Isle of the Dead, 1945, RKO Radio Pictures, 71 minutes, black and white. Directed by Mark Robson, Produced by Val Lewton. Starring Boris Karloff as General Nikolas Pherides; Ellen Drew as Thea; Marc Cramer as Oliver Davis; and Katherine Emery as Mrs. St. Aubyn. Schlock-Meter rating: 8 stars out of 10.
The mid 1940s was the beginning of a transition period for thrillers. The great Universal monsters were now B pictures, and soon to be relegated as fodder for comedy teams. The terrors of the nuclear age to come would bring a new type of horror star, Godzilla and various over-sized insects crawling across movie screens. But in between that change came several great horror films from Val Lewton, who knew how to exploit the supernatural and make the spines of World War II movie-goers chill.
In this current era of Coronavirus pandemic, Isle of the Dead seems appropriate to discuss. It is about our worst fears, death, the plague and even being buried alive. Producer Lawton and director Mark Robson are old hands at slowly building a story, creating unease, and then slamming the viewer with a terrifying climax. There is a scene, about two-thirds of the way through, that takes this film from suspense to terror. An invalid woman (Katherine Emery) fears being buried alive. It's a legitimate fear since she suffers from spells where she appears dead. She suffers a spell and is presumed dead and put in a coffin. In a crypt, the camera pans to her coffin. She screams, and desperate clawing is heard inside. It's a scary payoff to a well-made chiller.
The plot involves a dour Greek general (Karloff) and an American reporter (Cramer) who visit an isolated island near the front of a war. They spend the night with an anthropologist and his several guests (all of whom have been forced to the island to avoid the war). A British guest (veteran cult actor Skelton Knaggs) is discovered dead. A doctor decrees it to be the plague. The general orders everyone confined to the house. One by one the plague starts to claim its victims.
As mentioned, the film drips in atmosphere. The first scenes show Karloff and the reporter walking through a battlefield strewn with the bodies of dead soldiers. There's a creepy sight of suffering soldiers hauling away wagons full of the dead for disposal. As Karloff explains, it must be done immediately to avoid the plague. The house on the island has a claustrophobic feel, none of the rooms are too large. The island is dark, foggy and creepy, the crypt dark and forbidding.
Karloff does a very capable job as a villain who can still inspire some sympathy. The heartless, but courtly Greek general who places "rule of law" over mercy is a study of extremism from two sides. When the plague starts, Karloff's general scorns the superstitions of an elderly Greek maid, preferring to put his trust in the doctor. But when the plague claims the doctor, a disillusioned Karloff switches beliefs. Still the extremist, he allies with the maid, and with frightening intensity, believes a young woman named Thea (Ellen Drew) is possessed with an evil spirit. They plot to kill Thea.
Today very few horror films rely on atmosphere to turn suspense into horror. Most try to use foreground shots (like John Carpenter's Halloween) to create tension. Some succeed. Most don't. Too many filmmakers err by throwing away characterization, thinking that a quick knife killing serves as a payoff to a lazy viewer. Val Newton's Isle of the Dead is a reminder that creating a scary film is a gradual process that takes time and care.
In tribute to Brazilian filmmaker Jose Mojica Marins (aka Coffin Joe) who recently passed away on February 19th, 2020. He was born on March 13th, 1936 in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Considered Brazil's first horror feature – At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (1964) is directed by and stars horror icon Jose Mojica Marins (aka Coffin Joe) as Ze do Caixao. The film is part of a trilogy of Coffin Joe films followed by - This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse (1967) and Embodiment of Evil (2008). See also – Awakening of The Beast (1983).
It Midnight I'll Take Your Soul opens with Coffin Joe (Jose Mojica Marins) standing in a dark, smoke filled environment while asking the viewer questions like “What is life? It is the beginning of death. What is death? It is the end of life.”
After attending a burial at the local cemetery, Coffin Joe is hungry for a meal of meat. Because it is a local religious holiday of Holy Friday, he is not allowed to have meat. He leaves to buy lamb for his meal and eats it in front of his home window to taunt the beliefs of a religious procession that passes by.
Coffin Joe is known as Ze do Caixao in the film and is the undertaker of a small Brazilian town who disdains religion and dresses in a dark cape, top hat and carries a cane clutched in fingers of talon like fingernails. His appearance is similar to Dracula and Dr. Jekyll in the Robert Louis Stevenson classic - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In fact, Coffin Joe even pursues beautiful women in the film, much like Dracula, in an attempt to continue his bloodline by finding the perfect female companion, even though he is married to Lenita (Valeria Vasquez).
Lenita is unable to bear children, so Coffin Joe decides to torture and murder her by tying her to a bed while allowing a giant poisonous spider to bite her on the neck. The local police are unable to find any clues connecting Coffin Joe to the murder, so they accept the death as a simple spider bite.
Terezinha (Magda Mei) is a beautiful local woman that Coffin Joe wants to impregnate to have her bear a son to continue his bloodline. She rejects Coffin Joe's advances because she is married to Antonio. To get Antonio out of the way, Coffin Joe murders him by bashing his head into a bath tub and drowning him.
Coffin Joe is not a man to cross paths with or confront in any way. Anyone who crosses him is met with extreme violence. For example, in a scene that takes place in a tavern, Coffin Joe joins a table of card players. One of the players refuses to give his money to Coffin Joe after he wins a poker hand. Coffin Joe becomes violent with the man and breaks a wine bottle, then drives it through the fingers of the card player at the card table. The card player screams in painful agony. Coffin Joe sends for a doctor and agrees to pay all medical expenses. It appears he does have some sympathy for his victims.
In another confrontational scene in the tavern, Coffin Joe removes the crown of thorns from a Jesus sculpture on a table and punches a man in the face with the thorns after the man confronts him for making advances on his niece - Maria. This scene further reinforces Coffin Joe's disdain for religion, symbols and all things sacred that he disagrees with.
The end of the film foreshadows much of the bizarre sequences we can expect to see in the follow up film – This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse (1967). A reflection of the counter-culture atmosphere of the 1960s, Coffin Joe injects the last few minutes of the film with strange, surreal images that make the viewer think perhaps they are watching an experimental Salvador Dali/Luis Bunuel film. These scenes are very psychedelic and hallucinogenic. The black and white treatment of this film gives it a gloomy atmosphere that is every bit as creepy as the classic Universal Studios monster classics of the 1930s and '40s.
May Coffin Joe rest in peace. His unique, bizarre films will live on forever to his many devoted fans all over the world.
