Island of Lost Women (1959)

Very best movie i ever watch

Nice effects though.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

With a title like "Island of Lost Women", this has to be a B movie. But the cheesy melodrama one would expect from such a title is absent.Two men have to make an emergency landing on an unknown island, where they discover a scientist and his three beautiful daughters. The girls have never seen another man before and they are intrigued by any information about the outside world.The two men want to leave the island, because they have lives to recover. The three girls want the men to spend time with them. The scientist only knows he wants his island to remain an unspoiled secret.The dialogue is very straightforward. This allows the viewer to concentrate on the motivations of the characters, without the usual overacting. Most of the conversations center around ideas, not passion. But the film never takes advantage of that. Instead--like there's a clock ticking down the running time--the plot wraps up in an improbable way.The cast is interesting, if not celebrated. In their combined filmographies, these actors weave in and out of the lives and professions of numerous celebrities. If only this script had given them more to work with. The final result is somewhat pleasant, if short and simple.

ISLAND OF LOST WOMEN – 1959This low budget film seems to have been a make work project for several of Alan Ladd's friends. Produced by Ladd's "Jaguar Productions", it employs veteran director Frank Tuttle and cinematographer John F.Seitz. Tuttle directed Ladd in his breakout role, THIS GUN FOR HIRE and worked with Ladd on several other films. Director of photography Seitz was the cinematographer on an even two dozen Ladd films. Anyways, to get back to the film, a couple of men, pilot, John Smith and reporter, Jeff Richards, are lost. They were flying to Australia in a small two engine aircraft. They ran into a storm and were thrown off course. Now they are having trouble with the aircraft and are running low on fuel.They see an island and head for it. Suddenly a voice booms out of their radio, "Turn back, do not land!" Smith and Richards though have no choice and land the aircraft on the beach. While taking a quick look around, the pair are approached by a man. The fellow, Alan Napier tells them to take off as it is a private island. After a few words are exchanged, Richards and Smith promise to leave as soon as they repair the aircraft. Now out of the jungle pop three babes in short shirts. The girls, Venetia Stevenson, June Blair and Diane Jergens are the daughters of Napier.The boys, Smith and Richards are invited back to Napier's underground home for dinner. Reporter Richards soon gets the story of who these people are. Napier was an atomic science specialist who had worked on the Manhattan Project. After seeing the power of the bomb, he had grabbed his wife and three small daughters and vanished. He had then set up a lab and a home for them on this uncharted island. The wife has since died and the daughters are now grown up. Needless to say they have never seen a man other than their father, Napier. Napier now decides it would be better if the two men stayed, so he destroys their aircraft. He does not want word of his location known.Needless to say, the girls fall for the two lugs. They now plan on building a raft and leaving the island. Of course the girls also want to see the outside world. The very world Napier wants to shield them from.Napier has managed to build himself an atomic reactor on the Island. Of course there is now an accident which causes an overload. Everyone scurries down to the beach and hides behind a few rocks. BOOM! (Thank goodness for those rocks shielding them from the radioactive dust) The government notices the blast and send aircraft to investigate. Everyone is rescued and returned to civilization. This film is nowhere near as bad as I make it sound. It does have that certain charm that some of these low budget quickies have. The look of the film is quite good, which it should be with Tuttle and Seitz handling the camera-work. All in all, it will kill a rainy day when you have an hour and bit to kill. Miss Stevenson was the daughter of actress Anna Lee and director Robert Stevenson. Noir fans know Stevenson as the director of, TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH, THE WOMAN ON PIER 13, WALK SOFTLY STRANGER and LAS VEGAS STORY.

This movie is one of the B&W semi-horror films of the 50's and early 60's. Granted, the premise is totally absurd.....2 hunka hunka's running around an island with 3 babe-a-licious honeys and not one case of hanky-panky? The guys seemed more interested in each other and themselves -- swimming in those horrid 1950's spandex trunks (is that a potato in your swimwear or are you just happy to see me?), rubbing lotion on each other's backs, reminiscing about close friendships, --- hmmm --- maybe this should have been called "BROKEBACK ISLAND?" I liked the movie although it is totally predictable. I DID keep waiting for Godzilla or some other camera enlarged creature to come around and scare the swimwear off the guys, (looks like the girls would have defended the island against the killer beast while the boys were screaming little pansies scampering off into the forest), but no monster. Heck, enjoy it for what it's worth, a piece of B&W film history.

It's not just the plot or the bad acting. It's not even the cheesy sets. It's the incredibly bad flamenco guitar soundtrack. One simply cannot imagine the overall effect, with the swimsuit-clad actresses cavorting amongst the potted plants, with the off-key, amateurish flamenco guitar. There must be a story there...