Thanks for the memories!

Pretty Good

Absolutely the worst movie.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Kirk Douglas. and Yul Brynner. and a realistic story of survive. the atmosphere is the same from many films of genre from the period. the clear definition of evil does the difference. because it not propose only a black- white conflict. the nuances of gray, the inspired use of clichés, the portrait of pirates- who is far to be an usual one-, a good role for Brynner as more than the bad guy but a strange, cold blood, sadistic leader of a group of savages, the same status of Kirk Douglas as hero with few dark shadows of past, the terrible scene of arrival of pirate ship, the fight scenes are good points of an old fashion adventure film who reminds performances- Fernando Rey, in a short presence -, reimpose names - Renato Salvatori or Samantha Eggar- and the real flavor of genre.

Having fond memories of watching this as a kid, being one of the first VHS I had gotten hold of (in the mid-1980s), I guess I'm more partial to it than would have otherwise been the case; a measure of my impatience to revisit this over the years is my having recorded it off of Italian TV, almost acquiring it as DivX and eventually coming across a copy of the Image DVD within the space of a week! Even so, reviewing the film now with an adult perspective clearly exposes its essentially flawed nature.This was a typical (and typically misguided) international venture of the time, adapted from an obscure Jules Verne tale and roping in Hollywood veterans – Kirk Douglas (who even produced!) and Yul Brynner – in an effort to drum up sufficient box-office receipts (this was yet another effort by the Salkinds, who were responsible for SANTA CLAUS[1985], another very recent re-acquaintance: by the way, I've just recorded off Italian TV, dubbed and regrettably panned-and-scanned, their star-studded version of Mark Twain's THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER [1977]). Anyway, the film's thin plot of a lighthouse keeper (Douglas, still athletic at 55) combating a band of pirates led by a bored-looking Brynner is stretched for a hefty and slow-moving 129 minutes (which is 9 longer than the official duration given on most sources!). Even if I hadn't checked this out in 20 years or so, I still recalled some of the imagery involved – such as Douglas hanging upside down from the lighthouse tower, or his showdown with Brynner (which ends in a fire)…to say nothing of those indelible (and unmistakably European) faces, some of whom I've come to know by name in the interim, of Brynner's sinister cutthroat cohorts.The rest of the cast includes Samantha Eggar (ill-at-ease as a shipwreck victim who unwittingly becomes an object of contention between the two male stars: a sure indication of how perfunctory the role was to begin with is that she's ultimately raped and murdered, with not even the hero bothering to do anything about it!), Renato Salvatori (as another survivor who befriends Douglas but, when finally caught by Brynner and his men, is painfully skinned alive!), as well as Fernando Rey and popular Italian crooner Massimo Ranieri – both of whose contribution is brief, being literally done away with as soon as the villains make their first appearance! While the film's tolerable enough as lowbrow epic adventures go, one can't really call it entertaining in view of the seediness and sadism on display; that said, the thing does become unintentionally hilarious with the clichéd flashbacks to Douglas' past as a gold-digger in the Old West, and especially the accidental slipping (almost at the cost of his life) of Brynner's wild-eyed, long-haired, right-hand man when engaged in an impromptu campy dance in drag!

As a young boy, I fell asleep at the drive-in while this movie was playing. It was part of a twin bill with "Twilight People", a very cheaply made version of "The Island of Dr Moreau". I had nightmares for years afterward. It wasn't because either of these movies were particularly scary--they weren't. I was mortified by how bad the acting, plot, & the writing were. It had something to do with pirates using a lighthouse to crash ships so that they could steal their treasure. Kirk Douglas was one of the people that lived on the island with the lighthouse. He had a monkey and hid in a cave on the edge of the cliff which conveniently had a hole in the floor. Gee, I wonder how that might fit into the film? When I say I had nightmares about this movie, I mean literally. It was not until I found it and "Twilight People" on video and relived the horror of these 2 awful films that the dreams ceased.

I'd never heard of this Jules Verne story before watching this movie - and after watching this movie, I think I know why. I don't know how closely this movie follows the story, but since there is hardly any action - or dialogue - I'd guess the story is a dull romp as well.Poor special effects, lack of continuity, subplots barely treaded on then abandoned, the worst mannequins-for-bodies you can think of, characters that act stupid (especially Eggar's character) make a movie that you can miss. I have no idea why Douglas was attracted to this movie - maybe he thought lightning could strike twice after the success of 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA. He even produced this movie - maybe that explains things, including why there are so many close-up shots of his face, and that he seems to be doing all his own stuntwork.