The Mysterious Island (Maurice Tourneur)

• 20 Feb 13:42
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The Mysterious Island (1929) is an MGM film directed by Lucien Hubbard, a film adaptation of Jules Verne's novel L'Île mystérieuse (The Mysterious Island), published in 1874. The film was released as an all-Technicolor, feature film with talking sequences, sound effects, and synchronized music.

According to an article in the original Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, production was actually started in 1926. There were various problems, including weather and the advent of talkies, which slowed/halted production several times before the film was finally completed and released three years later. The article included stills showing the original 1926 undersea denizens and the redesigned version which actually appeared in the film. Footage shot by Maurice Tourneur and Benjamin Christensen in 1927 was incorporated into the final 1929 version.

The film is loosely based on the back-story given for Captain Nemo in the novel The Mysterious Island, and might more properly be thought of as a prequel to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea but for the fact that the man who would be Nemo dies in this film's finale. It is the story of Count Dakkar (Captain Nemo's real name is revealed to be...

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