Forbidden Island

Last updated
Forbidden Island
Forbidden Island.jpg
Directed by Charles B. Griffith
Story by Charles B. Griffith
Jonathan Haze
Produced byCharles B. Griffith
Starring Jon Hall
Cinematography Gilbert Warrenton
Edited byJerome Thoms
Music by Alexander Laszlo
Color processColumbiaColor
Production
company
Columbia Pictures
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date
  • February 10, 1959 (1959-02-10)(United States)
Running time
66 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$90,000 [1]

Forbidden Island is a 1959 American adventure crime film directed by Charles B. Griffith starring Jon Hall. [2] It was his debut as director, although he had directed second unit on Attack of the Crab Monsters . A young Don Preston from the Mothers of Invention appeared in this film.

Contents

Plot

A freelance frogman (Jon Hall) is hired by a psychotic treasure hunter to recover an emerald that went down in a shipwreck.

Cast

Production

Griffith had signed with Columbia under a five-film writer-producer-director contract; he ended up only making two of them, the other being Ghost of the China Sea , which he did not direct.

"They were really terrible," he recalled later. "It stopped me for twenty years from ever directing again. They were really rank. You see, I got chicken and started to write very safely within a formula to please the major studios, and of course, you can't do that." [3]

The film was shot mostly on location in Hawaii. [4] Filming started November 4, 1957. [5] Photos have been found in the archives of Silver Springs State Park, Florida, indicating that some scenes were filmed there. Rebecca Welles was originally cast in the lead role but had to pull out and was replaced by Nan Adams. [6]

"I had an early chance to direct but was too dumb to know that I had to work with the editor," Griffith said later. "They told me I had an Oscar-winning editor; I told them we needed an Oscar-winning firestarter." [1]

The two films were meant to cost $150,000. Forbidden Island was meant to be filmed in ten days but Griffith went over schedule. According to Variety "Columbia noted that Griffith seemed to be having continuing production difficulties" and sent out one of its contract directors, Fred Sears, to direct the second movie. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Jay Lerner</span> American lyricist and librettist (1918–1986)

Alan Jay Lerner was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, and later Burton Lane, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre both for the stage and on film. Lerner won three Tony Awards and three Academy Awards, among other honors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Corman</span> American film director, producer, and actor (1926–2024)

Roger William Corman was an American film director, producer and actor. Known under various monikers such as "The Pope of Pop Cinema", "The Spiritual Godfather of the New Hollywood", and "The King of Cult", he was known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken G. Hall</span> Australian film producer and director (1901–1994)

Kenneth George Hall was an Australian film producer and director, considered one of the most important figures in the history of the Australian film industry. He was the first Australian to win an Academy Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Dante</span> American filmmaker (born 1946)

Joseph James Dante Jr. is an American film director, producer, editor and actor. His films—notably Gremlins (1984) alongside its sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)—often mix the 1950s-style B movie genre with 1960s radicalism and cartoon comedy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jon Hall (actor)</span> American actor (1915–1979)

Jon Hall was an American film actor known for playing a variety of adventurous roles, as in 1937's The Hurricane, and later when contracted to Universal Pictures, including Invisible Agent and The Invisible Man's Revenge and six films he made with Maria Montez. He was also known to 1950s fans as the creator and star of the Ramar of the Jungle television series which ran from 1952 to 1954. Hall directed and starred in two 1960s sci-fi films in his later years, The Beach Girls and the Monster (1965) and The Navy vs. the Night Monsters (1966).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Katzman</span> American film producer and director (1901–1973)

Sam Katzman was an American film producer and director. Katzman's specialty was producing low-budget genre films, including serials, which had disproportionately high returns for the studios and his financial backers.

<i>Attack of the Crab Monsters</i> 1957 film by Roger Corman

Attack of the Crab Monsters is a 1957 independently made American black-and-white science fiction-horror film, produced and directed by Roger Corman, that stars Richard Garland, Pamela Duncan, and Russell Johnson. The film was distributed by Allied Artists as a double feature showing with Corman's Not of This Earth.

Kenneth Graham Hughes was an English film director and screenwriter. He worked on over 30 feature films between 1952 and 1981, including the 1968 musical fantasy film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, based on the Ian Fleming novel of the same name. His other notable works included The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960), Of Human Bondage (1964), Casino Royale (1967), and Cromwell (1970). He was an Emmy Award winner and a three-time BAFTA Award nominee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Schwentke</span> German film director and screenwriter

Robert Schwentke is a German film director and screenwriter. He is best known for directing Flightplan (2005), The Time Traveler's Wife (2009), Red (2010), The Divergent Series: Insurgent (2015), The Divergent Series: Allegiant (2016), The Captain (2017), and Snake Eyes (2021).

<i>Cobra Woman</i> 1944 film by Robert Siodmak

Cobra Woman is a 1944 American South Seas adventure film from Universal Pictures, directed by Robert Siodmak that stars Maria Montez, Jon Hall, and Sabu. Shot in Technicolor, this film is typical of Montez's career at Universal, and, although mostly forgotten today by the general public, is venerated by film buffs as a camp classic for its legendary phallic snake-dance and Montez's words: "Geev me that Cobra jewl (sic)".

<i>Creature from the Haunted Sea</i> 1961 film by Roger Corman

Creature from the Haunted Sea is a 1961 horror comedy movie directed by Roger Corman. Written by Charles B. Griffith, the movie is a parody of spy, gangster, and monster movies, concerning a secret agent, XK150, who uses the name "Sparks Moran" in order to infiltrate a criminal gang commanded by Renzo Capetto, who is trying to transport an exiled Cuban general with an entourage and a large portion of the Cuban treasury out of Cuba. Filmgroup released the movie as a double feature with Devil's Partner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles B. Griffith</span> American screenwriter (1930–2007)

Charles Byron Griffith was an American screenwriter, actor, and film director. He was the son of Donna Dameral, radio star of Myrt and Marge, along with Charles' grandmother, Myrtle Vail, and was best known for writing Roger Corman productions such as A Bucket of Blood (1959), The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), and Death Race 2000 (1975).

Warwick Films was a film company founded by film producers Irving Allen and Albert R. Broccoli in London in 1951. The name was taken from the Warwick Hotel in New York where Broccoli and his wife were staying at the time of the final negotiations for the company's creation. Their films were released by Columbia Pictures.

<i>Naked Paradise</i> 1957 film by Roger Corman

Naked Paradise is a 1957 drama film directed by Roger Corman. It stars Richard Denning and Beverly Garland.

<i>Teenage Doll</i> 1957 film by Roger Corman

Teenage Doll is a 1957 film noir directed by Roger Corman, starring June Kenney and John Brinkley. It was financed by Lawrence Woolner, who had previously made Swamp Women with Corman. One writer called it Corman's "most impressive teen flick".

<i>The Struggle</i> (1931 film) 1931 film

The Struggle is a 1931 American pre-Code feature film directed by D. W. Griffith based on the 1877 novel L'Assommoir by Émile Zola. It was Griffith's only full-sound film besides Abraham Lincoln (1930). After several films directed by Griffith failed at the box office, The Struggle was his last film. The film was made primarily at the Audio-Cinema studios in the Bronx, New York with some outdoor filming on the streets of the Bronx.

<i>Dust in the Sun</i> 1958 Australian film by Lee Robinson

Dust in the Sun is a 1958 Eastmancolor Australian mystery film adapted from the 1955 novel Justin Bayard by Jon Cleary and produced by the team of Lee Robinson and Chips Rafferty. The film stars British actress Jill Adams, Ken Wayne and an Indigenous Australian actor Robert Tudawali as Emu Foot.

<i>Eat My Dust!</i> 1976 film by Charles B. Griffith

Eat My Dust! is a 1976 American action comedy film written and directed by Charles B. Griffith, and starring Ron Howard.

<i>Ghost of the China Sea</i> 1958 film by Fred F. Sears

Ghost of the China Sea is a 1958 American war film released by Columbia Pictures co-written by Charles B. Griffith set during World War II. It was the last movie directed by Fred F. Sears.

<i>The Prince of Thieves</i> 1948 film by Howard Bretherton

The Prince of Thieves is a 1948 American adventure film nominally inspired by Alexandre Dumas' 1872 novel Le Prince des voleurs. Produced by Sam Katzman for Columbia Pictures and starring Jon Hall as Robin Hood with stuntwork by Jock Mahoney, the film was shot in the Cinecolor process that features an inability to reproduce the colour green. Sequences were shot reusing several of the sets of Columbia's The Bandit of Sherwood Forest and at Corriganville. Patricia Morison and Adele Jergens co-star.

References

  1. 1 2 Aaron W. Graham, 'Little Shop of Genres: An interview with Charles B. Griffith', Senses of Cinema, 15 April 2005 retrieved 22 June 2012
  2. Vagg, Stephen (April 9, 2022). "The Campy, Yet Surprisingly Interesting Cinema of Jon Hall". Filmiink.
  3. Dennis Fischer, 'Charles B. Griffith: Not of this Earth', McGilligan, Patrick. Ed Backstory 3: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 60s Berkeley: University of California Press, c1997 1997 retrieved 22 June 2012
  4. Pierre Perrone, 'Obituary - Charles B. Griffith Screenwriter of the cult classic 'The Little Shop of Horrors' ', The Independent 8 October 2007 accessed 26 June 2012
  5. "Hollywood Production Pulse". Variety. 6 November 1957. p.  14.
  6. 'MOVIELAND EVENTS: NAN ADAMS WILL DO LEAD WITH JON HALL', Los Angeles Times 24 Sep 1957: 23.
  7. "Put in Relief Director". Variety. 13 November 1957. p.  17.