It is 1865 and Union prisoners use a military balloon to escape a Southern prison camp near the end of the Civil War. The balloon drifts for days and finally lands on a mysterious volcanic island with very unusual inhabitants. Also landing, in a better aircraft, is Rulu, a visitor from Mercury. She seeks a radio-active material that will enable her to manufacture an explosive that will destroy the world or, at least, the portion known as Earth in this 15 Chapter Serial from the 1950s.
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Don't listen to the negative reviews
It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
The acting in this movie is really good.
The movie really just wants to entertain people.
Columbia takes the Jules Verne classic and brings it to the big screen for the second time in a cliffhanging story that now includes aliens thrown into the American Civil War period tale. As 1950's Columbia serials go this is pretty good. The story, which in some ways is the closet to the novel isn't bad, dealing with trying to survive on the island as well as dealing with pirates, a mad man and the aliens, but it breaks down because by the end there are simply too many plot lines running through the story and there are too many characters to keep track of. It is enjoyable but at the same time to begins to circle back on itself about half way into the serial, which makes trying to watch this in a single sitting (or two) difficult. Worth a look, but keep it broken up over several nights.
In the Civil War, POW Capt. Cyrus Harding escapes from his Confederate captors in an observation balloon, with sailor Pencroft, his nephew Bert, writer Gideon, and soldier Neb. A hurricane blows the balloon off course to an uncharted island in the pacific. Our heroes soon encounter the natives (who worship the island's volcano), Rulu (a woman from Mercury trying to extract an element in order to conquer the Earth), Ayrton (a wild man exiled on the island), and Capt. Shard (a mercenary pirate). A mystery man, who possesses great scientific powers, also makes his presence known to the group of people, but whose side is he on? For 15 chapters, our quintet of heroes must battle all the elements and peoples while trying to figure a way off the island and back to civilization. It's not a bad serial, but nothing great either. There is a lot of action (while it does seem corny and repetitive at times) and okay cliffhangers. My biggest complaint with the serial (keep in mind I never read the Verne novel) is that it does not seem that the story is taking place in the 1860's and the ray guns, UFO's, and (then) contemporary situations, seem to be taken for granted as existing. Rating, based on serials, 5.
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