The Island Monster (1954)

Truly Dreadful Film

A Disappointing Continuation

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Italian stinker with a misleading title that tries to make you think it's a horror movie when it's not. The plot's about the kidnapping of a government agent's daughter. Of note only for the appearance of Boris Karloff. Unfortunately he is dubbed by someone else so we don't even get to enjoy that distinctive voice of his. Not that it would have mattered much. Despite the dubbing, using mostly actors with monotone deliveries, the biggest problem is the movie is just unbearably dull. Worth watching for a few laughs at the awful dubbing for the little girl, I guess. Otherwise avoid unless you are a Karloff completist.

This forgettable Italian potboiler is titled rather misleadingly to make us believe that this could be a horror film. The presence of the star-billed horror icon Boris Karloff only further cements this notion. But the sad reality is that this is a very plodding crime film as opposed to cheesetastic horror schlock. Set on an island just off the Italian mainland, it follows a policeman who is dispatched there to root out a gang of drug peddlers who operate in the vicinity. Once he arrives there a young child is kidnapped by the gangsters adding a further dimension to the criminality at play.Starting with the positives, this one does have an attractive location and it is interesting to see an early example of Italian genre cinema. So it does have some distinctive elements which set it apart from a lot of other similar types of movies from the period. However, it does have to be said that this one is resolutely lacking in excitement at all levels. This really shouldn't be so, given the set-up but to say that the potential in the material is never maximised is unfortunately no understatement. While it is nice to see Karloff, in truth he doesn't really add a lot to this one either. The most interesting character was the dog to be perfectly honest. In summary, this one is pretty much a misfire and mainly only has historical interest I would say.

Three things do bring The Island Monster up a few notches, the title sequence music, the very well-trained dog and the picturesque locations. And The Island Monster while one of Boris Karloff's worst films is at least better than the Mexican films he made towards the end of his career, then again pretty much anything is better than those. But sadly even Karloff can't save it, he does try to bring some menace and dignity to his role but the film pretty much wastes him, he's not very well used and he doesn't even use his own distinctive voice. The rest of the acting is not much better, there is a lack of involvement and it is an acting style that belongs to another type of film really. The dubbing is atrocious, just as bad as the dubbing for films riffed on MST3K, it is true that the kidnapped girl sounds much older than she is and it's jarring. The photography is not particularly fluid and never does anything interesting. While the titles sequence music is great, the music is far too sparsely used and ponderous to make an impression generally. The dialogue is terrible throughout, made even less believable by how it's delivered, while the horror elements are very diluted(to the extent actually that there's hardly any), making the story incredibly plodding and non-eventful most of the time. Nothing suspenseful or exciting to be seen here. The characters are underwritten, poorly explored and unimaginative. So overall, a mostly dire film, there are a few redeeming elements but it is one rare occurrence where Karloff is not one of them but through no fault of his own. 3/10 Bethany Cox

I'm sure there were cheap crime movies made by the dozens in Italy, the only reason this one got dubbed-by an impersonator, is Karloff's role in it. True this is not a horror film though the title is mentioned in the film. The title sequence looks like something from a 1930's B movie serial, though these are the English language titles so can't blame the Italians for that part of it.Boris appears early on then vanishes for quite a while. It's this non Boris section that makes the least sense as it takes forever for them to actually kidnap the child which is then the focus of the rest of the plot. A good amount of real locations help the film rise above rock bottom production values. The post sound job is really awful with missing sounds and music cutting in and out.There are a few flashes of style but when Karloff is around it's rather shocking, given the overall poor quality, to see him running around, clubbing a guy in the head, shooting guns and carrying a kid up and down hills, rowing a boat in the open sea, and seemingly quite spry. The impersonator at least tries to sound like Boris which is better than the Italian versions of the otherwise--to say the least--much superior Italian versions of Karloff's Bava-directed films. And unlike several Christopher Lee American dubs of Spanish and Italian and German films where the dubber doesn't sound at all like Lee or ever try to which is totally distracting. So though the dubbing is terrible here at least it sort of sounds like Boris and lets his performance be a little less distracting.So once the kidnapping plot starts and Boris appears regularly the film gets better and though it doesn't exactly build in excitement it at least ends better than it started. So leaves a better taste in your mouth.A dog has a significant role which is fun, though odd. Better, or at least professional, post sound work and a more active music score would have helped. Probably the only reason most will see this is for Karloff and though this shows a gutter period before his 1960's work, he's at least got a part to play and a very active role when he's on screen unlike the total rip off scant appearances in those terrible Mexican films.Reasons to see it? Boris non horror completest and The Dog. The dog's dubbing is the best in the film. Oh, PD version I saw was watchable, not good but OK for what it is. Overall the whole movie and presentation is a few significant--if small-- notches above bottom of the barrel.