Forbidden Island is a 1959 American adventure crime film directed by Charles B. Griffith 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.
7-570: A freelance frogman (Jon Hall) is hired by a psychotic treasure hunter to recover an emerald that went down in a shipwreck. 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 , 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
14-466: A contract as producer and director. The film was the first of what was meant to be five movies made by Griffith for Columbia Pictures, but he ended up only making two - this and Forbidden Island . Both were shot on location in Hawaii. Jonathan Haze later recalled: Chuck had a friend who was a lawyer, Art Sherman, who had met Gordon Stolberg, then vice-president of Columbia Pictures. Art sold Stolberg on
21-424: A formula to please the major studios, and of course, you can't do that." The film was shot mostly on location in Hawaii. 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
28-424: The idea that Chuck was the talent behind Roger Corman. At that point, Columbia was making a lot of Sam Katzman movies and Art sold Columbia on the idea that Chuck could do better than Katzman, and cheaper. So, they gave him a two-picture deal.Had he come through and he had really done what he said he was going to do. Chuck would have had it really made. Both pictures ran over-budget and were not that hot. His casting
35-713: The second movie. 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 . During World War II, Japanese troops over-run a sugar cane plantation in the Philippines. Some survivors take over a small boat called the USS Frankenstein and attempt to sail to safety. Following his success with Corman, Columbia Pictures signed Griffith to
42-649: Was bad. According to Charles Griffith, "They told me to make a list of 100 titles to see if I could do it. Once I did that, they picked out two that would send me on a distant location in Hawaii because they knew I couldn't make a picture out of the promised budgets: $ 85,000/black and white and $ 90,000/color." The two films were meant to cost $ 150,000. Forbidden Island was meant to be filmed in ten days, starting 4 November 1957, 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
49-483: 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
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