The Light at the Edge of the World

"Jules Verne Takes You Over the Edge of the World!"

1971 2h 8m EN

😐

6.0

MID

★6.0TMDB · 59

AdventureDramaFantasy

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Pirates take over a lighthouse on a rocky island. They then execute a devious plan to cause ships to run aground, pillaging their wrecks. A lone member of the lighthouse crew survives, and he deperately fights their plot. A shipwrecked maiden that avoids the pirates slaughter soon complicates the situation.

“Jules Verne Takes You Over the Edge of the World!”

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Cast

Kirk Douglas
Will Denton
Yul Brynner
Jonathan Kongre
Samantha Eggar
Arabella
Jean-Claude Drouot
Virgilio
Fernando Rey
Captain Moriz
Renato Salvatori
Montefiore
Massimo Ranieri
Felipe
Aldo Sambrell
Tarcante (as Aldo Sanbrell)

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Kevin Billington
Writers: Rachel Billington, Tom Rowe
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America, Liechtenstein, Spain, Switzerland

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

55 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 4 countries: United States of America, Liechtenstein, Spain, Switzerland.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Kevin Billington, shot by Henri Decaë. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Piero Piccioni. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Bert Bates shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Kirk Douglas and Yul Brynner and Samantha Eggar carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Jules Verne Takes You Over the Edge of the World!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0067345 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Kevin Billington directs. Henri Decaë behind the camera. Piero Piccioni scores. Bert Bates cuts. Produced in United States of America, Liechtenstein, Spain, Switzerland. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

155 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
2International production across 4 countries: United States of America, Liechtenstein, Spain, Switzerland.
3Directed by Kevin Billington, shot by Henri Decaë. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Piero Piccioni. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Bert Bates shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Kirk Douglas and Yul Brynner and Samantha Eggar carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Jules Verne Takes You Over the Edge of the World!".
8IMDB entry: tt0067345 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Only 59 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Henri Decaë
Original score: Piero Piccioni
Editing: Bert Bates
Costume design: Manolo Mampaso
Makeup / hair: Josefa Rubio
Runtime: 128 min · 2h 8m
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: The Light at the Edge of the World (1971)

Also by

Kevin Billington

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2022-06-02
★ 6/10
Yul Brynner ("Kongre") is the psuedo-sophisticate, but really rather brutal, captain of a pirate ship that quite cleverly decides to capture a lighthouse - manned by a fairly agile Kirk Douglas ("Denton") - and then disable the light so as to manage to wreck passing ships and salvage their luxury spoils whilst killing their crews. "Denton" escapes the purge of his own colleagues, but is unable to prevent this process proving remarkably successful until, that is, the arrival of "Arabella" (Samantha Eggar). "Denton" rather preposterously thinks she might be his ex-fiancée, and "Kongre" a woman upon whom he now fixates, offers her a life of luxury and fine clothes - albeit on their island stuck near the bottom of South America. The story is quite fun and both stars have clearly entered into the spirit of this pretty poorly budgeted and produced maritime yarn with little expectation that it will do either of their careers any good. The dialogue is neither here nor there, and the drama is strung out for way too long before an ending that was really just a bit too downbeat and tacky, then somewhat silly for me. Interesting to see two Hollywood stars reduced to this kind of film and even if Douglas did executive produce it, it's still pretty sad to see them fall quite this far from the top of the mountain.
Wuchak2026-06-11
★ 7/10
Kirk Douglas vs. Yul Brynner & his pirates on a rocky coastal landscape in 1865 The events take place at a remote lighthouse near Tierra Del Fuego with the story based on Jules Verne’s “The Lighthouse at the End of World.” The French author wrote the first draft in 1901, and his son finished it after his death, 1905. Verne was inspired by the real-life lighthouse on the Isla de los Estados, Argentina, located at the southern tip of South America. Keep in mind that ships had to regularly take that long route before the Panama Canal was created in 1914. The movie includes bits of “Mysterious Island” (1961) and “The Day the Fish Came Out” mixed with the grim, brutal tone of “The Last Valley,” the latter of which debuted six months earlier in 1971. So, this is not a kid-friendly film, but a life-or-death tale of extreme isolation and survival against savage people bent on evil. Speaking of which, the depiction of the pirates is more realistic than was the norm up to that point in cinematic history. Douglas was 53 years-old during shooting, almost 54, whereas Brynner was 50. Samantha Eggar is on hand in the feminine department. The story takes its time and so the characters have room to breathe in the inaccessible-but-scenic setting. The flick’s not for those who require an implausible action sequence every seven minutes. It runs 2h 8m and was shot Aug-Nov 1970 in Spain with the lighthouse replica located in Cabo de Creus, which is in the extreme northeastern part of the country (Costa Brava in Catalonia, aka “the wild coast”), fifteen miles south of the border of France on the Mediterranean Sea. GRADE: B