KRAKATOA: EAST OF JAVA (1968)

Thanks to a screwed-up title, practically everyone knows Krakatoa was WEST of Java.  It’s the only thing anyone knows about the film.  Are we missing something?  Well, yes, and not really.  Something of a last gasp for the plush family fare put out by Cinerama, no longer using their signature interlocked three-camera system, but 70mm.  First, Ultra-Panavision 70, which had a slight anamorphic squeeze, here Super Panavision 70, which doesn’t.  Still, a fantastically sharp image!  The original process getting a tip of the hat in the opening credits, designed to look as if done in the retired interlocked/3-camera format.  Alas, it’s mostly downhill from there, the story a dreadful mess about treasure hunters searching for a sunk ship with a fortune in rare pearls, sailing thru churning seas near Krakatoa’s already active volcanoes.  Add on a deep sea diver with bad lungs; a claustrophobic submersible ‘bell’ specialist; feuding father/son balloonists; a gaggle of chained convicts in the hull; a needless song/striptease from the producer’s girlfriend (yikes!) and Maximilian Schell miserable to find that the lux Cinerama prestige family drama he’d signed up for was more like an A.I.P. vehicle for Vincent Price.  (Specifically, MASTER OF THE WORLD/’61.*)  What is worth checking out are the models, miniature backgrounds & special effects (apparently shot using TODD-AO) by Eugène Lourié.  These done with much larger scale models than was typical at the time and, if not exactly believable, spectacular fun.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: In addition to the beautifully executed model work, the film briefly lurches to life when journeyman tv director Bernard L. Kowalski steps aside for some unknown second unit action specialist who makes you believe Schell could come out of the sea dripping wet and singlehandedly take back his ship from a score of cutthroat convicts.  (No proof of this, but take a look!)

DOUBLE-BILL:  *Even with a script by Richard Matheson & direction by talented B-Western specialist William Witney, MASTER OF THE WORLD suffers from more than merely a skimpier budget than KRAKATOA had.  But it does make for an interesting comparison.