{"id":18476,"date":"2011-07-01T21:38:17","date_gmt":"2011-07-02T04:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=18476"},"modified":"2021-01-26T17:02:09","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T00:02:09","slug":"isle-of-the-dead-1945","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=18476","title":{"rendered":"Isle of the Dead (1945)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;I told you that no one could leave.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Isle-of-the-Dead-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Isle-of-the-Dead-Poster-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-18477\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Isle-of-the-Dead-Poster-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Isle-of-the-Dead-Poster-85x128.jpg 85w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Isle-of-the-Dead-Poster-682x1024.jpg 682w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Isle-of-the-Dead-Poster.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nAccompanied by an American reporter (Mark Cramer), a Greek general (Boris Karloff) during the Balkan Wars orders a group of island residents to remain quarantined in the house of a sickly woman (Katherine Emery) when plague breaks out &#8212; but Emery&#8217;s beautiful young caretaker (Ellen Drew) soon feels her life is at risk when the household&#8217;s superstitious housekeeper (Helen Thimig) convinces Karloff that Drew is a vampiric demon known as a &#8220;vorvolaka&#8221;.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Boris Karloff Films<\/li>\n<li>Horror<\/li>\n<li>Mark Robson Films<\/li>\n<li>Plague<\/li>\n<li>Ruthless Leaders<\/li>\n<li>Val Lewton Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary is more a fan of this &#8220;intelligent, atmospheric horror film&#8221; (produced by Val Lewton and directed by Mark Robson) than I am. He argues that while the &#8220;picture suffers because of [the] uninteresting coupling of Drew and Cramer&#8221; (which is true), the performances by &#8220;Karloff and Emery are outstanding&#8221;, the &#8220;set design is imaginative (for a low-budget film), the camera work properly excites, and the horror is intense&#8221;. I&#8217;m not quite in agreement. Emery (who only made 12 films, a few of which are listed in Peary&#8217;s book) is fine if underused in what turns out to be a pivotal role, but I actually don&#8217;t find Karloff all that convincing as the boot-quaking general, and many of the other supporting performances are surprisingly stiff. Meanwhile, the film as a whole simply fails to either engage or adequately frighten (at least until the final spooky fifteen minutes, which are worth a look). Ultimately, while all the necessarily ingredients for a rich and provocative Lewton-ian experience are here, they unfortunately never quite gel. <\/p>\n<p>Peary spends the bulk of his review analyzing the film and its characters in light of Lewton&#8217;s limited but impressive oeuvre (nearly all of which are &#8220;must see&#8221; movies). He points out that &#8220;in Lewton films, when a character&#8221; (such as Karloff&#8217;s general) &#8220;loses his mind he reverts to old, superstitious ways&#8221;, and notes that the screenplay allows Lewton to &#8220;exploit his concept of man controlled by fate&#8221;. He makes an apt analogy between Drew&#8217;s character (Thea) and Simone Simon&#8217;s Irena in Lewton&#8217;s <em>Cat People<\/em>, noting that Thea, like Irena, is &#8220;not sure she doesn&#8217;t harbor evil within her&#8221; &#8212; but while Irena is immediately presented as a sympathetic character whose fate we genuinely care about, Thea (a gypsy) simply functions here as a conveniently &#8220;Othered&#8221; scapegoat (and a requisite romantic lead). Ultimately, you&#8217;re better off spending your time rewatching one of Lewton&#8217;s many other classic psychological horror flicks &#8212; though film fanatics will be probably be curious to check this one out at least once. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Atmospheric cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Isle-of-the-Dead-Cinematography3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Isle-of-the-Dead-Cinematography3-1024x599.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"374\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-18485\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Isle-of-the-Dead-Cinematography3-1024x599.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Isle-of-the-Dead-Cinematography3-128x74.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Isle-of-the-Dead-Cinematography3-300x175.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Isle-of-the-Dead-Cinematography3.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>The creepy &#8220;premature burial&#8221; scene<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Isle-of-the-Dead-Premature-Burial.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Isle-of-the-Dead-Premature-Burial-1024x599.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"374\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-18481\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Isle-of-the-Dead-Premature-Burial-1024x599.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Isle-of-the-Dead-Premature-Burial-128x74.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Isle-of-the-Dead-Premature-Burial-300x175.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Isle-of-the-Dead-Premature-Burial.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo; this one isn&#8217;t a must-see Lewton film. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0037820\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thespinningimage.co.uk\/cultfilms\/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=367&#038;aff=13\">Spinning Image Review (spoiler alert)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/moria.co.nz\/horror\/isle-of-the-dead-1945.htm\">Moria Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s1765val.html\">DVD Savant Review (scroll down)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/isle-of-the-dead\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I told you that no one could leave.&#8221; Synopsis: Accompanied by an American reporter (Mark Cramer), a Greek general (Boris Karloff) during the Balkan Wars orders a group of island residents to remain quarantined in the house of a sickly woman (Katherine Emery) when plague breaks out &#8212; but Emery&#8217;s beautiful young caretaker (Ellen Drew) soon feels her life is at risk when the household&#8217;s superstitious housekeeper (Helen Thimig) convinces Karloff that Drew is a vampiric demon known as a&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=18476\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18476"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66191,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18476\/revisions\/66191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}