Isle of the Dead

Voices of: Boris Karloff, Ellen Drew, Marc Cramer, Katherine Emery, Helene Thimig, Alan Napier, Jason Robards Sr., Ernest Deutsch
Directed by: Mark Robson
Rating: Not rated
Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller
1945

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A group of people are stuck in quarantine on a small Greek island during the Balkans War. They suffer under the pressure of isolation and fear of dying of the plague.

Review:

Tim: Isle of the Dead is kind of a weird movie. I'm not entirely sure how else to describe it. Perhaps you shouldn't base films off paintings? This is always a decent film, but still feels like a bit of an oddity to me. You have this small Greek island during the Balkan War. There's a Greek general, an American reporter, and then a small collection of other people already assembled. One person there dies of the plague, and the General insists they all remain quarantined on the island, so as not to infect the army. Along the way, more of them die, they debate science vs religion, and one of the characters is accused of being a vorvolaka, which is an undead creature in Greek folklore, who does great harm to others. There's also a cataleptic who fears being buried alive (but only tells one person about this). You read through all that, and it makes your head spin a bit. I suppose the film does get credit for such an odd combination of different elements. This is a unique film, if one that always feels a bit disjointed.

I found it interesting to see Boris Karloff in a fairly restrained, stripped-down role. I usually see him with significantly more makeup. The odd thing is that he's easily the most menacing part of this film, even just playing a "normal" guy. There is something so intimidating, so potentially sinister in him. His performance here is chilling at times. Karloff deserves great credit for making us feel that way with his fairly normal performance (he might be insane, of course). Karloff is the biggest attraction here, giving the most memorable performance. Ellen Drew is excellent as well. She brought great vulnerability to her role as a Greek helper. Her youthfulness, her potential is on full display in a performance where her character suffers considerably. I've seen a lot of older movies, and oftentimes, actresses in the 1940s felt disposable, interchangeable to me. For Drew to differentiate herself and stand out in this film, well, that's a worthwhile accomplishment. I don't know if I've seen her in a film before- she certainly never registered before this. I was quite impressed by her work, here, though.

Contrast this with Marc Cramer, who gives the kind of average American, protagonist-type role that is so bland and forgettable in films from this era. He's fine in the role, but his character makes stupid decisions throughout the film and his performance feels bland. He might not be bad, but he's hopelessly forgettable in this performance. Katherine Emery has some nice moments, and Alan Napier is solid, too. As a whole, I'd probably give the cast a "B". It's not great, but it's not bad, either.

Mark Robson directs a film that wisely doesn't overstay its welcome. The film clocks in at 1 hour, 11 minutes. That's a big draw, as any longer and I think it would have hurt the movie. I found the story odd, unexpected, but somewhat interesting. The characters were average. There's a few nice moments throughout the film- this isn't a scary horror film, but there's a few creepy sequences here and there. The vorvolaka part felt odd and I never took it seriously- it felt like the movie wanted us to know that it was superstition and not that the movie was going to spin into the supernatural (or did it?). As a whole, Isle of the Dead was a decent diversio, fun to see Karloff in a different role, but ultimately, a film I will likely struggle to remember in a year.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



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