The Isle of Lost Ships (1929 film)

1929 film

November 29, 1929 (1929-11-29)

Running time

9 reels; 7,576CountryUnited StatesLanguagesSound (All-Talking)
English

The Isle of Lost Ships is an all-talking 1929 sound film. The picture was produced by Richard A. Rowland and distributed by Warner Bros. Irvin Willat was the director with Jason Robards Sr., Virginia Valli and Noah Beery Sr. in the leads. It is based on the 1909 novel The Isle of Dead Ships by Crittenden Marriott, and is also a remake of Maurice Tourneur's now lost 1923 classic of the same name. A mute copy of this film is preserved at the Library of Congress.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5] The Vitaphone discs which contain the soundtrack to the film are currently lost. An almost complete copy of the sound version of the film survives (reel four is missing) at the Eye Filmmuseum archive with an estimated running time of 55:58.

Plot

Cast

Jason Robards Sr. as Frank Howard
Virginia Valli as Dorothy Whitlock/Renwick
Noah Beery Sr. as Captain Peter Forbes
Clarissa Selwynne as Aunt Emma/Mrs. Renwick
Robert Emmett O'Connor as Jackson
Harry Cording as Gallagher
Margaret Fielding as Mrs. Gallagher
Kathrin Clare Ward as Mother Joyce/Burke
Robert Homans as Mr. Burke
Jack Ackroyd as Harry
Sam Baker as himself

Music

The film featured a theme song entitled "Ship Of My Dreams" which was composed by George W. Meyer and Al Bryan.

Critical reception

A contemporary review in Variety reported that "the originality of the story [...] shares honors with the weird effect established by sets and the camera angles at which they are focused," that "the sets and atmosphere [...] keep an audience ever interested and tense," and described the scene in which the character Howard is "shot through a torpedo tube" as sufficiently quick and active that it "helps lessen the impossible."^[6] A contemporary review of the film in The New York Times reported that "the weird story is the strongest point and the acting negligible," that "[t]his queer tale, while not particularly helped by the addition of sound, appears as a relief from the musical films and those audible photoplays in which dialogue holds the centre of the screen," that the character Howard "not only knows all about ships, radios and women, but who also can man a submarine and teach a crew its operation in three minutes," and that "Virginia Valli does not do much more than scream a little now and then."^[7]

References

^ The Isle of Lost Ships at silentera.com
^ The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1921-30 by The American Film Institute, c.1971
^ The AFI Catalog of Feature Films:..The Isle of Lost Ships
^ Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress (<-book title) page 90 by The American Film Institute, c.1978
^ 1957 MOVIES FROM AAP Warner Bros Features & Cartoons SALES BOOK DIRECTED AT TV
^ "Isle of Lost Ships (all dialog)". Internet Archive. Retrieved December 14, 2022.
^ "Sargasso Sea in Sound; Isle of Lost Ships Produced Again as a Talking Picture". The New York Times. October 26, 1929. Retrieved December 14, 2022.