‘Not to spill blood, that is the law. Are we not men?’
A cargo ship rescues a man adrift on a raft in the sea, but the Captain arranges to put him ashore on a remote island where a scientist is carrying out secret experiments. Suspicious of his host, the young man attempts to escape, but finds the jungle filled with strange, frightening creatures, part human, part beast…
Major studio adaptation of HG Wells’ classic novel ‘The Island of Dr Moreau’ which served to hammer another nail into the Hollywood science-fiction coffin, and relegate it to serials and the occasional low-budget production for almost the next 20 years. Although the production code had yet to censor Tinseltown’s output, its dark themes and content did not sit well with either critics or audiences of the time, and the film flopped. However, it’s come to be judged far more favourably in recent years and is now generally highly regarded.
Shipwreck survivor Edward Parker (Richard Arlen) is plucked from the sea by a freighter sailing to a small, uncharted island. It’s carrying a cargo of live animals under the supervision of a Montgomery (Arthur Hohl) and crewed by the ugliest bunch of sailors who were ever shanghaied from a backstreet waterfront dive. In point of fact, they look barely human. Despite that, Arlen intervenes when the drunken Captain (Stanley Fields) strikes one of them to the deck. Later on, when Hohl and the animals are offloaded, Fields has Arlen thrown into their boat as revenge. As Fields sails away laughing, our hero is left to the dubious hospitality of Dr Moreau, played by Charles Laughton.
‘No, I don’t want my drive repaved, nor do I want to buy Conservatory.’
It’s not long before Arlen realises that there’s a bad smell in paradise, of course, and that the stench is coming from Laughton’s lab, known locally as ‘The House of Pain.’ If you’re even vaguely familiar with the source material, you’ll know what Laughton is up to; turning animals into people with experiments informed by vivisection. His crowning glory is The Panther Woman (Kathleen Burke), who he presents to Arlen as a native islander, hoping that the two will mate. When Arlen’s fiance (Leila Hyams) turns up later on looking for him, Laughton plans to mate her with one of his beast-men instead, the expression on his face giving the definite impression that he’ll have a ringside seat when it happens. Purely for scientific purposes, of course.
Out in the jungle, Laughton’s previous experiments are living in a loose colony, headed up by the Sayer of The Law (Bela Lugosi). Unfortunately, the horror icon is dreadfully under-used, even if he does get to intone the famous ‘Are We Not Men?’ dialogue. The fact is that he only joined the picture for a few days after Laughton had completed all his scenes, their appearance in the same scene courtesy of an editor’s post-production work. Lugosi does get some great close-up’s though, which showcase the intensity he brought to his performance. It’s just a crying shame he’s not given more to do. Similarly, there are some wonderful production stills of the beast-man makeups by Wally Westmore and yes, what we do see is quite impressive, but we’re don’t see nearly enough of them, with a lot of the footage of the creatures shot in semi-darkness.
‘Look, I know we’re back in Lockdown, but I want to get my haircut.’
Paramount was looking to cash in on the sudden success of so-called fright pictures and had already scored big with ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ (1931) which brought an Academy Award for star Frederic March. However, they rather overstepped the mark with this film, which is good news for us but was bad news for the studio. The overt themes of bestiality, sadism, torture and a man trying to play god (Laughton even utters a similar line to the famous one Colin Clive shouts out in ‘Frankenstein’) pretty much ensured the film was going to run into serious censorship problems. It was banned in 14 states in America and outright in the UK until 1958 when it was only issued heavily cut. All references to Moreau having created the beast-men were removed, which must have made it a confusing experience for the audience.
Part of the problem for the censors was Laughton. He is just too damned good as Moreau, outwardly a gentleman but with every smirk and gesture suggesting a barely suppressed depravity. It’s a masterclass in performance as a man whose appetites and work are dangerously intertwined to the point of all-consuming obsession. None of the other cast members gets much of a look-in. However, it’s worth mentioning that Hohl makes a lot out of his role as Laughton’s alcoholic assistant, providing subtle, understated support.
‘It’s first right past the House of Pain, you can’t miss it.’
The studio wanted a complete unknown for the Panther Woman and ran a nationwide campaign to find her that received around 60,000 entries. They picked Kathleen Burke, who was working as a dental assistant at the time, although it was less publicised that she had already acted on the stage and the radio. She does give an interesting, off-centre performance, although how much of that was intentional, and how much down to inexperience is unclear. She never escaped the shadow of the Panther Woman and her brief screen career only featured one other notable appearance, as the second female lead in the Lionel Atwill shocker ‘Murders In The Zoo’ (1933).
Apart from this film, director Erle C Kenton is best known for three of the final films in Universal’s ‘Frankenstein’ saga. Although it would have been interesting to see what a more visionary director would have brought to the table with this material, he does deliver a sharp, pacy film with plenty of energy. Of course, that’s to be admired but, at a brief 70 minutes, a longer running time could have served to flesh out the characters a little and provide more story development. It would also have had been good to get more of Karl Struss’ excellent black and white photography and see more of the beast-men.
‘Like careful with the threads, man.’
Still, despite a few flaws, this remains quite easily the best version of Wells’ tale. The 1976 remake with Burt Lancaster was bland, and the 1996 version was a disaster. The unprofessional behaviour of some of its cast, and original director Richard Stanley’s inexperience with handling a big studio picture making for the worst combination possible. The uncredited version ‘Terror Is A Man’ (1959) is probably the best alternative take on the material, but it’s not really in the same league as this film.
A slick, exciting picture driven by a powerhouse performance by its star, Charles Laughton. A longer running time might have taken it to the highest level, but it’s still a high-quality effort.
Mark David Welsh 