MovieChat Forums > In Search of the Castaways (1962) Discussion > Please help me identify a film

Please help me identify a film

posted 15 years ago by puirt-a-beul
8 replies | jump to latest

I'm trying to identify a film from my childhood, but so far what I thought I'd remembered about it hasn't proved to be so.

It would have come out somewhere in the 1960s. I thought it was a Walt Disney film, I thought it had Hayley Mills, and I thought it was called "Those Castaways" or something like that.

I remember packets of jelly crystals (what Americans call "jello") at the time of its release had a collectable series of still shots from the film on the back, and making my mother sort through the packets at the supermarket each time she went shopping until we had the full set. I remember there was one scene on a beach, where an off-shore earthquake caused a tsunami. I remember the water going out, and then a massive tidal wave crashing back at the beach while the characters ran up the sand, trying to get away from it.

So I thought it might be this movie, but I've just watched it, and it isn't the same. I know this one has a tidal wave of sorts, but it isn't the same at all.

Assuming I'm not completely off the planet about this, can anyone suggest the movie I might be thinking of? Thanks for any help.

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

[–] grambax 15 years ago

The scene you describe sounds very familiar. I haven't seen it in many years so I can't definately confirm, but might it have been Mysterious Island, from 1961?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055207/

[–] puirt-a-beul 15 years ago

Thanks for the thought, grambax. I wondered so too, and just last week (coincidentally) found a copy of Mysterious Island to check it out. But that scene wasn't there, so we can cross that film off the list of possibles.

The search continues!

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

[–] grambax 15 years ago

Sorry that wasn't it. Can you give any other details?

The big "tidal wave" film I remember from the 60s was Karakatoa: East of Jave, but that hardly fits the castaways part, although I do remember the wave hitting the island as terrifying (and Brian Keith being in it links with Hayley Mills and tangetially, the title of his "Those Calloways" and In Search Of The/ Those Castaways). It can be funny the tricks our memories play. But I'm sure that's not it.

Have you tried posting on the I Need To Know board? There are very good people there. If you find out, please post back; I'd like to know myself now!

http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000001/threads/

[–] puirt-a-beul 15 years ago

If I find the answer, I'll certainly let you know!

As you say, memory can be a funny thing at times, but I'm fairly certain it was a Disney film. I had seemed to remember it had Dorothy Maguire (or someone like her) in it as well, so I checked out "Swiss Family Robinson", another movie I hadn't seen in yonks, but of course the scene I'm mindful of wasn't there either.

When I rewatched "In Search of the Castaways", I watched the scene of the flood very carefully, and was really wracking my memory to see if it could be made to match the mental images I was carrying, but I finally decided it couldn't. The scene in this movie was more a tidal surge down a river, whereas the image I'm remembering from the jelly crystals packet was definitely at an ocean beach, and the water was drawn out first and then came rushing back as a tsunami that, in the still, was threatening to break over them as they ran desperately up the beach. And there were more than two people, all dressed in some sort of period clothes, and at least one of them was female. In my memory, it's always been associated with a film title something like "Those Castaways", so the "In Search of ..." bit in the title really just confuses me.

I don't believe it's merely a matter of embroidered memory, or an agglomeration of different memories melding into one over the years. (Though I could, of course, be wrong.) I know at the time the scene both fascinated and terrified me, and the idea of the water retreating before it rushed back made such an impression on me, and contributed so much to my fascination with physics and understanding the mechanics of the natural world, that for years I would carefully watch the line of breaking waves any time we went to the beach, alert always for any hint that it might be withdrawing out to sea and ready to warn my family to run at a moment's notice. (I suppose nowadays that would be considered a childhood trauma. I sometimes idly wonder how much damage to our society's psyche Walt Disney really did with his movies!)

There's always the possibility that it was from a scene that never made the final cut (of whichever movie it was), but was included in the promotional stills because it seemed exciting. Another memory I had was of a scene where people -- I thought it included Hayley Mills, but I thought it also included her dad -- were on chunks of stone, whizzing through an underground cavern -- OK, we're back to the "Castaways" again, but not quite, because in this memory it had something to do with either an earthquake or a volcanic eruption that broke the ground up under their feet.

So maybe I really do have a faulty memory about all this. It's starting to sound like it, eh?

Be that as it may, thanks for the suggestion of the "I Need To Know" board. I hadn't thought of that, but I'll give it a try. I'll let you know what I find!

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

[–] grambax 15 years ago

There's always the possibility that it was from a scene that never made the final cut (of whichever movie it was), but was included in the promotional stills because it seemed exciting. Another memory I had was of a scene where people -- I thought it included Hayley Mills, but I thought it also included her dad -- were on chunks of stone, whizzing through an underground cavern -- OK, we're back to the "Castaways" again, but not quite, because in this memory it had something to do with either an earthquake or a volcanic eruption that broke the ground up under their feet.

Ah, now that's starting to sound like Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1959), very Disney feel, with James Mason and Pat Boone. That definately has the "rocks through underground cavern" scene. It also features a group of people standing on an underground beach. I can't remember the wave specifically, but there are futher adventures on the lake, and a storm.

That one ring any bells?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052948/

[–] puirt-a-beul 15 years ago

I really love that you're helping with this, thank you !!

But it's not that one. I know that movie well, having seen it more times than I can count. I loved the book as a kid, and I still have this childhood fancy in my mind that if I went to Iceland, to the peak of Snaefellsjökull early one July, and followed where the peak's shadow fell, then I might just find "A.S." scratched into the rock somewhere, and ... well, you know the rest! But that's not the movie I'm thinking of.

However, I have started to wonder now whether it isn't all of these a little bit mixed up together in my memory. I must confess, that would be a bit disappointing.

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

[–] grambax 15 years ago

I really love that you're helping with this, thank you !!

You're very welcome; I just wish I were getting you somewhere.

I still have this childhood fancy in my mind that if I went to Iceland, to the peak of Snaefellsjökull early one July, and followed where the peak's shadow fell, then I might just find "A.S." scratched into the rock somewhere, and ... well, you know the rest!

I know the feeling! The power of film, especially to a child, never leaves you.

However, I have started to wonder now whether it isn't all of these a little bit mixed up together in my memory. I must confess, that would be a bit disappointing.

It is possible. For many years now I thought I clearly remembered a specific double bill from 1970. However I recently discovered that, while I remembered the supporting film correctly and it's date was right, I had actually seen it four years later, with another film.

Nonetheless I wouldn't give up. There is a chance that you might be muddling some of the details together, but your memory of the wave seems very specific (and from a film rather than a picture as you suggested earlier, as that would have been difficult to portray without movement). So even if some of the recollections don't fit, it may still be possible to figure this out. I'm sure I remember that scene myself, but I have a lousy memory for details outside my areas of specific interest. I have my doubts whether we're talking about a Disney film now though; we're running out of options. My only other longshot there is Treasure of Matecumbe, which again I haven't seen in many years. I think it involved a flood, but no beach, certainly no castaways, and is a little too late (1974?).

Again, I suggest you try to think of any specific or possible details, including those films we've eliminated, and put a post on "I need to know". I put in a penny's worth there very occasionally, but really, the combined detailed knowledge there is quite astonishing. Its well worth a try, but give as much detail as possible - likely year, in colour? etc.

Another film that your posts brings vaguely to mind is Donald Sinden running before a lava flow in Island at the Top of the World, but that doesn't fit with the other details at all.

I know how frustrating it is to have an unidentified yet vivid childhood memory, especially one that has influenced you, so I'd really love to help you figure it out. If anything else comes to mind, do post.

Personally I've been intrigued for a few years now by what films I saw as double bills during childhood, but it seems the only way to establish this would be to spend many long hours in a reference library going over old newspaper listings. I've put in a few hours of that, and come up with a few revelations, but its a slow, arduous process.

Greetings from Scotland.

Good Luck, and please keep me posted!

[–] zoe-butler51 9 years ago

I know it's a long time ago, but just in case it's still bugging you. ;)

Have you considered, "Swiss Family Robinson" which was a Disney Film released in 1960 staring John Mills and -- not Hailey Mills -- but Janet Monro as a teenage girl who the family rescue from pirates? I think the two films could easily be mixed up if seen in a double bill.

I have had similar experiences. When I was very little, I saw 'Tom Brown's Schooldays' (1940) on television and as I remembered it, the Browns were a shipbuilding family who built wooden sailing ships and I had a vivid memory of a shipbuilding sequence that ended dramatically with the half completed ship collapsing. Only none of that was true. I had confused Tom Brown's Schooldays with an old documentary about shipbuilding, where a ship was launched, rather than collapsing Both films were black and white and both had similar music. Perhaps they were shown on the same day. But anyway, I could have sworn that I had seen that scene in the film.

I have tried to find a film called, "Those Castaways" and drawn a blank. Have you considered Gilligan's Island? "This is the tale of the castaways..." etc.? I know it's not 'those' castaways, but anyone's memory can play tricks.

I just wonder if you saw a lot of things around the same time, "Journey to the Center of the Earth"; Gillican's Island; In Search of the Castaways; Swiss Family Robinson; Mysterious Island? All of those have elements similar to those that you mentioned.

I've just remembered another childhood false memory of mine. I used to confuse Invaders From Mars and The Wizard of Oz, both of which I saw at around the same time, when I was about 3 years old. I thought that Dorothy was abducted by Martians and taken underground where she met the Tin Man, Wizard and so on.

Anyway, I hope that, either my suggestions are helpful or that you have managed to discover where your memory came from Maybe there really is a film called, "Those Castaways" with the scenes you describe. Best wishes. :)