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Professor Aronax (Dan Hanlon) and his party investigate a number of sea
monster attacks reported in a certain region - when they are attacked by
the very sea monster that rams their boat and causes Aronax and co to fall
overboard while their ship is left rudderless, so the crew is unable to
pick them up again. The sea monster of course wasn't really a sea
monster but the Nautilus, the futuristic submarine of one Captain
Nemo (Allen Holubar), who has made it his mission to attack and sink
battleships, driven by a thirst for vengeance. But Nemo is no monster,
either, so he picks up the professor and his party to save their lives,
and gradually, they turn from being his prisoners to being his guests and
friends. Nemo even takes them out on an underwater stroll/hunting
expedition. In the meantime, a gang of balloonists land on the Mysterious
Island, Nemo's hideout on land. Again, Nemo shows compassion and sends
them a boatload of supplies, without making himself known to them.
Eventually, the balloonists encounter a jungle girl (Jane Gail) whom they
all fall in love with, especially their leader Lt Bond (Matt Moore). When
one of Bond's men tries to rape the girl, Bond makes him an outcast. Enter
evil trader Denver (William Welsh): Many years ago, he threw a little girl
overboard because he wanted to rape her mother (who rther killed herself
though), but now he's overcome by guilt and wants to make up for the girl,
who he suspects to be on the mysterious island. On the island, he goes
half insane, however the rapist/outcast of Bond's men sees a chance to use
Denver for his evil purposes, to he has Denver's men kidnap the jungle
girl and tries to make off with her, leaving his comrades behind. Bond
learns of the outcast's scheming, so he swims after Denver's boat and
somehow manages to free the jungle girl, just before ... In the
meantime, Nemo learns that the boat anchored in front of the mysterious
island is Denver's, his arch enemy, so he torpedoes it to kingdom come. It
only now turns out that it was Denver who made Nemo into what he is, a
vengeance driven monster of the sea. Back in the day, he was a prince and
Denver enjoyed his trust, but Denver eyed Nemo's wife and thus betrayed
him to the English colonists, then took Nemo's wife and daughter. He threw
the daughter overboard his vessel to rape the wife, and ... and this means
the jungle girl is Nemo's daughter. Now that the story has come full
circle, Nemo can die in peace. The main attraction of this film
from the early days of cinema is its underwater photography, which is
clearly pointed out in the credits sequence, and the underwater sequences
do look quite impressive, not only for their day and age. The picture as
a whole though is little more than a pulpy adventure yarn that derives
Jules Verne's source novels of most of their subtext - Nemo being a
misguided pacifist - and instead throws one pulp cliché after the next
into the mix to make it into a silly little piece of escapism. Now as
such, the film is still cute and totally watchable, and it's well-made,
too. Just don't expect a masterpiece.
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