Serpent Island

This obscure and rarely seen movie is the first from good old Mr BIG and in colour too. I quite enjoyed watching Serpent Island.

A woman sets out to a remote Caribbean island to search for some treasure that used to be her great-grandfather's which is hidden there. Two of the men on the ship she is on, including the Captain fall in love with her and they fall out over this. There are plenty of dangers as well both on and off the ship: a storm, sharks and on the island: unfriendly natives, voodoo and, best of all, "giant" snakes. These snakes are actually real ones and are not enlarged as you would expect to see in a Mr BIG movie. After managing to escape from the natives, the woman finds the treasure and then fights a snake which the Captain kills. The other man then appears and he is killed by a snake and the Captain now plans to marry the woman and they set off home.

The cast is mostly made up of unknowns and the only name I am familiar with is Sonny Tufts (Cat-Women of the Moon).

Watching Serpent Island is a good way to spend an hour one afternoon or evening. Enjoyable.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

All of the reviews I've read here talk about this being Bert I. Gordon's first film, but he just photographed it (badly) and the real person of interest here should be Tom Gries, who went on to be a decent journeyman director with a lot of years in TV under his belt before he directed feature films starring Charlton Heston, Raquel Welch, and others. Plus, one of his most notable films was "Helter Skelter", the Charles Manson story made for TV and quite good for its kind. So, knowing all this I kept thinking throughout this movie that with a bigger budget and a better cast, it could have been a passable adventure story of the kind that was very popular in the 1950s. Instead of Sonny Tufts and Mary Munday (not Rosalind Hayes in the female lead as has been erroneously stated here), think Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell, or Gary Cooper and Rita Hayworth, or Clark Gable and Ava Gardner, etc. An A cast like that and a better script, and of course better cinematography and musical score, and you would have something worth watching. Instead we have something so inept on every level that it was painful to watch. The numerous scenes of Sonny Tufts with his shirt off were hilarious, not to mention the supposedly swimsuit-worthy body of Mary Munday. Now as for Gordon's contribution: it looked like a travelogue, complete with travelogue background music, that I kept getting the impression someone took some home movies of a Haitian vacation and tried to make a movie out of it with lots of filler. At least the pain only lasted for 62 minutes.

This is Bert I. Gordon's rookie outing in the world of film making. Known to his fans as "Mr. B.I.G." not only because of his initials, but for using rear screen projections of various living creatures throughout his long movie career. Sadly, this film doesn't have his trademark style.

Partially narrated from Sonny Tuft's point-of-view, the movie's plot is very familiar and very "old hat". Sonny Tuft looks like a cross between the Skipper and his little buddy from Gilligan's Island. Rosalind Hayes is very stiff and unconvincing as an actress. Her performance reeks of being that of a Junior High School's drama club student. There is no romantic chemistry between Tufts and Hayes, although she must have spent more time in a science lab than on the school's cafeteria stage.

You get plenty of footage from a real Haitian voodoo ceremony. Too much footage. Go get yourself a snack when you hear the bongo drums and chanting. Or fashion a doll of Rosalind Hayes thus using pins in a more productive aspect than plunging them into your eyes after the first half-hour.

The biggest let down is the snake of Serpent Island. When you see Mr. B.I.G.'s name on the video box you're thinking "Man, I bet he used a cobra and made it look like it's as long as a football field!". The title monster is nothing more than your everyday, garden variety boa constrictor. And not a very big one at that. I did find myself perked up a bit once the snake started to wrap itself around Ms. Hayes' neck, though.

Unless you're a completist fan of Mr. Bert I. Gordon, you should skip this offering. There is nothing notable about this movie other than being his first foray onto the silver screen. You're better off jumping straight to his second picture "KING DINOSAUR". That was the true beginning for Mr. B.I.G.!

"Pete Mason" (Sonny Tufts) is a wharf rat who does whatever he can just to make ends meet. So when a pretty woman named "Ricki Andre" (Mary Munday) comes along and offers him a job sailing with her to find some lost gold in the Caribbean he reluctantly accepts her offer. As luck would have it, the captain of this particular sailboat Ricki has chartered is an old adversary of Pete who goes by the name of "Kirk Ellis" (Tom Monroe). Accordingly, as soon as Pete learns of this he realizes that this is definitely not going to be a pleasure cruise. Anyway, rather than reveal any more of the movie I will just say that this is a low-grade B-movie made in the 50's which some viewers may not find that entertaining. Yet, in spite of the low production values, less-than-stellar acting and footage that appeared to be taken straight out of a "National Geographic" documentary I still found it somewhat enjoyable due in large part to the interesting story. However, having said that I would be less than honest to rate it higher than I have--and even then I may have been a bit too generous. Slightly below average.

"Serpent Island" marked the rookie filmmaking effort from the young Bert I. Gordon, who went on to be well known for his "giant thing on the loose" movies, earning himself the nickname "Mr. B.I.G." in the process. It was also the rookie directing credit for Tom Gries (who also wrote the script), who went on to bigger and better things such as "Will Penny" and "Breakheart Pass". It stars Sonny Tufts as Pete Mason, an amiable Marine engineer turned dockside bum who's hired by the curvy young Ricki Andre (Mary Munday) to help her find a fortune in gold that has eluded her family for many years.

One is simply going to have to be a very undemanding, fairly easy to please lover of B movies to get anything from this. It's just too dull, uninteresting, and talky too much of the time, and it takes too long to actually get to the island. Even then, not much of note ever really happens. It takes until almost the end of the movie before any slithering co-stars turn up, but it is a cool moment when a snake wraps itself around Ms. Munday. Gries and Gordon strive mightily to create atmosphere with such a meagre budget (apparently, only about $18,000!), using as much stock footage as they can. None of the acting is going to win any awards, to put it charitably, but the oft smiling Tufts is a reasonably engaging lead. Ms. Munday is pleasing to look at, helping to make up for her stiffness. Tom Monroe is a passable villain, Rosalind Hayes carries herself with some dignity as island resident Ann Christoff, and Don Blackman has a decent enough presence as hulking menace Jacques.

Yeah, this might not be very *good* at all, but it does kill time in moderately agreeable fashion.

Gordon served as producer, cinematographer, and supervising editor.

Five out of 10.