Island of Lost Souls [VHS]
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VHS Movie Reviews of Island of Lost Souls [VHS]
Movie Review: Worth better
Summary: 4 Stars
At least 'release date to be announced' has gone!
Having tried to get this from the United States, England and Switzerland, every time waiting weeks to be ultimately told they couldn't supply after all, I bought a second-hand copy, paying much more than I ever have done for a new DVD.
The films are unrestored, but in a reasonable state for their age; a car dealer would probably say they were in good original condition.
The website of the manufacturer is www.visionary.co.uk, from which you will see that it is long deleted and also that this was way off the beaten track for them, so a reissue is not to be expected.
Neither is a great film, in my opinion, but both are entertaining and the Island of Lost Souls is important. Both deserve to be released in restored form by one of the good DVD companies. How about it, Milestone or Image Entertainment?
Movie Review: The usual fun in campy value and poor production
Summary: 2 Stars
In this screen adaptation of "The Island of Dr. Moreau," Edward Parker (Richard Arlen) is a cast-away from a ship who, after he gets in a fight with the captain of the boat who saves him, is thrown onto a vessel headed for a mysterious island which, of course, the local sea-faring folk know and fear... Dr. Moreau's island, of course. There he finds a laboratory named "The House of Pain" (ugh...), weird creatures, and a sexy vamp played by Kathleen Burke.
Done almost completely without a score, consisting of poor dialog and action shot on overexposed film, and cut without even a moment's thought towards continuity or making sense, the low score I give this film reflects it's quality... the stars it does get are given, afterall, for its camp value.
And what great camp value it is, seeing Arlen run around saying things that make no sense at all, coming to conclusions when he shouldn't and not "getting it" when he should. Burke is sufficiently sexy enough to provide great eye-candy while waiting for the man-creature things to finally get angry and do something scary. Charles Laughton provides probably the most fun part of the movie with his humourously nonsensical portrayal of Moreau.
It's yet another of the millions of examples out there of something you can sit around with some buddies and laugh at... assuming, of course, they have the patience for such a thing. If it hasn't been MST3Ked, it should have been.
--PolarisDiB
Movie Review: also waiting
Summary: 5 Stars
I also have seen this "release date to be announced" going on the second year.Of course the second movie on this bill can be gotten on the double disc of the" House of the wax museum" with vincent price, put out by warner bros. last year.But there are many of us that would love to have the first feature.....say, I have an idea,.....why don't all of us on this web site meet at the empire state building in 2010 in anticipation of acquiring this disc!Movie Review: Probably Not a Helpful Review
Summary: 3 Stars
Although horror movies from the 1930s were the first kind of film that I really got into as a kid, my enthusiasm for them hasn't withstood the test of time. Today, they seem rather clunky and unintentionally laughable. Also, I've grown a little skeptical of a genre based on the idea that we must fear something, rather than understand it. However, a few '30s horror films still hold up. Rouben Mamoulian's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is one. For different reasons, James Whale's "The Bride of Frankenstein" is another. If I were to name a third, it would be "Island of Lost Souls."
I like "Island of Lost Souls" despite a few drawbacks, not the least of which, as has been noted before, is the stilted central performance of Richard Arlen as the matinee-idol hero and the staginess of some scenes (such as the fistfight with the ship's captain). But "Island of Lost Souls" seems to revel in its artifice. At first, the film's decor looks a little too contrived, especially to eyes raised on shot-on-location. But everything else about the film -- from its plot to its execution -- looks equally contrived, so it's hard to take the movie's premise at face value. Also, Charles Laughton as Dr. Moreau throws himself into the goings-on with such brio that the results are utterly enjoyable. Is it possible for an actor to be understated and over the top at the same time? Laughton is one of the cinema's best thespians. Another outstanding element in the film is Karl Struss's moody photography.
But I wanted to say something about "Island of Lost Souls" that many will, I'm sure, find absolutely irrelevant: I wish that the role of the Panther Woman had been played by Anna May Wong. No disrespect intended to any Kathleen Burke fans out there, but the Panther Woman would be a fun role in which to see the underutilized Chinese American star, who actually did some work for the film's studio, Paramount, at the time. Anna May Wong champions are probably shaking their heads in dismay at my suggestion. Some exotic, saronged plaything for a leading man is not the best kind of role for our Anna, they would say. And they may be right. Still, AMW played worse roles. I'd rather see her claw the scenery as the Panther Woman than see her throw herself into the role of Fu Manchu's daughter in "Daughter of the Dragon."
At any rate, my comment is neither here nor there. It would have been impractical for Paramount to have cast AMW in "Island of Lost Souls," even if the studio had her under contract at the time (I'm not sure if it did, but it may have). If Paramount had cast Wong, the kiss between Arlen's character and the Panther Woman would have had to go: kissing between the races was not allowed by the Production Code in the 1930s.
Also, AMW in the cast would have brought to the surface something buried within the story: Dr. Moreau's creatures as stand-ins for the non-white races. "Island of Lost Souls" is a thinly veiled cautionary tale about what might happen if minorities ever rose against the white whip-wielders of Western society. In this respect, the hero's flirtation with the Panther Woman doesn't so much evoke beastiality, but miscegenation -- and many influential people of the time saw no difference between the two. By casting a white actress in the role, Paramount was able to keep this theme out of the viewer's face and in the back of his mind.
Still, I can't help but wonder how it might have looked to see Anna May Wong's opalescent face and reed-thin arms atop the Panther Woman's sarong. I can't help but wonder how she might have given the role more grace and gravity. I also can't help thinking about all of the other Anna May Wong movies that never came to be. (Ironically, she did star in an unrelated 1939 movie with a similar title: "Island of Lost Men," a revamped remake of the 1933 movie "White Woman," another Laughton vehicle.)
Anyhow, don't let my what-ifs ward you away. If you watch only a handful of 1930s horror movies in your life, make sure one of them is "Island of Lost Souls."
Movie Review: Release Date??????????
Summary: 5 Stars
Why does it say release date January 1, 2010? That's a typo, right? Or some kind of joke?
This is without a doubt one of the best, creepiest horror films ever made. Of all the classic horror films of the 30's, this is easily the scariest. It deserves to be treated as the first class film it is, not an after-thought.
Please tell me the 2010 release date is wrong!