THE LIGHT AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD (1971)

By 1971, good projects were no longer thick on the ground for Kirk Douglas, Yul Brynner or Samantha Eggar. And Jules Verne adaptations had slipped from high-end Family Fare like Disney’s 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA/’54 (with Douglas), to low-end Kiddie Matinee day-and-date bookings for A.I.P. schlock like MASTER OF THE WORLD/’61. So this dark, grisly, all but nihilistic Pirate yarn is a triple surprise: first in its lack of compromise on a grim storyline; second in serious below-the-line talent (Nouveau Vague great Henri Decaë to lens; James Bond editor Bert Bates; those big league swindlers the Salkinds to produce); third because it’s pretty good, with a story strong enough director Kevin Billington can get 65% of what’s in the material and still deliver a rattling good adventure. Lighthouse keeper Douglas, living on a small windy isle, can only watch in horror as his two island mates are swiftly dispatched by the sadistic pirates on Yul Brynner’s ship. And they’re all coming ashore to sabotage the torch, counting on plunder from approaching ships sure to wreck & founder on the rocky shore. Quickly sizing up the situation from his lighthouse perch, Douglas dashes off, hiding on the island and soon hunted by the crew. If he can only hold out until his supply ship comes . . . and figure out how to warn them before they land. Eventually, Douglas gets help from two rare wreck survivors, engineer Renato Salvatori and Eggar, a lady’s maid kept safe by Brynner for ‘services.’ Piling on gore and brutality, the film came out before PG-13 existed (it has the old GP rating), but not really for the junior trade. Presumably made for the international market, it was commercially dead in the water Stateside. But now seems worth a look.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: In a humbling career turn, Brynner & Eggar failed to last past 13 episodes in ANNA AND THE KING/’72, a hourly tv series based on Brynner’s signature role. Yul went back to touring the original show on stage (with a break for an unexpected hit, WESTWORLD/’76); Eggar stuck to tv movies and Guest Star spots.

DOUBLE-BILL: Alfred Hitchcock’s JAMAICA INN/’39 and Fritz Lang’s MOONFLEET/’55 have similar plundering storylines. Neither especially satisfying. OR: Roman Polanski’s dismissed pirate disaster, PIRATES/’86, pushing its sadistic tone toward comedy (Walter Matthau its most unlikely star); much better (and infinitely weirder) than it’s given credit for.