''Forbidden Island'' is a 1959 American adventure

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

directed by

Charles B. Griffith Charles Byron Griffith (September 23, 1930 – September 28, 2007) was an American screenwriter, actor and film director, son of Donna Dameral, radio star of ''Myrt and Marge'', along with Charles' grandmother, Myrtle Vail, and was best known ...

starring Jon Hall. It was his debut as director, although he had directed second unit on '' Attack of the Crab Monsters''. A young Don Preston from the Mothers of Invention appeared in this film.

Plot

A freelance frogman (Jon Hall) is hired by a psychotic treasure hunter to recover an emerald that went down in a shipwreck.

Cast

* Jon Hall as Dave Courtney * Nan Adams as Joanne Godfrey * John Farrow as Edward Stuart Godfrey * Jonathan Haze as Jack Mautner * Greigh Phillips as Dean Pike * Dave "Howdy" Peters as Fermin Fry * Tookie Evans as Raul Estoril * Martin Denny as Marty * Bob La Varre as Cal Priest * Bill Anderson as Mike * Abraham Kaluna as Abe

Production

Griffith had signed with Columbia under a five-film writer-producer-director contract; he ended up only making two of them, the other being ''

Ghost of the China Sea ''Ghost of the China Sea'' is a 1958 American war film released by Columbia Pictures co-written by Charles B. Griffith set during World War II. It was the last movie directed by Fred F. Sears. Plot During World War II, Japanese troops over-run ...

'', which he did not direct. "They were really terrible," he recalled later. "It stopped me for twenty years from ever directing again. They were really rank. You see, I got chicken and started to write very safely within a formula to please the major studios, and of course, you can't do that."Dennis Fischer, 'Charles B. Griffith: Not of this Earth', McGilligan, Patrick. Ed ''Backstory 3: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 60s'' Berkeley: University of California Press, c1997 1997
retrieved 22 June 2012 The film was shot mostly on location in Hawaii.
accessed 26 June 2012 Filming started November 4, 1957. Photos have been found in the archives of Silver Springs State Park, Florida, indicating that some scenes were filmed there. Rebecca Welles was originally cast in the lead role but had to pull out and was replaced by Nan Adams. "I had an early chance to direct but was too dumb to know that I had to work with the editor," Griffith said later. "They told me I had an Oscar-winning editor; I told them we needed an Oscar-winning firestarter." The two films were meant to cost $150,000. ''Forbidden Island'' was meant to be filmed in ten days but Griffith went over schedule. According to ''Variety'' "Columbia noted that Griffith seemed to be having continuing production difficulties" and sent out one of its contract directors, Fred Sears, to direct the second movie.

References

External links

*
''Forbidden Island''
at TCMDB
''Forbidden Island Movie Poster''

''Forbidden Island in ʻColumbia Pictures Horrorʻ by Michael R. Pitts at Google Books''Review of movie
at Variety {{Charles B. Griffith 1959 adventure films Films about treasure hunting Underwater action films Films directed by Charles B. Griffith Films with screenplays by Charles B. Griffith 1950s English-language films American adventure films American crime films 1950s American films