Krakatoa -East Of Java (1968) As all film buffs know by heart, the first thing this movie got wrong was he geographical location of the title volcano......which sits on the map west of Java.....
But that error ........ the very least of its problems.....
If nothing else, it arrived several years ahead of its time, pre-dating the 1970's disaster movie craze kicked off by "Airport" (1970) and the full onslaught begun with Irwin Allen's 1972 "The Poseidon Adventure".
The same basic template's in place.......a varied group of disparate characters thrown together as some cataclysmic event engulfs them.......in this case, the 1883 massive eruption of Krakatoa and the resulting tsunami, causing thousands to perish.
So let's all climb on board, the "Batavia Queen", a salvage freighter populated with all sorts of folks on the hunt for a load 'o of priceless pearls sitting in a sunken ship.
Comprising this ship of fools is roster of recognizable actors, but none of them doing their best work, and one or two of them downright embarrassing themselves.
Maximillian Schell, as the ship's captain, barely registers a pulse throughout the catalog of catastrophes that befall him and the rest of the passengers......which adds to the unintentional hilarity of a scene where he single-handedly overcomes 30 convicts he'd agreed to transport to prison.
Meanwhile, our dauntless leader has deployed all manner of people and equipment to help him find the pearl treasure......father and son Balloonists (Rossano Brazzi, Sal Mineo), a diving bell owner-operator (John Leyton), a grizzled deep sea diver and his chanteuse gal pal (Brian Keith, Barbara Werle) and a bevy of Japanese girl pearl divers.
And also along for the ride comes Diane Baker, a usually comely, competent actress playing the distraught widow of the guy who died on the sunken ship before parking their young son who knows where. (The script forces Baker, whose talent never showed much range, into over-the-top histrionics that utterly humiliate her.)
(Speaking of humiliating moments, feel free to fast forward through the ridiculously out of place musical number from Barbara Werle, no doubt jammed into the film by her husband, one of the film's producers.)
But why go on wasting time with the story and the actors. Nobody sits through a movie like this for the finer points of drama. Just as well, since the indifferent acting here is practically non-existent and the dialogue is clunky, generic connect-the-dots word salad.
Bring on the volcano! Big blasts! Lotsa lava! Rev up that frickin' tidal wave so it's big enough to wipe out the entire cast! (Which nobody would miss anyway....)
All that stuff we crave shows up alright, with all the cheesy spectacle we hoped for. Keep in mind, this is 1968 special effects (heavy on the miniatures) but as such, they're pretty damn eye-popping. The filmmakers obviously took pride in their effects, since the main titles themselves consist of a highlights reel. The fiery apocalypse comes to you courtesy of director-designer Eugene Lourie, who specialized in those much beloved rampaging dinosaur movies...("Gorgo", "The Giant Behemoth")
Come to think of it, a few dinosaurs thrown in wouldn't hurt this movie at all......after all, if the filmmakers didn't take the time to figure out Krakatoa's location, they probably didn't even know what time period the film covered either.
In a jokey mood for a guilty pleasure, cornball disasterpiece? Book passage for 'Krakatoa'......it blowed up real good. 2 & 1/2 stars (**1/2)
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