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Midnight Movie Madness continues with great stuff from the past. The moviemystery on Monster Island is so well preserved that it looks like it was
just recently made. Saw this movie as a kid, and one of the characters is
as stupid as i remember him...but was well worth seeing this movie again.
Nice to see Peter Cushing again...Enjoy
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Like the other reviewers here, I really only bought this set because I dearly wanted GORILLA AT LARGE. Honestly, the less said about MYSTERY ON MONSTER ISLAND (1981) the better. Well, at least it stars Peter Cushing but the movie is a complete snooze. Better stick to men in ape suits and Anne Bancroft prancing about in a sexy trapeze outfit....which leads us back to GORILLA AT LARGE...
Filmed at the height of the 3-D craze, GORILLA AT LARGE (1954) isn't a horror film as much as it is a mystery crime thriller. Fox contract players Cameron Mitchell and Anne Bancroft star and add lots of extra gloss to this tawdry tale of a series of murders in a circus. The setting is a circus called the Garden of Evil, where the star attraction is Goliath, a gorilla (and played very obviously by a man wearing a chimp suit). Anne Bancroft is Mlle. Laverne, a trapeze artist whose whole act revolves around swinging above Goliath's enclosure. When a series of grisly murders start taking place, all fingers point to Goliath, but things are never what they appear to be, especially in a seedy dive like the Garden of Evil...
Anne Bancroft, paying off her 20th Century-Fox starlet commitments, gives a splendid performance. She's matched every step of the way by co-stars Raymond Burr, Cameron Mitchell and Lee J. Cobb. Co-produced by Panoramic Productions, GORILLA AT LARGE is lots of fun. Extra features include an animated photo gallery, a brief B&W trailer and the original 'Intermission' titlecard.
It's a pity that the only way we can get GORILLA AT LARGE is by buying the hopelessly hokey MYSTERY ON MONSTER ISLAND as well, but just be glad this classic gem has finally surfaced on DVD.
Honest reviews on Gorilla at Large/Mystery on Monster Island (1954)
A real mixed bag here. One awesome flick, one horrible flick. The awesome: GORILLA AT LARGE, a solid circus noir with Raymond Burr, Cameron Mitchell and a very volutuous young Anne Bancroft--who routinely scoffed at the film once she became a "serious" actress--caught up in a clever puzzler involving a killer in a gorilla suit settling old scores on the fairgrounds and an actual gorilla that escapes its handler at suspiciously opportune times. This film, original in stereoscopic 3-D, gained a small second life in the early 80's when it was broadcast on many local American affiliate TV stations in anaglyphic 3-D (ugh!) much to the delight of kids like myself who were armed and ready (for headaches, mostly) with our specially purchased paper 3-D glasses. BWANA DEVIL also got this treatment, but GORILLA's a far more engrossing experience. The Spanish production THE MYSTERY ON MONSTER ISLAND (1981), on the other hand, is an utter waste of time. Peter Cushing and Terence Stamp each take top billing for about eight minutes screen time apiece, although one can't blame the producers for using such a ruse to lure audiences to this undeserving junk. Stamp's "character" appears for most of the film's climax, but he and his men are conveniently clad from head to toe so the producers can simply loop in Stamp's voice while some unnamed schmoe waves his arms around! The real stars are the lamentable non-actor Ian Sera, a regular for director Juan Piquer Simon (PIECES), and British vet David Hatton. Their adventure stranded on an island with an assortment of ridiculous creatures (including one dinosaur thingy that looks rather . . . inflated), an oh-so-clever monkey and a beautiful girl causes so much eye-rolling it hurts.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Gorilla at Large/Mystery on Monster Island (1954)
This is one sloppily put together Double Feature.While the packaging is nice,offering two seperate DVDs instead of the usual dual layer format,and both prints for the films are beautiful,re-mastered latterbox prints,neither film goes together with the other.
Gorilla at Large(1954) is a VERY fun timewaster with a great cast,and deals with murders committed at a sideshow.
The second is a 1981 US/Spanish production that features Peter Cushing in a small role in a film,supposedly based on Jules Verne.
Of the two,Gorilla at Large is a very well made thriller about a person committing murders in an ape suit!
Cameron Mitchell is the hero,Charlotte Austin(who will be involved in more monkey business in the Ed Wood written,Bride of the Beast(1958) is his girlfriend.
Raymond Burr plays a red herring,Lee J.Cobb plays a hard boiled detective(very well,too!),Lee Marvin(!) plays a cop on the case and Anne Bancroft steals it as a very sexy lady who has an interesting act with an ape.
Check this one out!
Mystery on Monster island(1981) is a bogus adventure film,set in the turn of the century about ship wreck survivors who get involved in high jinks on a mysterious island.
The film tries to be funny,and while pleasane,becomes something of a chore to sit through.
Before you complain about the monsters on the screen,understand that they are MEANT to be bogus,however,that just causes more problems with the plot.
Despite top billing,Peter Cushing is only in the film in the beginning and end,and dosen't have much to do.
Spanish Horror great,Paul Naschy,is wasted in a two minute cameo in the beginning,getting shot several times before blowing up a cave!(His name is credited as "Flint"!)
The locations are beautiful,but the film is overlong and has no real drive and feels like a waste of time.
Really not much more than could be said about this film.
Buy the double feature for Gorilla at large,but only the curious need see the latter.
Have fun!
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