Island of Lost Souls (1932 film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Paramount Pictures saw Island of Lost Souls as a way to take advantage of the horror film boom in the early-1930s. In its publicity material the studio played up the possibility of "creative biology" as a promotional device with a publicity feature titled "Science Tries to Create Life!" The filmmakers invited evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley on to their set to get his approval of the scientific accuracy of their film."--Sholem Stein |
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Island of Lost Souls is a 1932 American pre-Code science fiction horror film -- the first non-silent film adaptation of the H. G. Wells 1896 novel The Island of Dr. Moreau. The film was produced by Paramount Pictures, directed by Erle C. Kenton, from a script co-written by science fiction author Philip Wylie. The principal actors were Charles Laughton, Richard Arlen, Leila Hyams, Bela Lugosi, and Kathleen Burke. The action centers on a remote South Pacific island where mad scientist, Dr. Moreau, secretly conducts experiments to accelerate evolution in plants and animals, with horrific consequences. Teeming with images of cruelty, animal-human hybrids, and threatening irreligious ideas, its release was embroiled in controversy. Banned in some countries for decades, it is now recognized as a sci-fi classic and has acquired cult film status.
Plot
Shipwrecked traveler Edward Parker (Richard Arlen) is rescued by a freighter delivering animals to an isolated South Seas island owned by Dr. Moreau (Charles Laughton). After Parker fights with the freighter's drunken captain (Stanley Fields) for his mistreating M'ling (Tetsu Komai), an odd-looking passenger with some bestial features, the captain tosses Parker overboard into Mr. Montgomery's (Arthur Hohl) boat, bound for Moreau's island .
When Parker arrives at the island, Moreau welcomes Parker to his home and introduces him to Lota (Kathleen Burke), an attractive, but somewhat odd, scantily-clad young woman who seems fearful and withdrawn. When the two hear screams coming from a locked room, which Lota calls "the House of Pain," Parker investigates. He sees Moreau and assistant, Montgomery, operating on a man-like creature without anesthetic. Convinced that Moreau is engaged in sadistic vivisection, Parker tries to leave, only to encounter brutish-looking humanoids resembling apes, felines, swine, and other beasts emerging from the jungle. Moreau appears, cracks his whip, and orders the one known as the Sayer of the Law (Bela Lugosi), a hairy wolf-like man, to recite the rules against violence (The Law). Afterward, the strange "men" disperse.
Back in the main house, the doctor tries to assuage Parker by explaining his scientific work -- that he started experimenting in London many years before, accelerating the evolution of plants. He then progressed to animals, trying to transform them into humans through "plastic surgery, blood transfusions, gland extracts, and ray baths". When a dog-hybrid escaped from his laboratory it so horrified people that he was forced to leave England.
He confides to Parker that Lota is the sole female on the island, but hides that she was derived from a panther. Later he privately expresses his excitement to Montgomery that Lota is showing real human emotions in her attraction to Parker. So he can keep observing this process, Moreau ensures that Parker cannot leave by destroying the only available boat, placing blame for this on his beast-men.
As Parker spends time with Lota, she falls in love with him. Eventually the two kiss, but Parker is then stricken with guilt, since he still loves his fiancée, Ruth Thomas (Leila Hyams). As Lota hugs him, Parker feels pain then examines her fingernails, which are reverting to animal-like claws. In a fit of rage, he storms into the office of Dr. Moreau to confront him over his criminal behavior in creating Lota. Dr. Moreau calmly explains that Lota is his most perfect creation, and he wanted to see if she was capable of falling in love with a man and bearing human-like children. Parker violently knocks Moreau to the ground, and demands to leave the island. When Moreau realizes Lota is beginning to revert to her panther origin, he first despairs, believing that he has failed – until he notices Lota weeping, showing human emotion. His hopes are raised and he screams that he will "burn out" the remaining animal in her in the House of Pain.
Meanwhile, the American consul (George Irving) at Apia in Samoa, Parker's original destination, learns about Parker's location from the cowed freighter captain. Fiancée Ruth Thomas persuades Captain Donahue (Paul Hurst) to take her to Moreau's island. She is reunited with Parker, but Moreau persuades them that it is too dangerous in the dark to return to Donahue's ship through the beast-inhabited jungle. They reluctantly agree to stay the night. The apelike Ouran, one of Moreau's creations, tries to break into Ruth's room. (It is implied that this may have been arranged by Moreau, curious if his beast-men can successfully mate with humans.) Fortunately, she wakes up and screams for help, and Ouran is driven off. Donahue then offers to try to reach the ship and fetch his crew. Moreau, seeing him depart, dispatches Ouran to strangle him.
This has an unforeseen effect, however. The beast-men no longer feel bound by Moreau's Laws, as he has himself broken one of them. Reverting to their animalistic nature, they set their huts ablaze and defy Moreau, who tries to regain control, but to no avail. In desperation, he demands of them, "What is the Law?" Their response is, "Law no more!" The beast-men drag the doctor into his House of Pain, where they bind him, screaming, to the operating table and dismember him with his own surgical knives.
With help from the disaffected Montgomery, Parker and Ruth make their escape. Parker insists they take Lota along. When Lota sees Ouran following, she waits in ambush. In the ensuing struggle, both are killed. The others escape by boat as the island goes up in flames, presumably destroying Moreau's work and eradicating the beast-men.
Cast
- Charles Laughton as Dr. Moreau
- Richard Arlen as Edward Parker
- Leila Hyams as Ruth Thomas
- Bela Lugosi (billed as Bela "Dracula" Lugosi in the trailer) as Sayer of the Law
- Kathleen Burke as Lota, the Panther Woman
- Arthur Hohl as Mr. Montgomery
- Stanley Fields as Captain Davies
- Paul Hurst as Captain Donahue
- Hans Steinke as Ouran
- Tetsu Komai as M'ling, Moreau's loyal house servant
- George Irving as The Consul
