Thursday, 26 March 2009  The Mysterious Island (1929)  An
excerpt from Mysterious Island (1929).  Though it served as the
primary story inspiration for 1916's 20,000 Leagues Under the
Sea silent film, The Mysterious Island was itself made into a
proper movie in 1929 as an early sound experiment starring
Lionel Barrymore and The Lost World's Lloyd Hughes. Ironically,
however, 20,000 Leagues was a far truer adaptation than this
venture.  In this 1929 rendition, Count Drakkar (Barrymore) has
created a fleet of two submersible craft to explore the depths
of the ocean, where he is sure there exists a form of aquatic
man. His volcanic island is a worker's paradise where there
exists no class distinctions... So much so that Drakkar's
sister, Countess Sonia, and the engineer Nicolai (Hughes) carry
on a love affair. None of this sits well with the duplicitous
Baron Falon, who wants the submarines as weapons of war and the
Countess - who deserves better than a classless engineer - as
his bride. What ensues is a submers