Dead Man's Island

What can I say! It has Barbara Eden in it and that is all you need! A rich man who believes someone is out to kill him hires his ex to solve the case. Who would want to divorce Barbara? Check it out if you can!

Caught Dead Man's Island on ITV in the UK recently and was completely bowled over by how stupendously bad it was. It was brilliant! What a cast -- Barbara Eden! William Shatner! Morgan Fairchild! Traci Lords!!!! Don (not Donny) Most!!! Christopher Atkins! Olivia Hussey! (poor thing) Malcom McDowell!! (Wasn't Rosie Grier available?) The writing and the acting were cringe-inducing from the start.

Overflowing with cliches -- the tough but genteel Southern journo-cum-investigator (that would be Barb Eden, playing Henrietta O'something -- better known as Henry O.), the wealthy industrialist (that would be Shatner as Chase Prescott), the secluded island cursed by Indian legend. I'm not making this up!

Best of all was Barbara Eden's outrageous lime green poly-blend pantsuit she wore as she interrogated the others about their whereabouts when the shots rang out that nearly killed Chase Prescott. Barbara, honey, you look positively Boca Ra

Based on the 1993 novel of the same name by Carolyn Hart, which is in itself inspired by the Agatha Christie's masterful mystery/thriller novel called 'And Then There Were None' (1939), 'Dead Man's Island' features an entertaining 'whodunnit' story starring the charismatic and lovely Barbara Eden as Henry 'O', William Shatner, and Southern belles Morgan Fairchild and Traci Lords. Traci Lord's acting was mediocre at best, but she was definitely stunning.

I did not really appreciate the ending, however. Without spoiling anything, I think that the story could have gone in a different direction, I think that it was slightly exaggerated.

I knew nothing about "Dead Man's Island" when I started watching it, other than the casting of Barbara Eden and William Shatner (whose famous shows aired during the same years on NBC in the '60s), and the setting on an island. As it progressed I noticed a little similarity between the movie and Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None". In the end the movie turned out to be OK, not great. What caught my eye throughout the movie was that Eden's reporter stood out from the rest of the characters: most of them wear neutral colors most of the time, but she almost always wears bright colors, as though she's an anomaly in this group.

What I mainly say about the movie is that the casting of Barbara Eden, William Shatner, Roddy McDowall, Olivia Hussey and Don Most means that a beautiful genie meets a captain traveling through space meets an intelligent ape meets drama's most famous lover meets a 1950s goof-ball.

I enjoyed every minute of this, sure there were cliches, but who cares. The only thing which would have improved it is if (Henri O')Barbara Eden was in danger instead of Chase (Shatner).That would have increased the suspense. Also she should have worn a pink, purple or orchid pant suit instead of green, which would have suited other hypercritical viewers better but that is just an unimportant preference. I felt there was a lot of mystery as to who was trying to kill Chase (Shatner). He wasn't especially likeable. Mystery, suspense, surprise, all the good ingredients for a good movie. Would make any normal viewer happy.