Criterion Corner- Island of Lost Souls

In the opening 15 minutes of “Island of Lost Souls” based on the classic novel by H.G. Wells The Island of Dr. Moreau, I kept thinking, even Criterion could not save this film from the bonds of 1932 cinema. There was a tremendous blurry haze surrounding the entire screen. Granted they are on a ship out at sea, so there is supposed to be fog, but in reality filming outside in the early days of film still had its limitations. But the second we get to Dr. Moreau’s island, home of his “House of Pain”, and the film is now being shot on a soundstage, the film takes off. I mean above and beyond my expectations.

Edward Parker (Richard Arlen) is a lone surviving castaway that is puled aboard a merchant ship on the way to deliver exotic animals: lions, tigers, and…gorillas to the island of the mysterious Dr. Moreau. Once Parker recovers, he meets Montgomery (Arthur Huhl) who nurses him back to health. But when Parker runs afoul of the drunk captain, he is pushed overboard after the animals are unloaded onto Moreau’s boat. So now he becomes a reluctant guest of the suave yet creepy Dr. Moreau played to perfection by Charles Loughton. Once on the island, Parker sees what he thinks are natives, but are really the results of Moreau’s experimenting with nature to create man-like creatures from animals in his House of Pain. At first Moreau, and certainly Montgomery cannot wait to get Parker off their island so that they may continue their work unobserved. But Moreau sees this as an opportunity to show off his greatest creation Lota, The Panther Woman (Kathleen Burke) who looks all too human to the naked eye, in order to see if she will have a connection with Parker and maybe more than that.

Once Parker figures out what Moreau up to and sees the rest of the army of creatures who repeat the rules the Sayer of the Law (Bela Lugosi) shouts out to them, always ended with the rhetorical “Are we not men?”, he is now desperate to get off the island. Back at home Parker’s lady Ruth (Leila Hyams) is also on a desperate search to find her beloved Edward.

When she finally makes it to the island with the help of comic relief Captain Davies (Paul Hurst) who is destined to be dispatched, she becomes just as frightened of this island of lost souls as Parker. This all leads to a daring escape filled with betrayal, sacrifice and a haunting ending that shows what almost always becomes of meddling with Mother Nature.

I have to say, this film is phenomenal. Especially when compared to the two other adaptations from 1977 by Don Taylor and the last one from 1996 by John Frankenheimer, co-written by Richard Stanley who was the original director of the film but was fired soon after filming began. There is a whole documentary covering his experience: “Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau”. He was also interviewed for this Criterion edition and speaks quite intelligently on the subject, I would have liked to see his vision of the material.

But what director Erle C. Kenton did here with a script by Philip Wylie and Waldemar Young is brilliant in the pre-code era of filmmaking. The story moves with a motor, some of the beats are genuinely terrifying, like with Loughton as Moreau is examining a creature on a slab in front of Parker and this beast-man is screaming in horrific pain for what feels like hours is incredibly disturbing. The composition of the shots that Kenton gets using shadow like the best yet to come from the noir pictures is amazing. There are shots that you would make into posters ant put them up on your wall. The creature make-up effects by Wally Westmore who would go on to work on 1953’s “War of the Worlds” and later work with Hitchcock on some of his classics, does a lot with very little here. Even though Lugosi looks like a cheesy wolf man, just about all the rest of the creatures look like the stuff of nightmares, especially near the end of the film when we get close-ups of some of them and you see the craftsmanship that went into the makeup for these manimal monsters.

But the biggest selling point is the performance by Loughton who brings an uncomfortable flirty nature to Moreau that’s disturbing even now in 2026. His line readings are stellar like when he lights his cigarette and says “Wouldn’t it be a great loss to science if he left for the pier in the morning?” just as he blows out the match. Goosebumps. If his mustache was any longer, he would twiddle it for sure as he talks to Montgomery played morose by Hahl who is tortured by what they are doing and sells it very well.

Supplenents:

There is a chat between director John Landis (An American Werewolf in London) Make-up artist legend Rick Baker and Bob Burns as the talk of the film and its impact on make-up effects.

Another interview with Film Historian David J. Skal who talks about the film, who I wish did the commentary instead of…

Gregory Mank who does the commentary for the film, who feels too much like an announcer on a Universal Tour Ride (the annoying kind). he has some great insight, and has done incredible amount of research about the film and is filled with interesting tidbits and behind the scenes stories, I just wished he toned it down below 11.

The most surprising interview is with Gerald Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh, founding members of the band Devo. They talk about the influence of the film on them, and then it gets surprisingly eloquent as they talk of how what was going on in the world at the time of the early 70’s with Vietnam and being trapped in college with no classes and coming up with their band and their philosophy because of films like “Island of Lost Souls”. It’s quite touching and a real find, there is also there short film of theirs, that I would probably only watch after you hear them speak about the ‘whys’.

Overall this is a great film with an even better disc filled with interesting supplements. If you want to see a nearly 100 year old film that puts most modern ones to shame, seek out this one.

“House of Pain…”