Island of Lost Souls (Erle C. Kenton, 1932)

The early 1930s were an incredible time for horror films, with so many iconic classics setting the mold for what would follow. Island of Lost Souls is one of the strongest and strangest of those early '30s films, sharing with Mamoulian's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde adaptation a frank, pre-Code sexuality and unflinching look at human cruelty against a backdrop of mad-scientific hubris. Lost Souls is also much lighter on its feet and funnier than most mad scientist films, thanks to Charles Laughton's performance as Dr. Moreau and Erle C. Kenton's atmospheric visuals and fleet pacing.

So many mad scientists in film are single-minded, humorless bores, their only personality being their need to experiment, whatever the cost. Laughton's Moreau is just as single-minded, but he's got loads of personality. He's a cherubic yet intimidating dandy, full of arrogance, charm, hospitality, and menace, and Laughton has a great deal of fun with his delivery and body language. It's a performance that still feels modern, a kind of "take that, nerds" to other movie scientists.

Director Kenton started his film career as an actor in the silent era (he was one of the original Keystone Kops) before realizing his true calling behind the camera. The bulk of his directing career from the silent era until the early 1950s was in comedy (though he tackled many other genres), including multiple Abbott and Costello films (can't decide if my favorite title is Pardon My Sarong or It Ain't Hay), and he spent his last decade in the business directing for television, mostly in the detective and Western genres. Besides Lost Souls, he directed four other horror films (The Ghost of Frankenstein, House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, and The Cat Creeps). He retired in 1960 and died of Parkinson's in 1980.

Based on an H.G. Wells story, Island of Lost Souls begins with the crew of a cargo ship discovering a shipwreck survivor, Edward Parker (Richard Arlen), and bringing him on board. I have to digress for a second and tell you how Richard Arlen got his break in the movie business because it's one of the craziest Hollywood origin stories. Arlen (real name Sylvanus Mattimore) was lost after his World War I service, drifting from city to city, odd job to odd job. He ended up in Los Angeles working as a motorcycle messenger for a film lab. While delivering some film to the Paramount Pictures lot, he crashed into a gate and broke his leg. As Arlen was being attended to by the studio doctor, an executive saw him, thought he had movie star good looks, and signed him to an acting contract. He was initially pretty terrible and worked mostly as an extra, but he slowly improved as an actor and ended up with a fairly successful movie career. Digression over. Parker is brought on board the ship, which is carrying a cargo of caged animals to a mysterious island, and is nursed back to health by Montgomery (Arthur Hohl), an ex-doctor who works for the man living on the mysterious island. After the cargo drop-off, the ship is supposed to bring Parker to the port at Apia, where his fiancee Ruth (Leila Hyams of Freaks fame, who would also work with Laughton again in one of my favorite comedies, Ruggles of Red Gap) is anxiously awaiting his healthy return so they can get married. Instead, Parker angers the drunken, loudmouthed ship's captain, Davies (Stanley Fields), who dumps him off with the cargo on the mysterious island of Dr. Moreau (Laughton).

To paraphrase Homer Simpson, this is a really weird island. Moreau is not too happy to have a stranger visiting, since, besides himself, Montgomery, and the island's one woman (Kathleen Burke), the island is populated by strange humanoid beasts, including Bela Lugosi as The Sayer of the Law ("are we not men?" later becoming an important phrase for Devo). Parker is a bit freaked out, but Moreau warms to his presence, which makes Montgomery uncomfortable, which in turn makes Parker uncomfortable. Soon, Moreau is very invested in the sexy Ms. Burke getting to know Parker (with sexy results?). When Parker discovers the origin of the beast-men. and his fiancee Ruth tracks him down with the help of unflappable captain Donahue (Paul Hurst), all hell breaks loose.

Kenton creates such a beautiful, unsettling atmosphere with his shots of fog on the water, thick island vegetation, glimpses of the beast-men through the trees, the sultry but disturbing Burke, Moreau's home, and the dark of night. He tells the story with quick, B-movie economy but also with eerie, poetic imagery and a mastery of tone. Wells hated this adaptation of his work because he thought the horror drowned out the philosophy, but, with all due respect, Wells can piss up a rope. This is one of the great horror movies, full of life and spirit and humor and sensuality and terror and atmosphere.