Not as well known as the Universal horror films of the early 1930s this is nonetheless an excellent, scary tale, with some strong acting and creepy atmosphere.
Richard Arlen, a good looking competent actor who never had a big career, plays the shipwreck survivor who winds up on the island of Dr Moreau, expertly played by Charles Laughton, fresh off the boat. Laughton wants to put Arlen up for stud basically – he wants him to mate with the panther woman. Its touches like this that make this pre-Code film especially good (and twisted): the island of half men-half beasts, the house of pain, Laughton brandishing his whip, the animals turning on Laughton and operating him on the table at the end. Ouch!
There’s an early example of screen feminism, in a way: Arlen’s fiancée is no retiring violet but an active woman who tracks Arlen down to the island and comes to his rescue (also Arlen is treated as much as a sex object as the Panther Woman). Bela Lugosi (who could easily have played Moreau but to be honest probably wouldn’t have been as good as Laughton) is very effective in a small but important role as the leader of the animals (he leads the uprising at the end) and the director throws the camera around a bit in a way that puts shame to Todd Browning in Dracula.
NB one for Aussies – Moreau says he learned how to crack a whip growing up in Australia!
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