All evidence suggests that Mark Robson was producer Val Lewton’s
“go to†director.Or, at the very least,
for his celebrated series of psychological horror and mystery films released by
RKO Radio Pictures 1943-1946.Of the six
thrillers produced, Robson would helm no fewer than four (The Seventh Victim (1943), Ghost
Ship (1943), Isle of the Dead
(1945) and Bedlam (1946).The latter two are perhaps the best
remembered of the four as both would feature free-agent boogeyman Boris Karloff
in a starring role.Though the first of
the Lewton horrors, The Cat People
(1942, directed by Jacques Tourneur) is likely the best celebrated of the six
films overall, I’ve always held a special fondness for Isle of the Dead.Now, revisiting
the film with this stunning Blu ray transfer, I’m as impressed as ever with Robson’s
claustrophobic direction, the thoughtful scripting of Ardel Wray and Josef
Mischel and the film’s gloomy atmospherics.
The grim tone is in evidence from the film’s first scene.The setting is the first Balkan War of
1912-1913.In a tented military station,
the stoic and emotionless General Nikolas Pherides (Boris Karloff) coldly and wordlessly
motions to “Vitus,†a non-victorious-in-battle army officer to take his own
life.Judging only by Pherides’ coldly
flat and dissociative emotional countenance, this suggested honorable suicide
is the only dignified manner in which Vitus can repent for the troop losses
suffered under his command.Karloff’s
uncompromising and single-minded General Pherides has earned the appellation of
“The Watchdog.â€We can well understand
why since few who come in contact with him will escape his suspicious gaze.
Karloff chooses to take a brief sabbatical from the
frontline.He’s not looking to enjoy a
brief respite far from the battlefield.He wants to visit the grave of his wife who is buried on a gloomy remote
island not far where the frontline of the war rages.Pherides’ is understandably angered when he
discovers his wife’s body is missing from her crypt.When a siren voice is heard singing somewhere
off in the gloom, Pherides is certain that the sonorous voice heard is that of
the “Despoiler of Graves.â€A war
correspondent from the Boston Star
newspaper, Oliver Davis (Marc Cramer), has tagged along on this trip to the
island.He isn’t as certain that the
woman heard singing was a grave robber.But he’s well aware that General Pherides is uncompromising in judgment once
his stubborn belief system is fixed.
The two men soon discover the gloomy island is not
uninhabited as they were led to believe.The cottage on the isle is currently being occupied by an archeologist and
several guests.The General obviously
had not visited his wife’s grave site for some time. He learns from archeologist
Albrecht (Jason Robards Sr.) that the graves had been rummaged through almost
fifteen years prior, the unfortunate result of peasants searching for valuable
artifacts and antiquities.The cottage
is presently filled with living and breathing guests as Pherides arrives, but
this is a situation that will soon change.Several begin to drop off almost immediately, and the most reasonable
explanation for the deaths is that a deadly virus is blowing in from the
mainland.Pherides initially seems to
agree an infectious virus is the culprit as he recalls the 6th
Division of his army was recently brought down by some sort of plague.“The horseman on the pale horse is
pestilence,†he gravely intones, in the chilling manner that Karloff always excels.
Isle
of the Dead is a psychological-horror film of the first
order.Karloff’s Pherides may appear, at
first, as a man of confident action and an unflinching patriot on a mission.But whether it was the savagery of war or the
insidious inhalation of the virus – of perhaps due to the desecration of his
wife’s tomb – Pherides’ mental state crumbles as the film spools on.As we have witnessed in the film’s opening scene,
the General is hardly a man of mercy.The cold manner in which he would goad the “honorable†suicide of one of
his own officers is without emotion.He
is hardly less empathetic in his treatment of fellow countrymen.He informs that he once destroyed a village
and all of its inhabitants due to their refusal to pay taxes.“He who is against the Greeks,†is not
Greek,†he icily seethes.
As the cottage’s guests and residents begin to fall ill –
and pass away – from the mysterious illness that’s sweeping through the island,
the increasingly mentally anguished General begins to believe the paranoid
nattering of a superstitious housekeeper, Madame Kyra (Helene Thimig).Earlier described in the film as a mere “odd,
but harmless†woman, the dour and suspicious Kyra doesn’t believe in such
things as science or infectious viruses.She believes the evil that has suddenly befallen on the island is actually
the result of a vorvolaka.The vorvolaka is essentially, a creature of
Greek folklore akin to the vampire legends of neighboring Slavic
countries.
Kyra is certain that young Thea (Ellen Drew), the “sirenâ€
in the graveyard and the beautiful nursemaid of the unfortunately catatonia-prone
Mrs. Mary St. Aubyn (Katherine Emery), is actually a life-draining vorvolaka who should be eliminated.Mrs. Aubyn’s husband (Alan Napier) is among
the first to die from the infectious virus, and the widow is absolutely
terrified of being pronounced dead and prematurely interred due to her catatonic
propensity.Her fear is reasonable.Things being as unsettled as they are on the Isle of the Dead, Mrs. Aubyn has good reason
to be fearful of the possibility.
In some ways Isle
of the Dead is a tough film to neatly pigeonhole.It really isn’t a straight-forward drama nor
a mystery, nor is it a bon a fide horror film in the general sense.It’s a psychological thriller that offers viewers
little in surprises or plot twists but treats erudite moviegoers to fascinating
character studies. The superstitious
peasant Kyra is certain the recent spate of deaths are deserved, a punishment
of the Gods for evil deeds committed by earth-bound mortals. This reading is as good as any, I
suppose.But how people choose to deal
with this invisible terror not easily defended against nor explained is reflective
of the level of education and personality traits of any given individual.Do we believe the assessment of the
doctor?The militarist?The superstitious old woman?Those most brave?Or those most fearful?
Though Isle of the
Dead was filmed twenty-odd years following the Spanish Flu pandemic of
1918-1919, there would have been plenty of folks walking around who could still
recall the lockdowns of that period.In
2021 amidst our very own contemporary worldwide health crisis, the film remains
a prescient study of human nature when placed under siege by an invisible enemy.The film is unrelentingly grim as it unfolds.There’s no happy ending.Just a conclusion.No one is certain where this particular
plague originated.Perhaps from fleas,
or perhaps carried by ill winds.Everyone is encouraged to wash their hands as often as possible: the
film even features a hand-washing montage as everyone scrubs and soaps to stave
off the invisible virus. Sound familiar?
This Warner Archive Collections Blu-Ray edition of Isle of the Dead is offered here in a
1080p High Definition 16x9 with an aspect ratio of 1:37:1 and in DTS-HD Master
Audio.Supplements include a commentary
by screenwriter (Mel Brook’s Dracula:
Dead and Loving it!) and film historian Dr. Steve Haberman, as well as an
original theatrical trailer - with Spanish subtitles - from the 1953 re-release
of Isle of the Dead by Realart.