Movie Reviews of the Old, Odd, and Obscure (Part 6)

Actual movie poster from 1948

Title sequence showing the washed out colors to come

Rubber dinosaur food

Actors on a sound stage watching a rear projected image of clumsy guys in dinosaur suits

Plastic sauropods that barely move

We're gonna kill ya....just give me a few minutes...whoops..wait, I can't see

This guy was actually scary in a couple scenes

Unknown Island (1948) Albert J Cohen Productions and Image Entertainment


Made way back in 1948 and starring Richard Denning (who would later star in "Creature from the Black Lagoon" and 'The Black Scorpion"), "Unknown Island" follows the adventures of a group of people exploring an island populated by prehistoric creatures. There are some internal conflicts among the group (most notably a vicious, alcoholic ship's captain who menaces the group even more than the dinosaurs), but not much else needs to be said about the "plot."

Being an avid dinosaur fan for most of my life, I've always loved watching almost any movie with dinosaurs in them - no matter how bad the movie was. Well, "Unknown Island" performs a miracle. It actually challenges me to like it. Sure, the acting and dialog are not bad, but the dinosaurs - oh my God - the dinosaurs. Normally a plus for me in any dinosaur movie is when the special effects don't consist of big lizards dressed up with fake horns, fins, and plates. I usually hate that. This movie, though, uses...uh....extremely fake rubber/plastic things with stationary legs being dragged by strings and tries to pass them off as dimetrodons. Those are the first creatures the viewer sees and frankly I think I'd rather see lizards. Then the viewer is treated to frequent scenes of what should be scary, meat eating, bipedal dinosaurs. What the viewer sees instead are shots reused over and over of two or three guys walking around clumsily in rubber dinosaur costumes. It's clear that these slow, ungainly, things can barely move without tripping on their feet, yet the viewer is supposed to believe these bottom of the barrel Toho rejects are chasing people down and eating them. Now, I have nothing against "suit-mation" (guys in monster suits) when it's done well (like in many Japanese monster movies), but the director who made "Unknown Island" appears to have given his dinosaur actors only one command: Walk around aimlessly.

Okay. Once I was past my initial severe disappointment, I found the movie was obviously good for a few laughs - and that is what makes it worth watching! That and there actually is a reasonably scary ape-like creature with sharp teeth and claws that menaces them at times.

Although this movie was undoubtedly made on the cheap, they did actually spend a few extra bucks to film it in color. The film quality itself on the DVD is passable, but full of ugly blemishes and sometimes washed out colors. A perfect fit for the "special" dinosaurs in it.

Movie Reviews of the Old, Odd, and Obscure (Part 5)

A simple but effective shot

Stomping across the scene

The DVD cover

It's SUSIE the computer!

Kronos (1957) Regal Films through 20th Century Fox


Directed by Kurt Neumann who would direct the much more successful, "The Fly" the following year in 1958, Kronos is a rarely seen (at least in Winona) low budget science fiction movie about a gigantic energy eating robot from space. An astronomer/scientist (Jeff Morrow who also starred in "This Island Earth") discovers a meteor like object heading toward earth using an interesting (large 1950's style) computer named SUSIE (Synchro Unifying Sinometric Integrating Equitensor!!). The space object is shown crashing into the ocean and then soon after a lab director is taken over by that same otherworldly entity in order to "interact" with humans. Creepy light and shadow are used effectively as the man's eyes become wide and intense while he goes on a murderous rampage in an effort to reach the computer, SUSIE, and sabotage any plans the earth may have to stop him. Stop him from what? Well, allowing a big, blocky robot the size of a skyscraper to stomp across the land and consume power from various power plants. The viewer finds out later that this power is needed back on the robot's home world.

Although the movie was made on the lowest of shoestring budgets, I have to give the filmmakers credit for creating some effective set pieces. My favorite is a simple shot utilizing the films entire widescreen view to show the robot stomping from one end to the other across the horizon. The simplistic animation of the "legs" only shows them go up and down, so it is never clear how the device is able to move forward or backward. Yet, those scenes combined with the thumping sound effects, are really amusing to watch.

Kronos is an entertaining (if somewhat slow moving) movie that utilizes plenty of silly 1950's pseudo-science, paranoia, and amusing special effects shots. Please note that a secondary character (kind of a coworker to the main scientist) is played by George O'Hanlon who would later go on to be the voice of George Jetson!