Devil's Island

Boris Karloff was my reason for seeing Devil's Island, and when I did see it I found myself liking it very much. Of Warner Archive's Boris Karloff Triple Feature collection, it is easily the best of the three films, having liked West of Shanghai and hated The Invisible Menace(Karloff is the best thing about both those films though). Devil's Island, to me, is not without its faults either, the beginning did seem rather tacked on and the music was annoying and often not really appropriate. Devil's Island however is an atmospherically shot film and the settings are suitably moody. The dialogue is thoughtful and to the point, also written in a way that allows you to care for the characters, while the story is well-paced, sustains the short length(in the way that The Invisible Menace failed to do), is tightly structured and sticks like glue to its subject rather than going on a tangent. The acting is good, very good in the case of the two leads, the supporting cast are not faced with sketchy characterisations like with West of Shanghai and there is no annoying comic relief like in The Invisible Menace. James Stephenson makes for an understated and urbane villain, something that he seemed very well-suited for, while Boris Karloff is forceful and dignified in a role different to what we are used to seeing from him. All in all, a very impressive film, worth checking out. 8/10 Bethany Cox

And also William Clemens' best movie for me. I watched several films from this obscure director and I would have never bet a dime that the great Boris Karloff would ever work with such a lousy director, more specialized in NANCY DREW DETECTIVE, THE FALCON or PHILO VANCE adventures than in real movies, such as this one. Such a plot could have been made by a Michael Curtiz, Mervyn Le Roy or Raoul Walsh. Because Boris Karloff is excellent, as usual, and precisely because of his presence, whatever the William Clemen's skills are, this short movie is worth watching. It is inspired from actual facts.

DEVIL'S ISLAND proved an interesting change-of-pace for Karloff but one which, I agree, is hampered by its second-feature status: as it stands, potentially controversial issues like miscarriage of justice, as well as prison brutality and corruption, are not dealt with in much detail and the expected showdown between Karloff and the callous warden (James Stephenson, who would die only 2 years later and whose best role was his Oscar-nominated turn in William Wyler's THE LETTER [1940]) never occurs. Instead, we're made to believe that the warden's wife is so grateful for ex-brain surgeon Karloff's having saved their daughter's life that she is perfectly willing to see her husband's ruined by reporting his mistreatment of the prisoners to higher authority - when, prior to the girl's accident, she didn't seem to bother much with them since she used to frequently ride up to the labor camp, in her finest attire, as if going on a Sunday picnic! A brave and well-made B-movie all around but, ultimately, it doesn't really tread new ground and certainly doesn't carry the sheer emotional power of I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG (1932).

Dr. Gaudet(Boris Karloff) is a respected brain surgeon, and is unjustly sentenced to ten years' imprisonment on Devil's Island. Gaudet draws attention to himself by complaining about the in-human conditions and leads an unsuccessful revolt. As punishment, the warden sentences Karloff and his comrades to death. Boris Karloff plays the lead convincingly, making himself as pathetic a character as possible. It is a very mild acting role for Boris, and that is probably why George Raft had turned the role down. France decided not to eliminate the notorious colony and attacked the film as anti-French at the preview in January 1939. They immediately banned all future Warner Bros. films. A year later it was released, but by this time, France was too busy with World War II to object.

1939's "Devil's Island" started out as a typical Warners expose about the brutal mistreatment of prisoners on the French penal colony, but along the way a number of things whittled it down to an all too familiar 'B' picture with little meat left on its creaky bones. George Raft was intended to star but predictably bailed, as producer Hal Wallis hilariously put it: "he hasn't made a picture at this studio since I was a kid!" In his place was contractee Boris Karloff, preferring to do whatever assignment required rather than be paid off during Hollywood's horror ban of 1937-38, "The Walking Dead" a promising start, "West of Shanghai" and "The Invisible Menace" a bit of a comedown ("British Intelligence" finally allowed Jack L. Warner to wash his hands of the actor's services). It looks for all the world like a small scale (though impressively mounted) retread of John Ford's "The Prisoner of Shark Island," Karloff as eminent brain surgeon Dr. Charles Gaudet, summoned to treat the injury of a trusted friend wrongfully convicted of treason (his medical condition showed he had a brain tumor), shot while trying to escape. Gaudet remains behind to continue his treatment and is arrested and convicted for the same crime, sentenced to 10 years hard labor at Devil's Island, where corrupt commandant Colonel Lucien (James Stephenson) keeps an account of all the graft he accepts to increase slave labor. When a tubercular patient drops dead a riot breaks out, one guard killed by a blow to the head, and only an accident to Lucien's young daughter offering a sliver of hope if Gaudet can save her life. Madame Lucien (Nedda Harrigan) despises her husband's failure to offer clemency to Gaudet for his selfless efforts and provides for a series of bribes to help him and his small group escape by boat across the channel, but all seems lost once they encounter a slave ship bound for Devil's Island. Despite the French government being off the hook for corruption (Colonel Lucien in need of no assistance), the European nation still protested the picture's release, finally held back until the summer of 1940 though it was completed in Aug. 1938, just before Karloff traveled to Poverty Row Monogram to begin "Mr. Wong, Detective." On its own the story has been done better both before and after, the low key, one note James Stephenson no match for the fiery John Carradine's Sgt. Rankin so far as dynamism goes, leaving only Boris Karloff's sympathetic change of pace as the main reason for viewing. Like Janos Rukh in "The Invisible Ray" he sports curly hair, and again proves versatile in changing his appearance in every starring vehicle of the 30s, with or without heavy makeup, though he might have escaped such harsh punishment had he curbed his temperament. Columbia issued a similar film the following year, "Island of Doomed Men" offering Peter Lorre top billing as the chief villain, Rochelle Hudson the disloyal wife who helps bring about his downfall.