Oct 081977
 
one reel

Andrew Braddock (Michael York) is shipwrecked on an island controlled by scientist Dr. Moreau (Burt Lancaster) and his mercenary, Montgomery (Nigel Davenport).   Braddock is horrified to discover that Moreau is experimenting on animals, attempting to turn them into humans.  His beastmen are controlled by religious devotion to Moreau, and the threat of the House of Pain.  Braddock hopes to escape with the only other human, the mysterious Maria (Barbara Carrera).

While The Island of Dr. Moreau is often taken as another “do not meddle in the affairs of God” story, that interpretation misses the point.  H.G. Wells (the author of the novel for those of you who haven’t read it) was an atheist, and not one to care about any god’s affairs.  He jokingly called the book a little blasphemy of his youth.  He didn’t make Moreau a man who has sinned by trying to act like God; Moreau is God.  Wells was criticizing the church and the notion of our divine creation by making an island Eden, with God creating man on it.  And, much like in our real world, religion has imposed an inappropriate set of rules on the populous.

Of the three official movie versions, and the two or more unofficial ones, the 1977 The Island of Dr. Moreau comes closest to Wells’ intensions.  Moreau isn’t an evil sadist, nor a bizarre blimp.  He’s the absolute master, above judgment by others.  His concern is only in creating man in his image.  Montgomery tells Braddock when he wakes that the island is Eden.  Moreau dies and ascends to heaven, but religion informs the beastmen that he is still watching them (you’ll have to watch the film to make sense of that sentence).  There’s even an Eve.

While thematically the film works, it commits the worst sin of cinema.  It’s dull.  Slow and plodding, it spends more time on showing the local flora than on the plot.  A half hour could be trimmed without harming the story, which is sad in a 99 minute film.

The actors don’t help the pacing.  Both York and Lancaster put a great deal of effort into precise diction (Th-e-y EEE-nun-Ci-ate eeeach wor-d ex-act-ly).  I would have preferred believable characterizations, but that wasn’t their choice.  York also strives for new levels of overacting, and that’s when he’s fully human; he isn’t any more extreme when his animal side is released since he didn’t leave himself any room for wilder acting.  The poor man isn’t helped by a crudely written character.  I should identify with him as he discovers the horrors of the island, but he’s rude, suspicious (before he has a reason to be), and loud.

The creature makeup isn’t bad for ’77, but that doesn’t mean it holds up for close-ups and under bright light.   Too often, the fierce beastmen look like the old hermit who moaned, “It’s” at the start of each Monty Python episode.

To avoid the charge of bestiality (a claim that kept the earlier The Island of Lost Souls banned in England for 30 years), the subject of Maria’s creation is avoided, leaving open the possibility that she’s a human girl that Moreau brought with him.  Of course that plays havoc with the theme and makes her presence on the island inexplicable.

Theme is important for any film, but on its own, it doesn’t make a watchable film.

Other versions include The Island of Lost Souls (1932), Terror is a Man (1959), The Twilight People (1973), and The Island of Dr Moreau (1996).