Isla de sortilegio

I'd been searching for this movie for more than a year now.Hadn't seen it since the early 70's.Was just going to give in and buy a bootleg when lo and behold it aired on TCM.Taped it and settled in to give it a watch.

Critics tore this one up.Karloff was accused of "phoning in" his performance.Have to wonder what movie they were watching.The movie is low budget and the script admittedly is very weak but Boris is the saving grace for the film.He makes it worth watching.

What little plot there is involves a hotel magnate hiring Mr Knight(Karloff).Knight is a renowned hoax buster and he is to ferret out the secrets of an island that the hotel magnate wishes to build on.

The intrepid group runs into voodoo, man eating plants and nasty natives.Are they all doomed or will somebody survive to tell the tale?

Again this film was shot on the cheap (probably under $100000 with probably 25% of that going to Boris).There is a lot of talk and a little action.Just watch it for Boris, still capable at the age of 70 of carrying a film on his shoulders.

Given the fair warning so generously given me by others, I was prepared for the very worst but surprise, surprise...it wasn't all that bad, after all.

I can't say it was very compelling, true, but it wasn't "dreadfully boring" either, as it's been called. There were some cringe-inducing moments to be sure, particularly when Elisha Cook 'freaked out' towards the end - and I'm still not sure what function the older of the two ladies was supposed to be occupying within the group, but I did find the lesbian undertones (with good reason since I did find Karloff's secretary rather attractive myself) surprising for a schlocky B-movie of its era! So, no great shakes definitely but an adequate time-waster nonetheless...though the voodoo promised by the title had nothing to do with the man-eating plants we eventually ended up with!

Maybe when I get more acquainted with Karloff's other programmers, my opinion of this film will take a nose-dive but so far, it was a watchable diversion and nothing more; besides it was nice to see Karloff in a straight, i.e. non-menacing, role - though it was somewhat uncomfortable to watch him stumble about on many occasions (due to his illness and old age).

"Voodoo Island" was Boris Karloff's first American film in four years. Nearing his 70th birthday, good parts must have been hard to come by, given that the old Gothic style horror for which he became famous, was now not in vogue.

Hotel entrepreneur Howard Carlton (Owen Cunningham) is planning a new hotel/resort on a distant Pacific Island. A survey team that had been sent out earlier disappeared except for Mitchell (Glenn Dixon) who returned in a zombie like state. Carlton hires Philip Knight (Karloff) an investigative reporter to investigate the remote island where the disappearances occurred.

The expedition includes Knight, his assistant Sara Adams, Carlton's front man Barney Finch (Murvyn Vye), Claire Winter (Jean Engstrom), local resort manager Martin Schuler (Elisha Cook) and his assistant Matthew Gunn (Rhodes Reason). Knight also insists that Mitchell be brought along. Before they leave for the island, Mitchell mysteriously dies and a voodoo death warning is left.

When the expedition arrives at the "voodoo" island, strange things start to happen. First their boat breaks down and later they discover their food supply spoiled trapping them on the island all the while under the watchful eyes of mysterious natives. Then, while enjoying a swim Claire is killed by a flesh eating plant. The rest are captured by the natives. Schuler refuses to leave and later becomes a zombie as does Finch while watching two children play. Will the others escape?

Karloff is totally miscast as the fast talking "Gerardo" type investigative reporter. Although he does his best, he certainly deserved better. He would make two more films in 1958 and then disappear from the screen until 1963 when Roger Corman "rediscovered" him for "The Raven".

The cast spends most of the film trudging across the jungle island. We never see any so-called black magic and are left to wonder how the zombies are created. We do get to see some cheap looking dolls with pins in them though. This was obviously a film on a low budget. Most of it was shot outdoors and the special effects are cheaply done.

Strictly for the lower half of a double bill.

I first saw this film on T.V. when I was about six years old back in the 1960s. Years later I heard this film was pretty bad. I happened to recently find a badly transfered video copy at my local video. I took it home and watched it. I did not find it as bad as I expected. The parts I liked as a kid I still found effective. Critics slammed Boris Karloff here, but he is smooth and professional. However I don't think anyone would say this was one of his best performances. The best performance in the film is Elisha Cook. The ending sequence is quite creepy and Cook pulls it off well. The rest of the cast just goes through the motions. The script however, leaves a lot to be desired. As far as I know, nothing remotely like Voodoo is practised in Polynesia where this film takes place. I also was annoyed with the mish mash of supernatural and science fiction elements. The giant carnivorous plants are explained as relics from a prehistoric age; hence science fiction. The Voodoo stuff is purely supernatural fantasy. The giant plants are effective. In frightening scene, they swallow a little girl. However they have nothing to do with the plot. They are thrown in just to use up running time and seem almost to have dropped in from some other film. None the less, this film does have a few good shocks.

I've seen worse programmers. Boris Karloff brings class to anything he works in. It's fun just to watch him. His ill-health hadn't yet slowed him down and he was a real presence. Elisha Cook also gives an excellent performance.

I think I know how the lesbian undertones between the two women got by (though the tones weren't that "under"). If it had been a big budget picture, the censors would have been on it like white on rice. As a low-budget picture it came in under the radar.

Several of the actors do rise above the material. Actually it reminds me of some of the TV shows being churned out about the same time. They, too, didn't have much of a budget. What adds to the TV feeling are some of the actors, such as Rhodes Reason and Mervyn Vye, who were mainstays of '50s television.