ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

A dynamic cast and a skilled makeup man are the two strongest assets of this remake of "Island of Lost Souls", based on H. G. Well's novel about an ego-maniacal scientist who lives on a remote tropical island where he labors to turn animals into animal-people.

Burt Lancaster is the crazed doctor. Richard Basehart, in animal-man makeup, is the Sayer of the Law. Michael York is the shipwrecked young man who comes to the island. Barbara Carrera is Maria, a girl that every viewer knows is supposed to be an animal-girl of Moreau's creation. The film ends with just a small hint that she's anything other than a normal woman.

The story is basically the same as the novel and the 1933 classic. But Don Taylor chose a very different kind of look for his film than its classic predecessor, which shrouded itself in darkness and soft focus shots. Director Erle C. Kenton gave the 1933 version of "Island of Lost Souls" the look a fever-inspired nightmare, a place where reality and fantasy both existed, and no one knew where the blurred dividing line was.

Don Taylor's remake takes place in the cold light of day, with everything in sharp focus. The animal-men's features look too symmetrical and well-formed.

These are supposed to be animals whose bodies have been distorted into semi-human shapes, not animals that have evolved in the normal manner. Ultimately "The Island of Dr. Moreau" fails to be frightening simply because it looks so hard edged, clean-cut, and well lit.

Never tell a ghost story in broad daylight.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[MetroPolly]

Despite it's flaws, this is still, IMO, the best version of the story so far.

[Zackuth]

I was able to see this when it was first released at a drive in. It is a very decent and enjoyable movie.

[orzel-w]

As I recall, it was one of the earlier movies to employ the new technology of a CGI-generated life form. There was one brief shot where a leopard-man (I think) bounded across a yard to attack somebody. Memory's too spotty to recall who the intended victim was.
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...or not...

WayneO
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[Bud Brewster]

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As I mentioned on the thread for the original, this version made a valiant effort to stand on the shoulders of greatness and recreate the creepy thrills of Island of Lost Souls.

Unfortunately, it ended up standing in its shadow. But like Pow said on the thread for the original, it certainly wasn't the fault of the fine cast.

Barbara Carrera had just the right combination of beauty and bestial strangeness (a subtle hint of darkness), and Michael York was excellent as always, playing the man who didn't realize that strange things were afoot on that remote island — until it was too late.

Burt Lancaster put his signature intensity into the role of a man driven to madness by the pursuit of knowledge. With Charles Laughton, it was more a matter of pride and ego.

My only complaint with this version was that it did too many things in broad daylight which would have looked better in the dark — as the original film demonstrated.

The makeup was great, but the movie failed to be scary for the same reason people don't sit around campfires and tell ghost stories . . . at five o'clock in the afternoon.

Watch the trailer and you'll see what I mean.


] ____________ The Island of Dr. Moreau - trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Some Island of Dr. Moreau Factoids.

IMDB: During the fight between the bullman and tiger, the tiger actually took the stuntman's head in its jaws. Luckily the man wore a fiberglass helmet which protected him from injury.

IMDB: Dr. Moreau's creations were called "Humanimals."

IMDB: The actors who portrayed the humanimals reported to makeup at 3:00 A.M.

IMDB: This film is the first English-language adaptation of the classic H.G. Wells' novella to have the same name as the title for the book.

IMDB: John Wayne visited the set during filming.

Sidebar: Wayne wanted to have Lancaster co-star with him in a picture. Burt did not want to work with Wayne due to the fact Wayne was an arch-conservative who was part of the group in Hollywood that blacklisted people in the entertainment business due to their communist leanings.

Lancaster was a Democrat who supported the ACLU.

IMDB: The film was released on July 13, 1977 and had a budget of $6,000,000. Another figure for the budget was cited as $7,265,000.

IMDB: Burt Lancaster perfectly matched Wells' description of his Moreau character from the book.

IMDB: In May, 1997, the dimension-hopping SF television show Sliders concluded its third season with an episode based upon The Island of Dr. Moreau titled "This Slide of Paradise." The Moreau character on that episode was named Dr. Vargas and was played by Michael York.

Sidebar: And that's one of the reasons that the once terrific show went downhill. The writers became lazy and began to simply adapt novels and films for Sliders episodes instead of creating original and imaginative scripts for the show.

The American Film Institute: The movie was shot on Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands..

AFI: American International pictures registered the name "Humaninals" as a trademark.

AFI: Fifteen performers made up the half-animal and half-human creatures populating the island. It took a team of 12-makeup men four hours to apply the makeup, and one hour to remove.

AFI: The twenty-six wild animals used in the film were trained at Enchanted Village in Buena Vista, California by Ralph & Toni Helfer.

AFI: Noble Island is the name of the isle in the Wells' novel.

AFI: Barbara Carrera's character of "Maria" did not exist in the 1896 novel.

AFI: Thomas R. Burman was the makeup designer for the movie. Some of his many impressive credits are: Planet of the Apes (1968), The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (1973), The Barbary Coast (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Cat People (1982), The Goonies (1985), Star Kid (1997), The X-Files.

AFI: Legendary makeup man John Chambers (Planet of the Apes) also worked on the film.

Sidebar: Reading some reviews of this movie, some felt that the makeup was not impressive for the humanimals, and that the movie moved too slowly.

Sidebar: I just recently watched it on Youtube. I do not find the film moving slowly at all, it's pace is just fine.

Sidebar: The makeup is fantastic for 1977. I agree with Bud that too much of the movie is filmed in broad daylight, which hurts its suspense and mysteriousness. So not only would the atmosphere been better served by not having so much sunshine, it would have helped establish a creepier feel by not having the makeup so clearly seen.

Sidebar: The cast is wonderful. Burt brings his usual intensity to the role as the fanatical doctor out to change humankind's destiny.

[Bud Brewster]

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What the world needs now (in addition to love, sweet love,
that's what the world needs plenty of), is a remake of The Island of Dr. Moreau which uses CGI to create the creatures — without all those antiquated attempts to glue plastic appliances to actors' and then tell them to pretend to be animals who've been promoted to homo sapien status!

What this story needs is a plethera of creatures who are 100% convincing as animals which have been genetically altered to transform into hideous, quasi-humanoid forms!

Some of this creatures would be slightly distorted versions of their original forms. Others would be bizarre humanoids who still retained shocking aspects of the creatures from which the originated!=.

Since these are CGI creations, none of them would need to wear the ragged clothing which all the previous versions of this story have imposed on the actors playing the creatures in make up.

In this version, those who did wear clothing would be dressed in outfits made especially for them my Moreau's human assistants who tailored the outfits specifically for these bizzare life forms.

But the sight of these nightmarish organisms, dressed in well-fitting clothes — interacting with the humans with varying degrees of success — would make the audience uneasy. They would constantly be wondering what might happen next!

Gentlemen, we've entered the age in which creatures like Harryhausen's brilliant creations can interact seamlessly with the sets and characters. They can present us with scenes in which we can't tell the actors from the fictional characters!

Gone are the days when a dozen actors must report to the make-up department at 3:00 AM to have their elaborate appliances attached to their bodies.

Now we can have a version of The Island of Dr. Moreau which will be swarming with bizarre animals that range in shape and size from their original form to the human shape which the brilliant-but-deranged Dr. Morau is desperately trying to achieve.

As for the inclusion of a seductive quasi-female character who stirs the emotions of the rescued castaway that lands on the island and disrupts Dr. Moreau's well ordered kingdom — why not have the young man forced to deal with a bevy of beautiful, almost-human female creatures who cloud his judgement and excite his sexual desires?

Gentlemen, what I'd really like to see in this story is the young castaway to win the trust of the humanimals and lead then in a revolt against the soulless Dr. Moreau.

After they succeed, the man and the humanimals establish a stable society on the island, one which prospers and grows . . . much better than any other human society on the planet!

The prospects for sequels would be very encouraging!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)