Charles Laughton makes this film. His facial expressions. The small darting movements he makes with his eyes. Moreau is the prototypical mad scientist, and he seems quite calm and sane. The only way we see his insanity, other than his creations, is through Laughton's acting.
Compare that to Bela Lugosi as the Law Giver. All he has to work with is his voice, and it's a great voice, but even when the camera closes in on his face, the mask he's wearing is so complete that it could be anyone underneath. In fact, although I like the close-up of the "things," and one point in the film, we go from a Lugosi closeup to an unknown actor closeup. Other than name value, it makes very little difference if Lugosi is in this film. It makes all the difference that Laughton is in the film.
The plot is so simple, which makes me wonder how The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) messed it up so badly. Not that Island of Lost Souls is perfect, but it has atmosphere. It knows how to work with shadows and darkness. We get the pans and the closeups of the "things," but for the most part, they remain in the background. We don't need to be overexposed to them. We need to let our imagination work, and the film allows for that.
Why is Edward (Richard Arlen) so quickly attracted to the Panter Woman (Kathleen Burke)? Moreau is right. Over time, if Edward is stuck there, sure, time and monotony would make her attractive to him. But on the first meeting? When he already has a girlfriend waiting for him? But let's chalk that up to movie convention -- always having to speed up the timeline to make something work in the plot.
Speaking of Lota, however, how is it that she is the one and only female that Moreau created? Sure, that makes her stand out, but did Moreau really think that females were more complicated to create, and so he wanted to work out the kinks in males first? If he's scientifically curious to see how Lota will respond to males, he had a whole island of them to mate with her. We see one of them immediately want to mate with Ruth (Leila Hyams), but did none of the "things" have any drive or urge to seek out Lota? Were they too scared to try because of the Law or the House of Pain? Were they really not willing to risk it, and again, as a scientist, why wasn't Moreau the one to promote mating in the first place?
Perhaps that's a line that even Moreau wasn't willing to cross? At least that seems to be the explanation, as Moreau's assistant immediately quits after Ruth is attacked. I guess everyone has a line that they won't cross.
The ending felt really abrupt. I mean, in a sense, it ended exactly as it should, but they didn't give the ending 5 seconds to breathe. In terms of its place in Classic Horror Films, I have to put it right up there with Frankenstein (1931) and Dracula (1931).
Rating: 4/5 stars
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