Director: Reginald
Le Borg
Year: 1957
Rating: 4.0
The best part of this anemic B horror film is in the opening credits when through the fog the name Boris Karloff emerges as if from a bad dream. And then as his name dissipates back into the fog, a doll of him appears and then a needle into his head - all to the music of Les Baxter. A hopeful beginning. Kudos to whoever came up with that. Most of the rest of the film doesn't rise to that level. It has some potentially intriguing ideas but takes way too long to get to them. Director Reginald Le Borg ( a bunch of the Joe Palooka films) just dawdles and at the 55th minute of a 77 minute film nothing much had happened other than a lot of cigarette smoking and lesbian and heterosexual come-ons. And Karloff just being Karloff and intoning serious thoughts.
Karloff plays a TV show host who uncovers hoaxes. Now he is probably working on one about Epstein and a lost client list. A wealthy man sent three men to an island he owns to see if it is ok for him to build a resort on it. Two never returned. The third one was found but then not really. He is a . . . zombie! Or so scared shitless that he can only stare ahead, unblinking. Glenn Dixon may do the best acting in the film because he doesn't get stuck with any dialogue. Karloff and five others go to the island. There are two scream queens - Beverly Tyler who is as warm as an adding machine and Jean Engstrom who is clearly on the make for . . . Beverly. And who can blame her. We know that under her beautiful blonde icy exterior is the heart of a woman who just needs a . . . man.
That man comes in the shape of the hard drinking sweaty captain of the boat. With a name like Rhodes Reason, you know he is the hunk she needs. After being rebuffed by Jean "you stay in your world and I will stay in mine", he targets the iceberg. That all takes up much of the film. When they finally get to the island, some cool stuff happens. No, not voodoo natives as one expects but man eating plants. Probably not good for vacationers. Among the six is Elisha Cook who spends most of the film swatting insects. Our only question is who of them will die.
Year: 1957
Rating: 4.0
The best part of this anemic B horror film is in the opening credits when through the fog the name Boris Karloff emerges as if from a bad dream. And then as his name dissipates back into the fog, a doll of him appears and then a needle into his head - all to the music of Les Baxter. A hopeful beginning. Kudos to whoever came up with that. Most of the rest of the film doesn't rise to that level. It has some potentially intriguing ideas but takes way too long to get to them. Director Reginald Le Borg ( a bunch of the Joe Palooka films) just dawdles and at the 55th minute of a 77 minute film nothing much had happened other than a lot of cigarette smoking and lesbian and heterosexual come-ons. And Karloff just being Karloff and intoning serious thoughts.
Karloff plays a TV show host who uncovers hoaxes. Now he is probably working on one about Epstein and a lost client list. A wealthy man sent three men to an island he owns to see if it is ok for him to build a resort on it. Two never returned. The third one was found but then not really. He is a . . . zombie! Or so scared shitless that he can only stare ahead, unblinking. Glenn Dixon may do the best acting in the film because he doesn't get stuck with any dialogue. Karloff and five others go to the island. There are two scream queens - Beverly Tyler who is as warm as an adding machine and Jean Engstrom who is clearly on the make for . . . Beverly. And who can blame her. We know that under her beautiful blonde icy exterior is the heart of a woman who just needs a . . . man.
That man comes in the shape of the hard drinking sweaty captain of the boat. With a name like Rhodes Reason, you know he is the hunk she needs. After being rebuffed by Jean "you stay in your world and I will stay in mine", he targets the iceberg. That all takes up much of the film. When they finally get to the island, some cool stuff happens. No, not voodoo natives as one expects but man eating plants. Probably not good for vacationers. Among the six is Elisha Cook who spends most of the film swatting insects. Our only question is who of them will die.