Castaways Pictures Presents

Castaway Pictures Presents is the seventh episode of the second season of "Gilligan's Island." It first aired November 4, 1965.

Plot

The castaways decide to make a silent picture on how they were shipwrecked.

Synopsis
While floating on a raft on the lagoon, Gilligan comes rushing back to shore calling that he's seen a ship. Unfortunately, he's seen it fifteen feet underwater and very wrecked, which makes it hard to raise and sail back to Hawaii. Fortunately, while diving on the wreck, the Skipper notices a few crates that they might be able to salvage, so the Professor devises a bellows to help Gilligan and the Skipper to dive to the wreck. Raising the crates, the Castaways find a Silent Movie camera and other equipment that once belonged to South Sea Film Productions. Mr. Howell recalls the company belonged to Ricardo Laughingwell and his wife Fifi LeFrance who had vanished on a honeymoon cruise. The Professor believes they should be able to use the equipment to help them get rescued by filming a recreation of the shipwreck and sending the film on a raft to the mainland. Mr. Howell directs the scenes with Gilligan and the Professor on camera, including a passionate scene between Ginger and the Professor, and Gilligan playing a native who takes Mary Ann prisoner. When they try to show the position of the island, everyone jumps into the frame to give their own point of reference, except Mrs. Howell, who shows off her wardrobe to the camera. However, during their review of the result, the film turns out to be a badly edited hodgepodge of scenes printed upside down, sped up, slowed down, overlapping and even a segment over-exposed by Gilligan opening the door to the dark room. Although the result isn't pleasant to watch, the Professor reminds them the film is only to help them get rescued. Several days later, the Castaways hear a report on the radio about a strange film that won first prize submitted anonymously at the Cannes film festival. Although everyone is upset that the film didn't get them rescued, Gilligan is hopeful that the prize is a motorcycle.

Message

 * "Truth can sometimes be mistaken for fiction."

Highlights

 * The cast satire themselves on film.

Credits
Main Cast
 * Bob Denver as Gilligan
 * Alan Hale Jr. as The Skipper
 * Jim Backus as Mr. Howell
 * Natalie Schafer as Mrs. Howell
 * Tina Louise as Ginger
 * Dawn Wells as Mary Ann
 * Russell Johnson as The Professor

Guest Cast
 * None

Trivia

 * One of the sillier epsiodes. When the Skipper tries to show on the map where they are located, it's the other castaways who mess up their chances of rescue when everyone except Gilligan try to point out the most important places on the map, all except the island! (Mr Howell tries to claim Fort Knox, Ginger tries to claim Hollywood, Mary Ann tries to claim Washington DC, and the Professor tries to show the ocean currents from Peru while Mrs. Howell tries to show off for her friends back home!)
 * It is revealed the costumes come from "South Sea Productions," and the yacht belonged to Silent Movie actress Fifi LeFrance and her husband, Ricardo Laughingwell, who apparently sailed away on their honeymoon and supposedly became lost at sea, the yacht sinking in the lagoon. Fifi and her husband's fate is unrecorded except for the remark that they had sailed away to the South Pacific on their honeymoon.
 * Gilligan goes down to the wreck in one swimsuit with a large wad of loose rubber in his chest and comes up in a second tight one which Mr. Howell punctures with a needle.
 * It is theoretical that the crate belonging to the Great Raftini (It's Magic) and Ginger's USO costumes (Gilligan the Goddess) also originated from the yacht.
 * Several Silent Movie actors are mentioned, including Charlie Chaplin, Theda Bara, Rudolph Valentino and Mary Pickford.
 * Coincidentally, Alan Hale's father, Alan Hale Sr., was a Silent Film star in his own right, as was Hale's mother, and Alan made his own debut in Silent Movies as a mere infant less than a year after he was born.
 * The film contains a clip of the island from a distance featured in the opening sequence, possibly attained by heading out on a raft.
 * The action in the filmed color shots with the map of the island doesn't match the action in the black and white footage. The two scenes were obviously filmed separately.
 * It's odd that the Skipper doesn't just write the coordinates of the island in the book at the start of the film, instead resorting to try to show its location in a film that has no sound. This is actually counter-productive to getting rescued and something the Professor should have realized.
 * The Skipper's handwriting inserts in the film read "This is Our Story," "Help," "The Shipwreck," and "The End."
 * It's curious the people who see the movie don't recognize Mr. Howell or Ginger in it and trace the movie's origins back to them.
 * The film was described as "a work of genius. Particularly effective were the numerous blacked out scenes, where the audience was left to use its imagination. Though it was anonymously submitted, the committee is quite certain the film is either the work of Swedish master Ingmar Bergman, or that Italian genius, Vittorio de Sica, or possibly, it was the combined effort of both. It was felt that this ultra-modern example of surrealism will bring back silent pictures."
 * It defies belief that the camera equipment would still be functional after being submerged in salt water for several decades, and that the crates and everything in them would be perfectly dry.

Quotes

 * Professor - "I have an idea that may well be instrumental in securing for us deliverance from our enforced isolation."


 * Mr. Howell - "No germ could live through that kiss!"


 * Mr. Howell - "I asked for a love scene, not an anatomy lesson!"

Ginger - "You certainly make a kiss sound romantic, like germ warfare!"
 * Professor - "Kissing on the mouth is far from sanitary. It can lead to all sorts of bacterial transfer."

Professor - "I used to be a scuba diver." Mr. Howell - "You sure it wasn't siphoning gasoline during the war?"
 * Mr. Howell - "How did you learn to hold your breath that long?"


 * Mr. Howell - "Never mind that... if there's one thing I can't understand it's late curtains and talky projectionists."


 * Mr. Howell - "Good heavens... X-Rays!!"


 * Mrs. Howell - "This wouldn't be good enough to be seen on the late, late, late, late, late show!"


 * Mr. Howell - "I'd walk out on the picture... even on an airplane!"


 * Mr. Howell - "Washington, D.C.? I'm a Republican! No one would ever find me there!"