Joe Walker (John Smith) is a pilot. He is flying Mark Bradley (Jeff Richards) to a conference in Australia. Mark is a radio commentator and a reporter. While flying over the South Pacific their plane develops engine trouble. They see a small island in the distance so Joe aims for it. When they get near the island the plane begins to shake. A voice comes to them telling them not to land on the island and if they do they will be destroyed. Having no choice, Joe lands the plane on the beach anyway.
The two men exit the plane to check on the damages. From out of the island jungle comes an older man (Alan Napier). He says his name is Paul. His main concern is for the men to quickly fix their plane and leave. Behind him comes three young women. The women are his daughters who have been raised on the island and these are the first men they have seen, other than their father. The girls are named Venus (Venetia Stevenson), Mercuria (June Blair) and the youngest is Urana (Diane Jergens).
Paul is forced to be semi-hospitable to the men until they can leave. They are invited to dinner. In a large cave, Paul has managed to create a place with all the comforts of a modern home. He uses solar energy for power. While helping Urana collect eggs for the meal Joe finds that the chicken coop is made of packing boxes. On a board is the name Dr. Paul Lujan. Lujan was a scientist that helped create the atomic bomb. He went missing fifteen years ago and was presumed dead. Joe tells Mark.
When confronted Paul admits who he is but doesn’t want the world to know he is alive. He wants to remain on the island and be left alone. Mark, being a news man plans on telling the world that Paul is on the island. Paul believes he is left with no choice but to keep the two men on the island and not let them leave. Because of Mark’s ego Paul will not be allowed to live in peace. To add to his problems Paul’s daughter Venus is falling in love with Mark and Mercuria is falling in love with Joe.
“Island of Lost Women” was released in 1959 and was directed by Frank Tuttle. It is one of Warner Brothers low budget films. The film is basically and adventure melodrama as opposed to horror or science fiction.
As a love story the movie is your basic fifties tale. It’s fine if that’s what you like. If you’re looking for horror or science fiction the film is woefully short on both. The most excitement during the bulk of the film is a shark attack although there is one instance when Paul blows up the plane and one more highlight at the end.
There is a sort of mad scientist in the film but he’s not trying to do experiments on people. He just wants to be left alone. It did seem weird that someone who wanted to get away from humanity and the stuff they are capable of would basically bring it with him. The guy actually has a nuclear reactor in his cave. I’m not sure why. I suppose that’s about all he knows how to do. Create bombs. Since everything runs on solar there is no need for any other power source. I guess a guy’s gotta have a hobby.
There was also someone who thought that the two leading males in the film were a little to content with each other’s companionship and pointed to a few things that seemed to promote that train of thought. If you want to think Joe and Mark are gay and it adds something to the movie for you, fine. I, however, believe that this is a movie from the fifties and, in film, sex was taboo. The title of the film was innuendo enough in the era of the Hays Code. Yes, the guys have known each other for years and they take their shirts off when cutting trees but that don’t make them gay.
Some think that the story borrows the storyline of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”. Some go as far as comparing it to “Forbidden Planet” 1956. I find that a bit of a stretch but I suppose others could see the correlation. I’ll admit to not seeing any connection until it was pointed out to me. Even so it really doesn’t make the movie any better.
It’s not a horrible movie, not by any means. It’s just not really interesting as far as I’m concerned. I’m looking for the monsters and or the space ships and there just weren’t any. Napier as the mad scientist wasn’t even all that mad. Besides when I looked at him all I saw was Batman’s butler from the Television series.