would be a pretty good horror flick on the lines of "The Creature from the Black Lagoon." It was worth a few giggles, though. I guess all wasn't wasted. But next time I'll opt for Johnny Bravo on the Cartoon Network.