Island of Lost Women * (1959, Jeff Richards, Venetia Stevenson, John Smith) – Classic Movie Review 11,106

The 1959 adventure film Island of Lost Women stars Jeff Richards, Venetia Stevenson and John Smith. Movie agent Henry Willson, who gave Tab Hunter and Rock Hudson their exotic names, changed Robert Errol Van Orden’s name to plain John Smith.

Director Frank W Tuttle’s independently made 1959 black and white castaways adventure film Island of Lost Women stars Jeff Richards, Venetia Stevenson, John Smith, Alan Napier, Diane Jergens and June Blair. Though based on an original story by Prescott Chaplin, it borrows from Shakespeare’s The Tempest and the 1956 sci-fi film Forbidden Planet.

Robert Errol Van Orden changed his name to John Smith to be the only one in the business.

A nuclear scientist Dr Paul Lujan (Alan Napier) and his attractive daughters, Venus (Venetia Stevenson), Urana (Diane Jergens) and Mercuria (June Blair), have hidden away from the world on a remote island, but their peace is shattered when a plane carrying a radio newsman Mark Bradley (Jeff Richards) and the pilot Joe Walker (John Smith) lands in their midst.

Dr Lujan then ruins their plane so that they cannot leave and tell the world about them.

An already shaky script by Ray Buffum (story by Prescott Chaplin) is downed by weak handling, unpersuasive acting, a tatty production and a rotten score. It is produced by actor Alan Ladd for his production company Jaguar Productions with George C Bertholon and Albert J Cohen, and released by Warner Bros.

Also in the cast are George Brand, Gavin Muir, Tom Riley, Bob Stratton, Stan Sweet and Vern Taylor.

Island of Lost Women runs 71 minutes.

It was released in May 1959.

John Smith’s agent Henry Willson, who also gave Tab Hunter and Rock Hudson their exotic names, changed Robert Errol Van Orden’s name to plain John Smith in order to be ‘the only one in the business’. John Smith (March 6, 1931 – January 25, 1995) became a star on TV, and had leading roles in two popular NBC Western TV shows, Cimarron City and Laramie.

Film rights to the story by Prescott Chaplin were bought by Jaguar Productions, who had a film development deal with Warner Bros, who provided contract star Venetia Stevenson. Frank Tuttle was hired as director after directing Alan Ladd in 1955’s Hell on Frisco Bay for Jaguar. Former American minor league baseball player Jeff Richards was hired as star and Jaguar signed him to a five-year contract with two films a year, but he made no further films for them and his acting career soon floundered. His last role was in 1966 as Kallen in the film Waco, which also featured John Smith. Previously he had a studio contract with MGM, who ironically announced him for Forbidden Planet but did not put him in the film.

Jeff Richards was third lead in the big hit Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) so MGM started to build him up as a star. Dore Schary, head of the studio, said he had ‘tremendous personal charm’ and ‘looks like a great bet’. He was finally given a star part in The Marauders (1955),  played the lead in It’s a Dog’s Life (1955) and one of the male leads in the musical The Opposite Sex (1956), but they all lost money and MGM lost interest in him.

The cast are Jeff Richards as Mark Bradley, Venetia Stevenson as Venus, John Smith as Joe Walker, Diane Jergens as Urana, June Blair as Mercuria, Alan Napier as Dr Paul Lujan, Gavin Muir as Dr McBain, George Brand as M Hugh Garland, Tom Riley as Co-Pilot, Bob Stratton as Pilot, Stan Sweet as 2nd Pilot, and Vern Taylor as Co-Pilot.

Joanna Venetia Invicta Stevenson (10 March 1938 – 26 September 2022).

Venetia Stevenson married Russ Tamblyn and Don Everly, had an affair with Audie Murphy, and hung out with Tab Hunter and his then-boyfriend Anthony Perkins.

Venetia Stevenson died from Parkinson’s disease on 26 September 2022 at a health care facility in Atlanta. She appeared in Day of the Outlaw (1959), Studs Lonigan (1960), Island of Lost Women (1959), Jet Over the Atlantic (1959), The Big Night (1960), Seven Ways from Sundown (1960), The City of the Dead [Horror Hotel] (1960), and The Sergeant Was a Lady (1961).

She married Russ Tamblyn on Valentine’s Day 1956 but divorced in April 1957. She remarried, to Don Everly, in 1962 and retired from acting but divorced in 1970. Tab Hunter, whom she frequently dated, recalled that she was a large part of his social life with his then-boyfriend Anthony Perkins, ‘acting as a beard when we double-dated’. She had a year-long affair with Audie Murphy when they starred in Seven Ways from Sundown in 1960.

Born in 1938 in London, she is the daughter of film director Robert Stevenson and actress Anna Lee.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,106

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