Isle Of The Dead

AKA:	Isla De La Muerte, La / Todesinsel, Die / Vampiro Dell'Isola, Il

Release date:

1945 USA

Running time:

69' (cover 69') - Source: VHS PAL b/w

Rating:

UK: 15; US: NR

Main Crew:

Director: Mark Robson (Earthquake 1974; Daddy's Gone A-Hunting 1969; Valley Of
The Dolls 1967; Lost Command 1966; The Harder They Fall 1956)
Producer: RKO Radio Pictures
Score: Leigh Harline
Writer: Ardel Wray / Josef Mischel
Director of photography: Jack MacKenzie

Cast:

Summary:

Boris Karloff plays a Greek General who travels to a tiny Balkan island in 1912 to visit his wife's tomb. He is alarmed to find his wife's body missing and sets out to investigate. He learns that a group of unscrupulous natives have been robbing graves but superstitious locals blame the events on vampires.
A deadly plague takes grip of the island and one by one the general and his companions fall victim to the mysteriuos illness...

Note:

- Producer Val Lewton based his ideas for this film on a Swiss painting he had seen as a boy in Russia, Arnold Böcklin's Island Of The Dead (1880), which is shown behind the opening credits of the film and is recreated in the sets.
- With only two weeks left in filming, Karloff was rushed to the hospital for an emergency spinal operation. On his release from hospital, he found Lewton was all prepared to film "The Body Snatcher" (1945), before finally finishing "Isle Of The Dead".
- The film marked the first of three collaborations between RKO producer Val Lewton and British genre star Boris Karloff (The Body Snatcher (1945), Bedlam (1946)).

Our Ranking

short review:

Very haunting thriller, although not much happens during most of the film. However, the superstition and spreading plague, which is blamed on vampires has it's origin rather in the werewolf-myth than on vampires and undead. There is nothing very vampiristic about this movie except the belief in "vorvolaka" (Greek), which is an evil wolf spirit in human form, who drains mortals of their strength, causing them to die.