Pete Mason (Sonny Tufts) is a former marine engineer living along the beach in California. He is approached by Ricki Andre (Mary Munday) about a job. Pete is an expert in the islands of the Caribbean and especially Haiti. She tells Peter that her great grandfather, Michel Andre, stashed a fortune in gold in Haiti a hundred and fifty years ago. He wrote a letter with clues as to where the gold is hidden. Ricki is looking to hire Pete to help her find it.
To get to Haiti, Ricki also hires Kirk Ellis (Tom Monroe), the captain of the ship “Constellation”. Pete and Kirk know each other and don’t like each other. Kirk doesn’t want Pete along, but Ricki is paying the bills and believes that Pete’s knowledge of the area will prove to be essential to finding the gold.
During the voyage someone steals Ricki’s letter. The letter is found by Pete and returned but not before he has a chance to read it. Now at least three people know what the letter says, but since the letter is vague on where the gold is supposed to be, the information isn’t worth all that much. Even previous members of Ricki’s family have tried to find the treasure, with no luck.
Eventually they reach Haiti and the surrounding islands. Pete has an idea about which island the gold is actually on. They follow his hunch but end up in the middle of a voodoo ritual and a giant serpent that is left to guard the gold.
“Serpent Island” was released in 1954 and was written and directed by Tom Gries. It is an adventure jungle film. The producer for the movie was Bert I. Gordon. Rumor has it Gordon contributed to the writing and directing too but I haven’t been able to prove that. He is credited as being the cinematographer and supervising editor.
The movie is pretty boring for the most part, unless you like watching people hoist sails. More than half the film is about the trip to the island. The bedraggled serpent that is left to guard the treasure is most likely a boa constrictor and looks like it had seen better days. The titled Serpent Island contains only one serpent, and the island is never referred to as Serpent Island by anyone in the film. The movie does sport some travelogue stock footage to pad the one hour and two-minute run time.
The romantic triangle among Ricki, Pete and Kirk is unbelievable and almost cringe worthy. It could be the bad acting that makes it seem that way but none of the characters are all that likable to begin with so there’s no one to actually root for.
Mary Munday, who played Ricki Andre, married director Tom Gries in 1955. The couple had three children and divorced in 1972.