Isle of Missing Men

A ship finds a stowaway on the run from the Nazis. They are sailing to prison island Caruba off the coast of Australia. Prison colony governor Merrill Hammond (John Howard) invites the elderly stowaway to the island. He encounters blonde bombshell Diana Bryce (Helen Gilbert) on the ship and invites her to the island. Secretly, she has ulterior motive. She's looking for prisoner Dan Curtis (Gilbert Roland).

I like the premise, but I don't really understand her escape plan. I put it down to her first trip to make contact with Dan. Whatever Dan's plan is, it's more likely that he gets robbed than escape. The production is strictly B-movie level. It looks a bit cheap like scraps from other productions. It's a B-movie with limitations.

I am giving this film a 3--and that's only because I liked Alan Mowbry in the film. Otherwise, it might only have gotten a 2! This is a very undistinguished drama from Monogram--a studio known for mostly undistinguished low-budget films. But even for Monogram, this film suffers from terrible writing.

The film begins on a steam ship in the Pacific during WWII. Suddenly, an American C-47 transport plane is spotted overhead and everyone shouts that it's a Japanese bomber. Suddenly bombs begin falling off this plane which NEVER was used as a bomber. Then, inexplicably, the shots of the plane now show a tiny private plane--then, back to the C-47. In the history of bad use of stock footage, this might be among the worst misuses of such film. Even if you have no idea what I am talking about because you are NOT an insane airplane buff, it would be like talking about a Ferrari and then cutting to clips of a Smart Car and then a pickup truck--it's THAT obvious! Most of the people aboard manage to survive the attack--and soon you'll start wishing none of them had! The film then switches to an island penal colony over which John Howard is warden. Why this place is in the middle of the Pacific, I have no idea. Nor, for that matter, do I understand why he invites a lady he met on the ship (Helen Gilbert) to come visit the place! Well, not surprisingly, Gilbert has an ulterior motive--something EVERYONE saw other than Howard! Where it all goes next you'll have to see for yourself--but unless you are as dumb as Howard's character, you certainly will see it coming!

While I generally expect less from a B-movie than the typical film, this one left me even less than thrilled because the plot just made little sense. The characters just made no sense---and I kept asking myself 'does anyone act that stupidly?!". Well, apparently in this film they do! Just watch John Howard--he is crazy stupid late in the film. Watch it yourself and see. No one--I repeat "NO ONE" acts that way--unless, of course, they have a head injury.

That's the first and frankly the best thing I can say about this movie. In more than fifty years of watching movies from Monogram, mostly on TV, this is the best print I've ever seen of a movie from the MGM of the South. It's sharp, bright and undimmed by wear.

What that usually means with very old movies is that the original elements have not been bothered for a long time. No pulling off 16 mm. prints for the TV market. In other words, an absolute bomb.

And, despite the beauty of the photography, that's what we have here. Writer-director Oswald started out in Germany in the 1910s and did a lot of work with the Expressionist movement in Germany, so this movie about how John Howard brings an assortment of Types to the prison colony he runs is full of great symbolic meaning that might have appealed to the audiences in the big cities, but not to the markets that Monogram sold into: small towns and Saturday matinées. It's also shot on underdecorated sets that remind me of many cheap off-off-off Broadway plays that I saw in the days when I looked at such things.

He has assembled a decent cast. John Howard was one of those leading men who never got a decent vehicle; Alan Mowbray and Gilbert Roland always gave worthwhile performances with twinkles in their eyes and Helen Gilbert plays a classically trained pianist with an attitude and unlimited peroxide on a tramp steamer.

Oswald's direction is stolidly Teutonic as everyone yearns for a better world, one in which Japanese bombers do not attack and prison colonies on tropical islands are where lovers can meet. It's the stolidity that is paramount, however.

Like most Monogram films, about three sets are used for 75% of the picture. Unlike most Monogram films, this one has some fine writing, acting and direction.

The best thing about this film is Helen Gilbert. In the film, two men fall madly in love with her and basically commit crimes and throw away their careers away for her after seeing her only a few times. Helen is just beautiful enough to make this believable. He is posed, intelligent and plays the piano beautifully.

In real life she was married seven times between 1938 and 1950. One can only imagine how many proposals she turned down. She only starred in four or five movies and it is hard to understand why she did not become a much bigger star.

As usual, Alan Mowbray gives a wonderfully comic performance, as the doctor who quickly losses his objectivity over Helen. As usual, Gilbert Rowland is effective as a convict trying to escape from a prison island.

Nothing much happens in the film. It doesn't quite fit into any genre type, being a mix of romantic comedy and escape from prison melodrama. Yet, it manages to be mostly surprising, breezy and fun. Its a nifty little picture from Monogram, well worth the one hour and six minutes it takes to see it.

Seven of my eight points is for Helen Gilbert.