NOT Available on DVD: ISLAND OF LOST SOULS

ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932), the first adaption of H.G.Well’s 1896 novel ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’, was one several shocking horror films from the early 30’s that helped advance the enforcement of the ‘Hays Code’, Hollywood’s self-censoring rules deeming “no picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it�. It wasn’t ISLAND OF LOST SOULS’s radical scenes of horror (like FREAKS) or the deviant sexuality (like the Frederick March version of DR. JEKYLL AND MR HYDE) that offended but its allegory premise that Man could play God and create Man through surgery by splicing together the flesh of various living animals (….and I’m sure the hints of bestiality didn’t help). ISLAND OF LOST SOULS is a movie that hasn’t lost its power to shock and disturb almost 80 years later, but it’s one that is NOT available on DVD.

In ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, shipwrecked traveler Edward Parker (Richard Arlen) is rescued from his lifeboat by a freighter shipping supplies to an isolated South Seas island overseen by Dr. Moreau (Charles Laughton) who welcomes Parker to his island. Parker soon discovers that Moreau is conducting vivisection experiments in order to transform animals into humans. Parker finds that Lota (Kathleen Burke), the native girl that Moreau is trying to push him toward, is actually a transformed panther and that Moreau wants to keep him there to conduct an experiment in mating her with a human. The hybrid animal men (lead by Bela Lugosi as ‘The Sayer of the Law’) revolt and drag Moreau to his comeuppance in his own ‘House of Pain’.

ISLAND OF LOST SOULS was one of only very few adaptations of his work that H.G. Wells saw within his lifetime and he was vocally unhappy with the film which was banned in his native Britain (ostensibly for its portrayal of cruelty to animals). He considered the film’s overt horror a misrepresentation of the philosophy of his novel, which he claimed was an indictment of the morality of modern science. ISLAND OF LOST SOULS is mostly faithful to Wells story, thanks to an intelligent script by Philip Wylie who also adapted Wells THE INVISIBLE MAN for director James Whale the same year and the film’s most famous line “What is the law…Are we not menâ€� has become horror folklore.  ISLAND OF LOST SOULS was not at all popular when initially distributed in theaters and was out of circulation for decades but it was never forgotten. Thanks in part to Forry Ackerman’s ‘Famous Monsters of Filmland’ magazine and make-up artist Wally Westmore’s creations that resemble a grotesque middle ground between humans and animals, ISLAND OF LOST SOULS has always been a favorite among horror movie fans.

Charles Laughton, 33 when he starred in ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, was a British actor who had gained fame playing Nero the year before in Cecil B. DeMille’s THE SIGN OF THE CROSS. With his goatee, pit helmet, and whip, he more resembles a plantation owner than a dedicated but misguided mad scientist whose medical research would make Joseph Mengele blush. Laughton’s Moreau is a man who appears reasonable on the outside but who has spent his career doing unspeakable things for no practical purpose and Laughton, who would win an Oscar the next year for THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII, delivers a demented characterization that elevates ISLAND OF LOST SOULS. Bela Lugosi was still hot after his triumph in DRACULA the year before and is great as the leader of the animal men. Kathleen Burke, who beat out thousands of young women in a nationwide search to play the Panther Woman, winning the role because of her “feline” look, wears costumes that are shockingly skimpy and her nipples are clearly visible in several shots. Billed on the posters simply as “The Panther Womanâ€�, Burke went on to a brief but insignificant career. Future stars Buster Crabbe, Alan Ladd, and Randolph Scott have uncredited bit parts in ISLAND OF LOST SOULS.

ISLAND OF LOST SOULS has been remade but never improved. The 1978 version with Burt Lancaster as Moreau and Michael York as Parker was lifeless. John Frankenheimer’s bizarre 1996 version with Marlon Brando as Moreau was considered a disaster upon its release but is not without its gonzo charms (both remakes were titled ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU and made Moreau a post-DNA genetic engineer rather than a surgeon). TERROR IS A MAN (1959) and THE TWILIGHT PEOPLE (1973 with Pam Grier as the Panther Woman!) were both Philippines-shot riffs on the Wells novel, but it’s the 1932 version that makes the most of the material. For years now ISLAND OF LOST SOULS has been DVD’s most glaring omission from the Golden Age of Horror. Produced by Paramount, it’s never looked good and I suspect its absence on DVD may be due to an unavailability of acceptable elements. The long-ago releases on VHS and laserdisc (double-billed with 1933’s MURDERS AT THE ZOO, another pre-code shocker from Paramount) were the same foggy and soft prints that Turner Classic Movies occasionally runs. ISLAND OF LOST SOULS is one of the best horror films of its era and deserves proper restoration.