Sat 27 Sep 2014
Movie Review: HORROR ISLAND (1941).
Posted by Steve under Films: Comedy/Musicals , Mystery movies , Reviews[5] Comments
HORROR ISLAND. Universal Pictures, 1941. Dick Foran, Leo Carrillo, Peggy Moran, Fuzzy Knight, John Eldredge, Lewis Howard, Hobart Cavanaugh, Walter Catlett, Ralf Harolde, Iris Adrian. Director: George Waggner.
Sometimes you’re expecting one thing and you get something else. Not all the time, not most of the time. It’s actually rather seldom, and sometimes it doesn’t turn out well at all. But when it does — and I imagine you’ve guessed by now that this is one of those times — it’s makes you feel great just to be able to stand up and tell other people about it.
Or maybe just a little foolish.
Horror Island may not be to all tastes. You have to be fond of creaky but often still entertaining tales of old dark houses or mansions, isolated for one reason or another from the rest of the world — snowbound, stormbound (lots of thunder and lightning), or the like — filled with strangers, mostly, with some kind of evil or sinister presence among them, or controlling them in weird or evil ways for some nefarious purpose unknown.
And — of course! — lots of hidden panels and secret passageways, suits of armor perhaps with eyes peering out from within, painting with peepholes and in active use. You know what I mean. It’s all kind of silly and fun, except when the dead bodies start to pile up, at which point your sense of make believe has to kick in. The actors are not taking this all very seriously, so why should you?
What makes Horror Island a little different is that it takes place on (guess what) an island, where two enterprising entrepreneurs (Dick Foran and Fuzzy Knight) have created a tourist trap mystery-adventure cruise, complete with a castle-like mansion and all the trimmings (see above). And naturally a treasure map that helps attract a small boatful of various individuals of both genders and with all kinds of motives (not all of them good).
Even though this came in a boxset of DVDs entitled Universal Horror: Classic Movie Archive (along with such non-ringers as The Black Cat, Man Made Monster, Night Monster and Captive Wild Woman), you will noticed that I have classified this as a comedy as well as a mystery. And so it is, and if you’re in the same mindset as I am, it’s a gem.
September 27th, 2014 at 5:36 pm
Anyway, this is fun and like most Universal films of the era it looks good despite a low budget. Dick Foran and Dick Purcell seemed to be the go to guys for the hero at this point and there were quite a few of these ‘horror’ films that were actually comedy mystery in the CAT AND THE CANARY tradition.
But no Lionel Atwill, George Zucco, or Henry Daniell, was that allowed? I thought there was a law or something. At the very least Turhan Bey or John Carradine should be in it. How are we supposed to know who the bad guy is? Leo Carrillo is no help.
September 27th, 2014 at 10:30 pm
This sounds like a fun movie. Secret passages are great.
There are some brief “starter” notes on Waggner at my web site. These look at a few TV episodes he did:
http://mikegrost.com/waggner.htm
September 28th, 2014 at 6:54 am
HORROR ISLAND is a classic! (Granted, a low level kind of classic, but still….) It’s a lot of fun.
September 28th, 2014 at 11:38 am
This may be a worthwhile movie, but I gotta say, when I used to stay up to watch Chiller Theater I was angry and bitter if there wasn’t a good monster in evidence somewhere.
No wonder my generation grew up mistrustful of Authority.
September 29th, 2014 at 1:01 am
George Waggner knew how to make an entertaining film, that’s for sure