Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Michael_Elliott 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.

MARIO GAUCI Little-known 'prehistoric monster' flick whose sole distinction (much more, in fact, than the actual creatures, which are quite shoddy!) is the fact that it was shot in pleasant Cinecolor. Incidentally, the plot is so similar to genre prototypes THE LOST WORLD (1925; the expedition to an uncharted modern-day dinosaur-infested location) and KING KONG (1933; an ape battles a prehistoric beast) that I assume the film-makers of this one were not sued only because it went under everybody's radar! On the other hand, the later THE LAND UNKNOWN (1957) would not only do so once again but it even had a very similar title to the movie under review! Anyway, I had previously watched two noirs from director Bernhard, the bizarre DECOY (1946) and the more ordinary BLONDE ICE (1948). Indeed, here we have one woman contended by a trio of potential suitors (again, creating more tension than the dinosaur footage itself!), with much hard-boiled dialogue and male/female sparring (especially between her and nominal hero Richard Denning, a young man whose experiences while stranded on the island had driven him to drink and is subsequently recruited to act as a guide). The other man in the equation is a photographer, the heroine's fiancé, who had seen the island from a plane during the war and became obsessed with the idea of checking it out and 'capture' the wild-life with his camera (and neglecting his girl in the process). More trouble arises when the crew, comprised of superstitious natives, rebels and/or runs away – especially after they begin to fall prey to the carnivorous monsters.Apart from the afore-mentioned Denning, the more notable cast members are leading lady Virginia Grey and Barton MacLane as the burly steamship captain who fancies himself a lady-killer(!) and also determines to catch one of the creatures (which even sees him arguing with his first-mate, who gets a knife in the back from one of the 'sailors' actually intended for the captain!). Surprisingly, the girl is not coveted by the ape (which looks a bit like the alien from TV's ALF!), nor is she menaced in any particular manner by the other monsters – MacLane and company do get to fight them off with hand-grenades, downing a few dinos in the process. As is to be expected, MacLane is killed, the photographer eventually contents himself with his shots (some of which were destroyed in a fire), while Grey and Denning have settled their differences enough to hook up for the finale.

MartianOctocretr5 A lot of this movie looks like a re-do of some elements of King Kong, which had been released 15 years earlier. The stop-motion technology of Kong was here replaced by a forced-perspective split-screen approach to animate the ferocious gigantic beasts. Compared to today's CGI, the effects may seem as primitive as the dinosaurs it shows, but it's a fun movie to watch.There's a bunch of tough sea dogs, one pretty girl, and some others introduced in pre-adventure bar room brawls and so on. Some explorer guy hears legends of the existence of the mysterious uncharted island, where prehistoric life has somehow avoided extinction, and books the sea dogs for a voyage to the island. Sound familiar? Apparently, this guy had heard about horrible deaths in the earlier film, and had aspirations to get killed in the same way.I love the creatures in this film. They're not as scary as others you've seen, but they're certainly a novelty to see. They move slowly and stare with curiosity at panicky human characters who like to shoot at them. In a couple of scenes, one of the grinning dinosaurs even looks like he's about to sing the Barney song, "I Love You, You Love Me." Be on the lookout for Kong's toothy cousin, who stages the obligatory rematch with one of Barney's more vicious relatives.It's all some good dinosaur fun, which was probably quite cool for its time, and it certainly can still entertain today, if you look past the cheap effects. The actors approach their characters with enthusiasm, and there is a good balance of character development, action, and plot development. A decent watch, for some fun drive-in nostalgia.

howden 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!