Last week, your intrepid Webb critic recommended a pile of “island books” for summer reading. In the current issue, we’ll supplement that with island movies; and in this case, nearly all are desert isles — though a few do finally prove dangerously occupied.
Swiss Family Robinson (1960) – Classic Disney extravaganza strands an entire family, who wind up living in a massive tree house, taming a menagerie of wild animals and fending off pirates. Starring John Mills, Dorothy McGuire and James MacArthur — from the original Hawaii Five-0.
Hell in the Pacific (1968) – John Boorman (Deliverance, Excalibur) directs this antiwar tale of an American and Japanese soldier who must work together while marooned during World War II. Some versions feature an alternate ending to the one that disappointed initial viewers. Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune — both of whom actually served in WW2 — comprise the entire cast.
Swept Away (1974) – Lena Wertmuller’s controversial tale of a snotty aristocrat and a grouchy deckhand stuck on a Mediterranean island, where their roles are reversed … because he’s the one who knows how to survive. Loaded with profanity and often sadistic (he strikes her repeatedly), the film nonetheless casts quite a spell — and its ending suggests that the misogyny is not something Wertmuller actually endorses.
Cast Away (2000) – Tom Hanks stars in this modern Crusoe tale that features too much prologue and denouement — and not enough time on the island. Production paused for many months while Hanks lost dozens of pounds and grew his hair long to look like he’d been on the island for years; director Robert Zemeckis made What Lies Beneath during the hiatus.
Not a favorite of mine; but impossible to leave off of any island-movie list!
The Black Stallion (1979) – Stirring adaptation of Walter Farley’s novel about a boy and a horse alone on an island; the photography by Caleb Deschanel (Emily and Zooey’s father) is among the best you’ll ever see.
Mysterious Island (1961) – Based on a novel by Jules Verne, MI features a group of stranded islanders who must fend off one giant monster after another — all done with dazzling stop-motion effects by the beloved Ray Harryhausen. With a terrific Bernard Herrmann score; and you gotta love any island-movie that starts off with the Battle of Richmond!
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) – OK, so it isn’t really a “desert” island in this World War II drama starring Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr as a soldier and a nun hiding out amidst Japanese soldiers; but this colorful and exciting John Huston opus — a sort of retake on Huston’s 1951 masterpiece The African Queen — deserves a wider audience.
Father Goose (1967) – Another little-known gem, this one featuring Cary Grant in a late-career triumph as a cranky World War II airplane-spotter who, sojourning on a Pacific isle, finds himself caring for a group of schoolgirls under the charge of Leslie Caron. Grant, so famous for his suave and debonair demeanor, stoutly insisted that this slovenly character was closest to his real-life persona.
Wackiki Wabbit (1943) – Seven minutes of loopy visuals and demented plotting, with Bugs Bunny and two hapless sailors stuck on a remote island. The men are reportedly caricatures of Looney Tunes writers Tedd Pierce and Michael Maltese — and Bugs’s gibberish (“Humuhumunukunukuapuaa”) is actually the Hawaiian name of a tropical fish. Pure delight from the incomparable Charles M. Jones.
Six Days Seven Nights (1998) – Harrison Ford and Anne Heche play a crotchety pilot and Manhattan career gal who fall in love while marooned in Polynesia. Colorful, well acted and very funny.
Glass Onion (2022) – Second of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out movies follows its 2019 predecessor with another stellar cast in another spellbinding whodunit — this one set on the sunny and exclusive Mediterranean isle owned by eccentric billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) — whose planned “mystery game” for his guests soon becomes deadly serious. With cool cameos from Hugh Grant, Ethan Hawke, Yo-Yo Ma and Serena Williams — plus murder-mystery queen Angela Lansbury and composer Stephen Sondheim.
Due in 2025 with the title Wake Up Dead, a third Knives Out is now under way — with an even stronger cast.
Gilligan’s Island (1964-67) – Baby-boomers gobbled up this show with its talented cast and a tune that’s probably the best-known TV theme in history. Readily available to stream, GI has long been pegged for a big-screen remake — so long, in fact, that the planned cast keeps changing every couple of years. (At one point, it was supposed to be animated.)
I’m sure it’ll happen eventually; but let’s hope it’s not a three-hour tour.
