{"id":4363,"date":"2017-04-08T20:53:42","date_gmt":"2017-04-08T20:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/?p=4363"},"modified":"2017-04-03T20:58:23","modified_gmt":"2017-04-03T20:58:23","slug":"kidnapped-to-mystery-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/reviews\/kidnapped-to-mystery-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Kidnapped to Mystery Island"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kidnapped<\/a>
Kidnapped to Mystery Island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Aka I Misteri della giungla nera (I), Das Geheimnis der Lederschlinge\u00a0 (WG), Le repaire de la jungle noire (Fr), The Mystery of Thug Island (Int)
\n1964
\nItaly\/West Germany
\nOttavio Poggi for Liber Film (Rome), Eichberg Film (Munich)
\nDirector: Luigi Capuano
\nStory: Based on the novel by Emilio Salgari
\nScreenplay: Arpad De Riso, Ottavio Poggi
\nCinematography: Guglielmo Mancori {Euroscope \u2013 Eastmancolor}
\nMusic: Carlo Rustichelli, published by Nazionalmusic
\nEditor: Antonietta Zita
\nArt director: Giancarlo Bartolini Salimbeni
\nRunning time: 90 mins
\nItalian takings: 154.000.000
\nFilmed: De Paolis Incir Studios (Rome)
\nCast: Guy Madison (Suyodana), Ingeborg Schoener (Ada MacPherson), Giacomo Rossi Stuart (Tremal Naik), Ivan Desny (Machadi), Giulia Rubini (Gundali), Nando Poggi (Kammamuri), Aldo Bufi Landi (Sergeant Barata), Aldo Cristiani, Romano Giomani (Windy), and with Peter Van Eyck (Captain MacPherson)<\/p>\n

This was the third Emilio Salgari adaptation to be filmed by Luigi Capuano and produced by Ottavio Poggi for Liber Film and Eichberg in the mid sixties.\u00a0 This time, there was no Sandokan, with two subsidiary characters from the previous films \u2013 Yanez\u2019s henchmen Tremel Naik and Kammamuri \u2013 elevated to the heroic roles.\u00a0 The latter is played by stuntman-turned-actor Nando Poggi, who had played a villain in the earlier productions, whilst Guy Madison \u2013 Yanez himself \u2013 swaps over to play the main bad guy.\u00a0 Otherwise, it\u2019s all from pretty much the same score: an exotic melodrama with dashes of romance and plenty of action.<\/p>\n

The Thugs, who have a hidden base under a polystyrene tree-trunk on \u2018Snake Island\u2019, kidnap a young, white girl.\u00a0 She is, apparently, the living reincarnation of Kali (despite lacking the extra six arms).\u00a0 Her father, Captain MacPherson (Peter Van Eyck), resigns from the British army in order to pursue them.\u00a0 For fifteen years he is unsuccessful, until the political situation decries that the army puts a stop to the cult\u2019s antics and he is reinstated as the head of a special unit.\u00a0 Along with a number of dedicated men, he sets off to track down their base.<\/p>\n

His daughter, meanwhile, is now a grown (and voluptuous) woman, Ada (Ingeborg Schoener).\u00a0 Despite being kept isolated, one afternoon she happens to bump into Tremel Naik (Giacomo Rossi Stuart), who is trying to make his fortune as a snake hunter.\u00a0 She runs away, but Tremel is captivated by her beauty and determines to discover exactly who she is.<\/p>\n

She is also enraptured and, in addition to her growing discomfit at the regular human sacrifices that are being made in \u2018her\u2019 name, this brings her into conflict with the leader of the Thugs, Suyodana (Guy Madison).\u00a0 However, she is unable to remember anything of her early years, and frightened of displeasing her \u2018people\u2019.\u00a0 After capturing Tremel Naik in her company, Suyodana forces him to try and murder MacPherson \u2013 the mortal enemy of the thugs \u2013 under threat of torturing her to death.\u00a0 Will Suyodana succeed in his devious plan of bringing her to hate the only man she has ever loved?\u00a0 Will he heck.<\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/a>
Peter Van Eyck in Kidnapped to Mystery Island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mystery Island<\/strong> is a totally inconsequential little item.\u00a0 It\u2019s entertaining enough, to be sure, but somehow lacks the (hardly full-blown) epic scale of the Sandokan films. It all looks to have had a less generous budget, despite the number of turban-clad extras running around, and the scenery somehow seems less convincing.\u00a0 Moreover, Capuano – hardly the most enigmatic of Italian filmmakers at the best of times – directs in an entirely perfunctory fashion (with the possible exception of a surprisingly effective chase through some bamboo shoots).<\/p>\n

Sandokan fans, however, won\u2019t be disappointed, as stylistic and narrative similarities abound.\u00a0 In line with Sandokan Fights Back<\/strong> you get: a good girl in the bad guy\u2019s camp (who even lets the heroes hide in her bedroom at one point); a child abduction; cod mystical trimmings; and \u2013 hey! – exactly the same buffalo stampede footage recycled from the earlier films. Quite how all of these irate buffalo found themselves on a tiny island I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 But then I\u2019m not sure how an entire army can hide under a tree trunk either.<\/p>\n

Other amusements to be found include a rather cuddly tiger, terrifyingly called \u2018Kali-Bug\u2019, with whom Tremel Naik must wrestle to the death (edge of the seat stuff, especially for the poor film editor).\u00a0 The British Army are good value: assuming that their bright red jackets and vivid blue pantaloons will help them blend into the jungle.\u00a0 This would be funnier if it wasn\u2019t actually based on fact, but it\u2019s good to see that their tent making \u2013 if not their guerilla warfare – skills are up to scratch.<\/p>\n

Even if Mystery Island<\/strong> is riddled with incongruities and is entirely mediocre from a critical perspective, it\u2019s at least never boring, and benefits from some decent performances. Madison relishes the opportunity to forsake his standard hero role and is extremely compelling as the villain.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s difficult to be sinister if a penny-whistle pops up on the soundtrack whenever you\u2019re emoting, but he almost manages it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was the third Emilio Salgari adaptation to be filmed by Luigi Capuano and produced by Ottavio Poggi for Liber Film and Eichberg in the mid sixties. This time, there was no Sandokan, with two subsidiary characters from the previous films \u2013 Yanez\u2019s henchmen Tremel Naik and Kammamuri \u2013 elevated to the heroic roles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1212,8],"tags":[1247,1304,792,1303,1305,568,1306],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4363"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4363"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4368,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4363\/revisions\/4368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}