Thursday, August 22, 2013

Island of Lost Souls (1932)

Paramount Pictures
Directed by Erle C. Kenton
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)

First filming of H.G. Wells' Island of Dr. Moreau is somewhat of a disappointment. Charles Laughton is the mad doctor experimenting on animals. Richard Arlen is the unfortunate shipwrecked man who ends up there. Laughton tries to set him up with a "panther woman" as part of an experiment, but Arlen manages to remain faithful to his fiance. She shows up to rescue him late in the film, leading to an unexciting escape. The half-human, half-animals aren't very convincing, particularly Bela Lugosi's wolf man, who hams it up with his "Are we not men?" speeches. The best version of this story remains the 1977 Burt Lancaster and Michael York production.

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