Island of Lost Souls (1932)

Edward Parker (Richard Arlen) is tossed overboard by a surly and drunken sea captain at the first port-of-call, the Island of Dr. Moreau. The mysterious doctor (Charles Laughton) isn’t happy with his uninvited guest, but soon changes his mind. The island is inhabited by beast-men created by Moreau and his assistant Montgomery (Arthur Hohl) via vivisection. His finest creation is the near-human female Lota (Kathleen Burke), which he hopes to mate with Parker to both bring out her more human side, and to prove the success of his experiments. Parker’s waiting fiancée (Leila Hyams) finds a captain to take her to the island to recover him, but Moreau has no plans to let anyone leave.

The first, and best adaptation of H. G. Wells’s novel, The Island of Doctor Moreau (the others being the drab 1977 Island of Dr. Moreau and the weird and troubled 1996 version) shifts the tone of the tale away from science fiction and toward horror. In doing so, the story is given power and one of the great cinematic “mad” doctors is created.

There’s so much to bite into. You can spend the entire film dwelling on the twisted Garden of Eden myth. What must God really be like and why should his creations obey to him? Or you can examine what it means to be human. Are the beasts human? Is Lota? Morality clearly does not make the man. If they aren’t human, does that makes them lesser beings, or perhaps it is better not to be human? Then there is the sexual angle. Is this a story of bestiality? If so, does that matter? Lota is oozing sex appeal. Do claws make a difference? Does how she was born make one?

Or if that’s too much philosophy, how about sociology. If your society is based upon an absolute set of laws, what happens to the believers in that society when a law is broken? What happens to religious followers when they discover that their god is not omnipotent?

Still too thoughtful? Then skip all of it and wallow in the horror of the House of Pain. There are plenty of thrills and chills.

Arlen and Hyams are adequate as the generic hero & girl types of the time. Hohl gives a more memorable performance while Burke easily trumps him. Of course she’s going to make an impressions—she’s a beautiful, scantily clad woman portraying a character born a panther. Bela Lugosi is also good in a small role as the Speaker of the Law, the leader of the beast-men. But this is Laughton’s film. His Moreau isn’t mad. He’s suave, clever, domineering, and evil. He enjoys his work, and enjoys the worship of his creations. His loathsome scientist, the suggestion of vivisection and the mere contemplation of bestiality had The Island of Lost Souls banned in many places—it took fifty years to get to England uncut. But it is everywhere now, and everyone should see it.