Tags: cinema, movie, island of fisman, neptun cave, barbara bach, starring, Barbara Bach, Richard Johnson, Claudio Cassinelli, Joseph Cotten, screamer, video camera, film, alghero
Barbara Bach give the special milk potion to her creatures..... on the shore of the Bombarde Beach
This movie was shot mostly in Alghero area and in the famous Neptun's Caves in 1978 with our collaboration, starring Barbara Bach, Richard Johnson, Claudio Cassinelli and Joseph Cotten. Marco Busdraghi, the director of Adventure Diving, was the chief of local divers group and obviously one of the fishmen. Marco was organizing all the logistic for scuba diving needs and local assitance to the producer director Marcello Tagliaferri for any needs about the transport of the equipment and ispection of the diving sites and the uw filming, helping Lorenzo Battaglia, the uw cameraman, who was using an Arriflex camera housed with a heavy and huge Bicchiarelli special movie uw housing. During the movie making Marco and all the fishmen were waiting the movie director call often wearing the orrible monster costumes at the entrance of the Neptune Cave scaring all the tourists and specially the childrem who was coming with the ferries to visit the cave......
The movie title at beginning was L'isola del dio vulcano (The island of vulcan god) and after was titled L' Isola degli Uomini pesce (The island of fishmen), and The Island of mutations and/or Screamer for US market. It was considered a B-movie but it has been fairly successful in Asian and South American countries and also in U.S..
You can read the article on Wikipedia at Island of the Fishmen
You can buythe dvd of the movie very easily trough Ebay at: Island of Fishmen 2009 dvd edition
Marco Busdraghi (with costume) and Barbara Bach at the Bombarde beach.
Here some of thr critic from cinema experts:
The Island of Fishmen Sergio Martino is one of the good guys, no question. Over the years he has created a small number of terrific films. For example: Torso, The Great Alligator, After The Fall of New York, The Violent Professionals, Hands of Steel and All The Colors Of The Dark, to name just a few. So then, what do you think might happen if he decided to leave his own particular signature on the Island Of Dr. Moreau story? Island of the Fishmen would happen, that's what.
In the Caribbean Sea in mid 1891 a small boat floats aimlessly through the waters. On this boat sits Lt. Claude De Ross, a medical officer from a prison ship that, for reasons unknown, has found its way to the bottom of the ocean. For company there are a handful of criminals that he set free as the ship was sinking. Though all of these men are hungry, sun-scarred and desperate, it's made clear from the beginning that they'd like to see the good Lieutenant dead. Just as it looks like De Ross is about to have a fight on his hands the boat starts moving forward, faster, and then faster still. The fishmen, making their first appearance, are forcing the boat into a wall of sharp rocks. Once the boat is gone, the fishmen make short work of the nearby convicts and before anyone is sure exactly what's going on, it's over.
De Ross wakes the following morning alone and confused on a deceptively pleasant looking beach. The first of his companions he comes across is dead, the victim of poisoning from some nasty looking water. It doesn't take him much time to find the rest of the survivors but almost immediately the tensions resurface. At least while on the boat the Lieutenant had a gun but now, now he has only a knife and a nervous condition. And he doesn't get to keep the knife all that long, either. The obvious first order of business is going to be acquiring some food. One of the criminals, Francois, heads into the nearby brush to grab something but is instead ripped to pieces by the ever-lurking monsters that drove their boat into the rocks in the first place. The sound of a horse is heard nearby and while trying to chase down that noise yet another one of our unlucky group is impaled on giant wooden spikes planted at the bottom of a hidden pit. They number only three now; De Ross, one prisoner who figures the Lieutenant has more to offer alive than dead, and one prisoner who just doesn't see it that way. Well, De Ross has improved his odds a bit anyway.
Soon, they come across a definite sign of civilization. That's a good thing, right? Wrong. It's a tribal cemetery where all the graves have been emptied. Jose, (the prisoner that doesn't want to see the Lieutenant dead), argues that they're up to their asses in it now since this all reeks of voodoo to him and zombies are probably on the way to eat their faces off. No zombies show up but a snake is poised to make short work of our hero; enter the beautiful Amanda (Barbara Bach). Faster than you can say "Annie Oakley", Amanda whips out her rifle and snake parts go flying every which-a-way. Pleas for her help fall on deaf ears, they're on their own; they follow her anyway. Soon our inadvertent islanders come upon the house of Edmund Rackham. Ed has sort of taken over the island and he has a number of large and threatening looking natives guarding his house, himself and Amanda. As it turns out, she doesn't care for him too much. "You disgust me!" Now we break for a little chicken gore. Shakirah, the maid, is also a voodoo priestess and therefore no chicken is safe.
As the mysteries of the Island begin to reveal themselves, we learn that Rackham has conned a scientist, Amanda's father (Joseph Cotton), into helping him with his plan to steal all the treasures of the Lost City of Atlantis. A dedicated man (not necessarily a sane man, mind you), Professor Marvin is willing to sacrifice his own life for a discovery of this magnitude and the furtherance of his research. Problem is, Rackham simply wants the treasure for himself and beyond that nothing else matters. The fishmen are the only way to acquire all of those riches as they lie within a temple two thousand feet below the surface. The island itself is the highest peak of that fabled lost continent, which is also actively volcanic. There's even more to it than that, however. The unfortunate creatures working for Rackham (He keeps Ôem hopped up on some addictive chemical the Professor created.) are not the survivors of a long forgotten race... They are something else.
Island of the Fishmen is an ambitious film, though it's definitely more of an adventure/fantasy than it is a horror film. There is virtually no gore or nudity; it's just not that kind of movie, but there are some interesting special effects, incredible cinematography (further showcased by this discs 2.35:1 framing) and solid direction by Martino. There's a strong cast and they perform well, the more eagle-eyed among you may even spot a young Bobby Rhodes. He played Tony "Shit! Another door" the pimp in Lamberto Bava's Demons, (that among his many notable roles). The downside is that there is a lot of color saturation and so people sometimes tend to suffer from the infamous glowing or orange faces that are a symptom of that problem. There is some print damage, film scratches, pinholes etc., but the image stays sharp. There are a number of times, especially towards the beginning of the film, where Dutch subtitles appear on the screen. I don't read German so I can't make out the version notes but this is presumably due to the reconstruction of the uncut European version of the film. When the subtitles appear you can switch over to the 5.1 German soundtrack and, for as long as the subs are present, you can enjoy the film in 5.1 as the dialogue is in English, but only during those scenes. Aside from the 5.1 German and the English 2.0, there is also an Italian language 2.0 option. The English soundtrack is stable and only suffers from occasional and subtle scratching.
The American release of this, re-titled Screamers, shouted the following... "They're men turned inside out! And worse... They're still alive!" Yeah, well, nobody gets turned inside out but this extremely truncated version, created for Roger Corman's New World Pictures, contains some new footage featuring Mel Ferrer, Cameron Mitchell and a little graphic violence courtesy of Chris Walas. It would have been a cool extra on the DVD but, considering the scenes have nothing at all to do with the original film, it's fair enough that it isn't included.
As if seeing a proper release of Island of the Fishmen wasn't enough, side two of the DVD contains the rarely seen Sergio Martino directed sequel, The Fishmen and Their Queen. It's, at best, a fluffy footnote to the original. Two boys who live in the sewers escape New York and the rule of the exterminator warriors. They find a man, Socrates, and his dog living by the water and, with the help of instructions written in a magical book called Destiny, take an enchanted voyage to an island where they must help a prince regain.... Hey! Wake up out there! That's better... Where they must help a prince regain his kingdom.
There are muscular fishman dwarves wearing golden masks, jungle women with spears, an evil Queen with the powers of a sorceress, spell-casting exploding apples that turn people into frogs and a tremendous amount of footage recycled from both the original film as well as After the Fall of New York. It's a competent enough film, for what it is, but I'm pretty sure it won't have anyone over the age of twelve returning for too many repeat viewings. If released here the film would probably get a PG rating without too much trouble. The print is gorgeous with virtually no flaws. The English language soundtrack, Dolby Digital 2.0 again, comes across well, no problems there, either. The image is presented 1.85:1 and the Dutch language track is 5.1. Both films have filmographies (no English) and slideshows.
Each of the movies is presented anamorphic. This is only the second DVD that I am aware of from Marketing Film to use a 16:9 enhanced print; the other being the under-appreciated Umberto Lenzi Giallo Eyeball. With any luck it'll become standard for them from now on. This disc is Region free but it is PAL format, so you'll need to have a player that can support it.
A youngest Marco Busdraghi during a pause of the movie
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Tags: cinema, movie, island of fishman, neptun cave, barbara bach, screamer, video camera, film, alghero
