Island of Lost Souls (1932)

Island of Lost Souls
Directed by Earle C. Kenton
Written by Waldemar Young and Philip Wylie from a novel by H.G. Wells
1932/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel

Dr. Moreau: Mr. Parker, do you know what it means to feel like God?

This Pre-Code classic gives the Universal monster films a run for their money and wins.

Sailor Edward Parker (Richard Arlen) had been on his way to Apia to meet his fiancée (Leila Hyams).  He was then washed overboard and picked up by a cargo boat carrying both animals and deformed humans to an uncharted island.  Parker gets in a dispute within the captain and is thrown overboard onto the waiting skiff on the cargo’s owner Dr. Moreau (Charles Laughton).

The good doctor is not too happy to have a witness to his gastly experiments with evolution in the House of Pain.  He gets a fiendish idea linking Arlen and the most advanced of his creations and the story gets even scarier.  With an unrecognizable Bela Lugosi as the Sayer of the Law (“Are we not men?”).

This is a true horror classic with a timeless performance by Charles Laughton as the sadistic and polymorphously perverse Dr. Moreau. Also features an unrecognizable Bela Lugosi as The Sayer of the Law. This the kind of movie that asks you to imagine the worst and it is both horrifying and icky.  I’m quite sure it could not have been made after the enforcement of the Code.  Recommended.

Missing title track