Seagull Island

As I am primarily a fan of romantic (though not overly soppy ones) films, I found this thriller to be quite exciting, though it is quite dated, now - more than obvious that it was made on the crossover 70s-80s.

Agree with other reviews that the underwater scenes are very nicely shot and quite impressive.

I must say that I thought most of the actors did a more than adequate job, and that it may be the script and the dramatic direction that leave a little to be desired, though the actors more than make up for this, meaning that while watching for the first time it is quite absorbing enough to distract from any now embarrassing aged moments from which we are glad to have evolved in more modern productions.

Prunella Ransome was very good as the plucky and determined heroine searching for her sister, and I thank the director for the very limited use of bathing-suit scenes, as this can easily put one off the story.

Pamela Salem gives a competent and nicely misleading performance as David Malcolm's (Seagull Island's owner)cousin, and is enviably beautiful, as usual - a treat for the husbands!

Jeremy Brett as the mysterious, respectable Englishman owner of Seagull Island is fantastic, as usual, and does not fail to impress. His acting is, as usual, very impressive and exciting. His skill, in part, keeps you guessing until the very end - a very exciting end, I must say, and (now comes the shameless gushing) he makes for a nice piece of eye-candy for the ladies, as usual!

Overall, though this is no cinematic masterpiece and probably a little disappointing for die-hard thriller fans, this is an interesting and good-looking film, modern for its time, and a lovely treat for all Prunella Ransome, Pamela Salem, Jeremy Brett and even Nicky Henson fans.

The only really good thing about "Secret of Seagull Island" is the end when you figure out the secret. But until that point, the series is so boring that it feels much longer than the 100 minutes reserved for it. Admittedly in the first 10-15 minutes, I was intrigued. A young woman, Barbara Carey (Prunella Ransome), goes to Rome in search of her sister and discovers that she has been missing for three weeks. Concerned, Barbara learns that her sister's disappearance may have occurred on an island owned by an eminent and mysterious archaeologist named David Malcom (Jeremy Brett). The police (who are assisting Barbara) have also suggested a theory that the sister was murdered by a serial killer who targets blind women. So Barbara arranges a "coincidental" meeting with David Malcom and tries to catch his interest by posing blind. The plan works and Barbara is invited by David to the island.

Once Barbara and David get on the island, the film bogs down. I suspect that the film-makers thought they could sell this series with pictures of Italy and coral reefs that came straight out of some tourist brochure. They were wrong. The cinematography is expressionless and it technical quality is poor (the cinematic images of another terrible movie called "The Blue Lagoon" are so much better). Another flaw is that terrible film soundtrack played throughout this movie that is meant to sound mysterious and suspenseful, but cannot express much of either.

A great screenplay may have overcome these deficiencies, but the screenplay for this film is poorly conceived. For example, David Malcom tried to lure in Barbara (who was pretending to be blind) with tales of the island's beauty and my reaction was that this is ridiculous. Since he assumes the woman is blind, David Malcom must know that she will not be able to appreciate the island's beauty and therefore the lure could not possibly work. As for the performances, some reviewers, who hated the series, have praised the acting. I do not think their praise is entirely unwarranted, but they overlooked a few drawbacks in the performances. To begin with, good actors, aided by a good screenplay and expert direction, should establish some connection with their audience. But watching Seagull Island, I felt no urge to care about these characters or what they went through. Prunella Ransome, as Barbara, cried out quite often in this film, but my reaction was annoyance. I think part of the problem was that her character was poorly written and the other part was that Ms. Ransome is not a good actor. Jeremy Brett is a gifted actor, but he was miscast as the mysterious and unstable David Malcom. He put on several strange facial expressions and went on long angry rants, but what was lost in all that drama was believability in his own performance. Brett was overplaying his character, when something more restrained may have made his David Malcom seem more effective. But ultimately the blame for this movie's failure rests on Director Nestore Ungaro who has failed bring together all the elements of filmmaking and the result is a series that is rough on the eyes and a chore to watch.

This British-Italian co-production is a mix of Drama and Giallo about young American Barbara, who goes to Italy to visit her blind sister (she's in Rome with a music ensemble). But when she arrives, her sister has disappeared. Soon she fears that her sister fell victim to a killer who only kills blind women, because one has already been killed and another dies soon after her arrival in Italy. But no trace of her sister yet...

The respectable British citizen David plays a crucial role. He lives on a remote island between Sardinia and Corsica, and lost his second wife and son from the first marriage due to a diving accident. Barbara makes contact with the Brit, pretending to be blind, and David invites her to the island, where he tells her that his son didn't really die in the accident, but that he has been disfigured and doesn't want to have contact with anyone who can see his face. So: Is the disfigured son the killer? And: What happened to Barbara's sister?

The film was made for cable and made its debut as a five part mini series, including many underwater shots of people diving. The underwater scenes are filmed beautifully, no surprise knowing that director Nestore Ungaro is an expert for underwater filming. The story itself has typical Giallo elements, but is told rather as a Drama than as a Thriller. This makes the movie sometimes seem overlong and a bit boring. And because it's a TV-production, there aren't really graphic murder scenes in it, Ungaro almost completely relies on atmosphere and stunning visuals. All in all, "L'Isola del Gabbiano" is a decent movie, but nothing really special in the history of Giallo films, which makes it worth seeking for Giallo collectors only. Rating: 5 out of 10.

A woman (Prunella Ransome) goes to Rome looking for her blind sister (Sherry Buchanon) who has mysteriously disappeared. She is alarmed when she learns that another blind women has been found dead at the bottom of the ocean. She suspects that the murder and the possible abduction of her sister are both connected to the mysterious Seagull Island. She meets the owner of the island and pretends to be blind. He takes her out to his island--she finds out because he wants her to be a companion to his disturbed son, who was disfigured in an "accident" which had also killed his young wife. . .

Considering this is basically a TV movie condensed down (in the version I saw)from a miniseries that originally aired on British television, it is actually pretty damn entertaining. It is a British-Italian co-production, so it contains a lot of elements of an Italian giallo. Giallo fans may find it pretty tame and not visually stylistic enough, but considering it was made at a time when the Italian genre had pretty much degraded into non-sensical softcore porn (i.e. "The Sister of Ursula", "Play Motel"), a TV movie that actually has to rely on acting and a coherent plot is kind of refreshing. And this movie mines the much more subtle British mystery tradition as well. It was no doubt inspired by two classic 19th century British novels--the first obviously is "Jane Eyre", but the second I can't really say without ruining the ending. The overall result ends up being very similar to the excellent French-Italian giallo "Anima Persa" with Catherine Deneuve.

The director had previously worked as a cinematographer on the underwater sequences in the Italian "Jaws" rip-off "Tentacles". Not surprisingly, and just like in that movie, the underwater sequences are definitely the most visually interesting. Lead actress Prunella Ransome might be most recognizable from "Who Can Kill a Child?" where she dealt with another, but very different, mystery on an island. Italian-movie fans of the lovely Sherry Buchanon may be disappointed that the erstwhile softcore starlet doesn't get naked as per usual or even appear in a bikini like she did in "Tentacles" (where she had a cameo as a particularly scrumptious piece of calamari bait). She always seemed a better actress though than a lot of her Italian roles allowed for, so it's nice to see her appear in something a little more worthy of her talent. And speaking of softcore stars, Gabriel Tinti (aka Mr. Laura Gemser) also has a supporting role as a helpful local fisherman. He could also be a pretty decent actor when he wasn't busy making the "beast with two backs" (one of them pretty hairy) with his more famous wife.

I'm surprised at the negative reviews this received--I actually thought it was pretty decent.

The Secret of Seagull Island was, apparently, intended to be a television series originally. Turning a television series into a Giallo doesn't ever seem to work well, as evidenced by Sergio Martino's awful failure The Scorpion with Two Tails and, unfortunately, this film too. The title makes the film sound intriguing; as it hints at a great mystery, and after all, that is what Giallo is all about; but unfortunately, despite a few good moments, the film never delivers on its promise and most of the film is taken up by tedious scenes that don't really go anywhere. The film focuses on Barbara Carey, a woman who goes to Rome to visit her blind sister. However, upon her arrival, she discovers that her sister is missing. The police make some enquiries and think the blind girls' disappearance is linked with a woman drowned in the ocean. Barbara later learns that there is a psychopath on the loose, and he's murdering blind women. She does some investigation of her own, and it leads to a place called Seagull Island...which has a secret.

The best thing about this film is the underwater shots, which were still impressive despite the fact that the copy I saw was only a so-so VHS transfer. The film features quite a lot of scenes that take place underwater and this makes good use of cinematographer Armando Nannuzzi, who specialises in underwater shots. However, the things that happen on dry land are mostly rather boring and it soon becomes apparent that the 'secret' in question is not going to be anything to write home about. The performances are nothing special either. Prunella Ransome (Who Could Kill a Child?) didn't do much for me in the lead role, while the rest of the (mostly British) cast also fail to make any kind of impression. The fact that there's little in the way of murder scenes or gore doesn't exactly help either. The film runs for over one hundred minutes, and this is too long for a film with as little plot as this one. It all builds up to a disappointing ending, which neither surprises the audience nor does enough to generate any interest. Overall, as you can probably guess; I don't recommend The Secret of Seagull Island. There are far better Giallo's out there, and I recommend seeing those instead!