Krakatoa, East of Java is a 1968 American disaster film starring Maximilian Schell and Brian Keith. During the 1970s, the film was re-released under the title Volcano. The story is loosely based on events surrounding the 1883 eruption of the volcano on the island of Krakatoa, with the characters engaged in the recovery of a cargo of pearls from a shipwreck perilously close to the volcano. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Special Visual Effects. Krakatoa is actually due west of Java, but the movie's producers thought that "East" sounded more atmospheric."Krakatoa - East of Java." Monthly Film Bulletin. London. Vol.36, Issue 420 (January 1, 1969). p.174.
Plot
In 1883, the volcano on the island of Krakatoa begins to erupt, terrorizing the children at a mission school in Palembang on nearby Sumatra. In Anjer, Java, the steamer Batavia Queen, commanded by Captain Chris Hanson, takes aboard passengers: Douglas Rigby, owner and operator of a diving bell; balloonists Giovanni and Leoncavallo Borghese; diver Harry Connerly; Connerly's mistress Charley Adams; four female Japanese pearl divers led by Toshi; and Laura Travis, who had an extramarital affair with Hanson in Batavia. Laura was married to an abusive man with whom she had a son named Peter. When she asked for a divorce in order to stay with Hanson, her husband left her, taking both Peter and a fortune in pearls with him aboard the steamer Arianna. The Arianna had sunk off Krakatoa, and a guilt-ridden Laura, fearing that Peter had died, had spent a year in a mental institution.
Hanson has organized the voyage to find the Arianna, salvage the pearls, and find Peter if he is still alive. Colonial authorities arrive just before the Batavia Queen departs and force Hanson to take 30 convicts and their jailer aboard for transportation to Madura Island. Hanson plans to deliver the convicts to Madura after recovering the pearls off Krakatoa. One of the prisoners, Lester Danzig, is an acquaintance of Hanson's, and Hanson allows him to make the voyage on deck instead of in the hold. A colonial official warns that the island is a "raging volcano", but Hanson ignores him.
During the voyage to Krakatoa, her crew and passengers observe strange phenomena: seabirds swarming in huge flocks by day, a series of fiery explosions erupting from the sea, and a high-pitched, ear-splitting sound like that of escaping steam. Danzig discovers that Connerly is secretly using laudanum to kill the pain of a lung disease because it might interfere with his diving abilities. Danzig informs Connerly of Laura's time in the mental institution, calling into question the veracity of her story about the pearls. The Borgheses, Connerly, Charley, Rigby, and Toshi confront Hanson, but he assures them that her story is true.
The Batavia Queen arrives off Krakatoa to find the island shrouded in thick smoke. After it clears the Borgheses ascend in their balloon while Rigby descends in his diving bell. The Borgheses discover the wreck of the Arianna and guide the Batavia Queen and the submerged Rigby to it. Immediately afterwards, the motor driving the steering propeller fails and they careen helplessly into the volcano's crater. They jettison the useless engine to reduce weight and are blown clear by a volcanic explosion which sets their balloon afire. Drifting away from the island, they leap into the sea and are rescued.
Danzig tells Hanson of Connerly's lung problems, and Hanson decides that he will dive instead of Connerly. While Connerly and Hanson argue, Rigby's diving bell becomes snagged on coral. The pearl divers, Hanson, and Connerly all dive into the water to free Rigby. While everyone is occupied, Danzig steals a pistol and frees the prisoners. They take over the ship, throw the jailer overboard, and imprison the passengers and crew in the hold. Unaware of the events aboard the Batavia Queen, Hanson and Connerly find the Ariannas safe, and attach a cable to it to have it hoisted aboard. Upon their return, Danzig has Connerly lowered into the hold but forces Hanson to look on at gunpoint as he opens the Ariannas safe. They find nothing inside but a cheap pocket watch. When an explosion on Krakatoa distracts Danzig, Hanson overpowers him, and manages to drive the remaining prisoners off the ship.
After Hanson frees the passengers and crew, Rigby finds another compartment in the safe which contains the Ariannas logbook. The logbook reveals the Arianna made a port call at Palembang before sinking, and a letter tucked into the logbook says Peter disembarked there to attend the mission school. Hanson steams to Palembang to find Peter. By now, Krakatoa is erupting continually, hurling lava bombs into the surrounding sea. Toshi is killed when one of the lava bombs strikes her.
The Batavia Queen arrives off Palembang to find the mission school heavily damaged and abandoned. Hanson hails a passing junk and is informed that the school's staff and students had fled Palembang that morning, intending to sail to Java. The Batavia Queen comes to the assistance of a sinking sampan, which proves to be the school's boat. The Batavia Queens rescue everyone aboard the sampan, including Peter, who has a joyful reunion with Laura. A chest belonging to Peter is brought aboard the Batavia Queen. It contains the missing pearls, and Connerly, Rigby, the Borgheses, and the three surviving pearl divers receive their shares of the fortune.
Krakatoa's violent explosions increase; Hanson assumes that they will cause a tsunami and prepares the Batavia Queen to ride it out. Hanson attempts to assure Connerly that they will be safer on the ship, but Connerly demands that he and any other passenger be allowed to disembark. Giovanni Borghese, Charley, and the three surviving pearl divers join Connerly in the lifeboat and row to Anjer.
Krakatoa disintegrates in one final, cataclysmic explosion, which generates an enormous tsunami. It strikes Anjer shortly after the Batavia Queens lifeboat arrives; unable to outrun the wave, Connerly and Charley embrace for the last time before the wave engulfs and kills them. At sea, Hanson, Laura, Peter, Rigby, Leoncavallo Borghese, the refugees from the mission school, and the ship's crew ride out the tsunami successfully aboard the Batavia Queen.
Cast (as given in end credits) Maximilian Schell as Captain Chris Hanson Diane Baker as Laura Travis Brian Keith as Harry Connerly Barbara Werle as Charley Adams Sal Mineo as Leoncavallo Borghese Rossano Brazzi as Giovanni Borghese John Leyton as Dr. Douglas Rigby J.D. Cannon as Lester Danzig Jacqui Chan as Toshi Rob't Hall as Guard [spelled "Robert" in opening credits] Victoria Young as Kiko Marc Lawrence as Mr. Jacobs (First Mate) Midori Arimoto as Midori Niall MacGinnis as Harbor Master (David) Joseph Hann as Mr. Kuan (Second Mate) Sumi Haru as Sumi Geoffrey Holder as Sailor Alan Hoskins as Jan Peter Kowalski as Peter Travis
Additionally, Peter Graves is listed in the opening credits.
Production Development In February 1955 Philip Yordan announced he would write and produce a film of the Krakatoa eruption with a budget of US$2 million to US$3 million being spent on special effects. It was going to be the first film made under Yordan's contract with Columbia Pictures. Jerry Wald would be executive producer.Schallert, Edwin, "Yordan Doing 'Krakatoa' as Spectacle; Deal Warm for 'Mauler' and Palance", The Los Angeles Times 19 February 1955, p. 15."Columbia Erupts With Movie Idea: Studio Plans to Simulate '83 Krakatoa Disaster--Allots $500,000 for Scene". The New York Times, 19 February 1955, p. 18. It took a number of years for the movie to be made, and in the meantime Yordan started making movies in Spain. In January 1967 he said he intended to film background footage for the movie in Indonesia and wanted Rock Hudson to star.Joseph, Robert (15 January 1967). "Custer in Castillia? They Went Thataway". The Los Angeles Times. p. 12.
In February 1967 Milo Frank arrived in Madrid to begin supervising production of the film. Bernard L. Kowalski was attached to direct;Alibis' for Baer, D'Antoni Martin, Betty". The Los Angeles Times, 28 February 1967. p. 8. Kowalski was best known for his television work, including the pilots for Mission Impossible, The Rat Patrol, The Monroes, and N.Y.P.D.. The director said "That seemed to impress the Cinerama people who were looking for a young director who could handle what looked to be a pretty difficult picture."Thomas, Bob (19 August 1967). "Director Transfers to the Big Screen". The Los Angeles Times. p. 15. The script was co-written by Bernard Gordon, a blacklisted writer who did a number of scripts for Yordan under pseudonyms."Letters Anonymous". Cineaste. New York. Vol. 22, Issue 4 (1997). p. 68.
Finance came in part from the ABC network. Special effects In an unusual approach to making the film, the producers of Krakatoa, East of Java had the special effects scenes shot before the script had been completed. The script then was written so as to incorporate the special effects sequences."Model Ships in the Cinema: Krakatoa, East of Java". 1969, including quotes from Lourié, Eugene, My Work in Films, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985. .
The French film director, art director, production designer, set designer, and screenwriter Eugène Lourié had worked for the film's producers as art and special-effects director for the 1965 movie Crack in the World, and they hired him to create the special effects for Krakatoa, East of Java.
In 1965, Lourié scouted the coast of Spain for a suitable steamer for use in the film as the fictional Batavia Queen; ultimately he chose a cargo ship – a former passenger-cargo ship employed as a tramp steamer between Spain and Morocco – he found unloading coal at a pier in Bilbao whose captain said she had been built in England sometime around 1880.
Lourié had the steamer remodeled in Málaga, Spain, at a shipyard which transformed her into the Batavia Queen by increasing the height of her funnel and masts and installing new yards on her masts and a new bowsprit and carved wooden figurehead on her bow. The steamer also was provided with functioning sails for her masts and yards.
For special effects, Lourié's team constructed two models of the modified steamer, a one-to-ten-scale model that was long, and, for long shots of the Batavia Queen as she approaches Krakatoa, a one-to-twenty-scale model. The latter proved too small to provide realistic effects, so Lourié chose not to use it in the film, instead using only the larger model.