The 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen (15 page)

One of the most compelling horror films ever made, 1933's
Island of Lost Souls
features memorable performances, a perfect villain, and great makeup effects, and was the inspiration for a classic new wave song in the 1970s.

Paramount Studios brought this project together in 1932, under the direction of a former Mack Sennett comedian named Erle C. Kenton. Born in Montana in 1896, Kenton first made his mark in films appearing in pre-Hayes Code fare such as
A Bath House Blunder
,
The Surf Girl
, and
His Speedy Finish
. Throughout his career he was a jack-of-all-trades, performing, writing, and directing in everything from two-reel comedies to feature films, most notably Abbott and Costello's
Pardon My Sarong
and
Who Done It?
.
Island of Lost Souls
was his first and best attempt at horror, although he later revisited the genre with
House of Dracula
and
House of Frankenstein
.

With a few small additions, the screenplay is a faithful adaptation of the H.G. Wells' novel
The Island of Dr. Moreau
, a book deemed so horrifying that it was banned in some countries, including parts of the United States. Charles Laughton plays Dr. Moreau, described in the book as “a benign-looking doctor who lives and works on his own private South Seas Island.” The doctor's creepy world and strange experiments are discovered by Edward Parker (Richard Arlen), a traveler lost at sea who is picked up by a ship heading for the uncharted island.

At first Moreau is an accommodating host and offers Parker a shuttle back to the mainland the next day. The doctor even offers up some “feminine” companionship for his visitor in the form of Lota (Kathleen Burke), a panther-woman. You see, Moreau is playing God on his island, creating a race of half-human, half-animal creatures. Parker's arrival allows the evil doctor to fulfill his plan — to couple Parker and Lota and produce the world's first human/animal child. The matchmaking falls flat when Parker notices that Lota has claws rather than fingers. Spurned, Lota cries on Moreau's shoulder. Far from being sympathetic, Moreau takes delight in her pain, impressed that his experiment has such emotional depth.

Later, Parker investigates the island and discovers the building where Moreau performs his cruel work, The House of Pain, and a band of rebels (look for Buster Crabbe, Alan Ladd, and Randolph Scott under heavy makeup) led by Bela Lugosi, in a brief but memorable performance. The film's final moments are chilling.

There are several elements that put this film on par with the horror films Universal was producing around the same time. The Universal movies —
Frankenstein
,
The Mummy
, and later,
The Wolf Man
— have become classics of atmospheric horror and favorite Halloween rentals at the video store.
Island of Lost Souls
deserves to be placed alongside these films for several reasons.

First, the performances. Charles Laughton, fresh from shooting
The Old Dark Horse
, delivers the perfect villain in Dr. Moreau. Elegant and evil, Laughton shows us a man with a God complex who is ultimately destroyed by his self-loathing. Laughton says he based his portrayal on an oculist, and “has not been able to visit the zoo since.”

The role of Lota the Panther Lady is the emotional core of the film; like the Frankenstein creature, she is a character that inspires pity rather than fear. Lota's character does not appear in Wells' book. Screenwriters Waldemar Young (
The Unholy Three
) and Philip Wylie (
When Worlds Collide
) added her to pump up the sex appeal of the film and add a dash of romance. Kathleen Burke won the role after Paramount staged a publicity-grabbing, nationwide “Panther Woman of America” contest. Burke acquits herself well, and parlayed this performance into a career that included 21 movies over the next five years.

Bela Lugosi (covered only with a wig and beard) provides the real horror and the film's scariest scene. He plays The Sayer of the Law and in the film's most famous sequence lays down the “manimal” law — Not to run on all fours, not to eat meat, not to spill blood — followed by the question, “Are we not men?” It is a chilling scene, wonderfully shot by Karl Struss.

The scene made a big impression on musician Mark Mothersbaugh. Four decades after its release,
Island of Lost Souls
became the source for the line “Are we not men?” made famous by Devo in 1978's “Jocko Homo.” “Fucking amazing movie,” said Mothersbaugh.

The idea for the song had occurred to Mothersbaugh several years before, after watching the late, late show on television. “I had a little handheld tape recorder that I would use to tape off my little black-and-white 11-inch TV,” he said. “We didn't have video recorders in 1972, so in my apartment, I would tape the soundtracks to movies I liked.
Island of Lost Souls
was one that just kind of hit at the right time.”

The climax of the movie has a beautifully rendered scene as the sub-humans run through the jungle, casting eerie shadows on the House of Pain. “They don't want to go to the House of Pain,” continued Mothers-baugh, “which is [Laughton's] laboratory where he is doing these experiments that are not working out quite they way he was hoping they would. When the shadows went by, I just remember going ‘Holy shit,' because it reminded me of the factories in downtown Akron, just a couple of blocks from where I lived. The old factories that were built during the Industrial Revolution. I just remember thinking, ‘I know these people.' I watched all the shadows go by. ‘I live here. I live on the
Island of Lost Souls
. I work at the House of Pain.' That was obviously the chorus and the rallying theme behind the song.” “Jocko Homo” was never released as a single, but nevertheless remains one of Devo's best-known tunes.

Island of Lost Souls
is a classic example of 1930s' horror, and despite its showy performances and lack of a background musical score, for sheer thrills it far surpasses the two subsequent attempts at remaking the story.