Two years and a million dollars in the making, this visually imaginative fantasy is the first of many adaptations of the Jules Verne story, and in many ways the most charming. It is set largely in the ocean depths, where a submarine crew working for the inventor Count Dakkar (Lionel Barrymore) encounters an underground city inhabited by tiny humanoid fish, or fish-like humans. They also come upon a rather imposing dragon and an enormous octopus in the course of protecting their expedition from Russian agents who want to capture their vessel for war purposes. Despite enormous production difficulties, cinematography is lovely in the under- water scenes. (Midgets were employed to portray the "fish-men," supported by wires as they swam about the studio "ocean" tank.) By the time the film was completed, the sound film was a fact of life and talking sequences were added. These have all the microphone-bound lethargy of the early talkies-but then so did Forbidden Planet thirty years later, with no excuse, and as with that film, no one comes to Mysterious Island for the dialogue. Screenwriter Lucien Hubbard was also credited with direction but both French director Maurice Tourneur and Danish director Benjamin Christiansen worked on the production as well. Though the film was released with Technicolor sequences, all extant prints are black-and-white.