A double-bill of pre-code horror adaptations of H.G. Wells’ novels, both have a mad scientist going to extremes in their purported scientific experiments, in Erle C. Kenton’s ISLANDS OF LOST SOULS, Dr. Moreau (Laughton) is secluded on an off-the-map South Pacific island, carrying out beast-human chimera horrors (to what purpose? we are not 100 percent sure), whereas in James Whale’s THE INVISIBLE MAN, Dr. Jack Griffin (Rains) inflicts on himself the burden of invisibility (the film is set in a wintry Sussex, running stark naked is certainly not a pleasurable activity), and tries to conquer the world with “reign of terrors”? Yes, he is irrefragably mad.
Two mad men, one unwisely invites an outsider into his inner sanctum, which inevitably will bring doom to his unethical creations, Dr. Moreau’s monomania is to posit himself on the pedestal as a “God”, founding his own Creationism, by tampering with the natural process of evolution; another, driven by his infeasible and camp ambition, is a forlorn hope by acting as a lone wolf, against the mass’ collective endeavor to cop him at any cost, Dr. Griffin’s undoings are his poisoned cravings for power and cruelty (at one point, Rains’ gestures even imitate Mussolini’s), Both films faithfully convey Wells’ alertness and condemnation of “übermensch”, and if their plots are conventional to a fault, those two oldies are robust for their atmospheric constructions.
In ISLANDS…,, although the fog-wreathed island makes for a striking presence, it is the ghastly-looking maquillages and prosthetics applied to those “strange-looking natives” elicit our primordial abhorrence (with Bela Lugosi hidden underneath a hirsute mask), or in the case of the panther woman Lota (a doe-eyed Burke, exploited for her exotic looks), our fixation and some befuddlement (one may gripe that the animality of the mutated herd is underrepresented here). However, Kenton’s overall execution is more perfunctory than satisfactory, leaving much of the contentious arguments to be desired.
Whale’s THE INVISIBLE MAN, contrarily, ages much better, foremost, owing to its cutting-edge, deceptive matte effect to reify the alchemical transmutation of Dr. Griffin’s bandages-unfurling invisibility, and the end result is still stunning to behold. While ISLANDS… cannot blot out the unsavory whiff of white man’s burden and slavery (a loyal servant is played by the oriental Tetsu Komai, naturally with canine genes), THE INVISIBLE MAN has more thrills and spills for viewers to bask in, be it when Griffin makes the fur fly in the village where he unwisely chooses to lie low, with a scene-stealing Una O’Connor squealing and quibbling like nobody’s business, or his sinister turn with Dr. Arthur Kemp (Harrigan, perfectly cast as a craven ordinary Joe), whose demise adds a layer of wantonness onto the mania-at-large, whereas Gloria Stewart, who plays Griffin’s fiancée, is considerately kept out of harm’s way.
It is no wonder that two eloquent British thespians are headlining the two pictures, a young, whip-thrashing Laughton is both crafty and incredibly naive as Dr. Moreau, but never boring, even Dr. Moreau’s actions are nigh on irrationally; Rains, in his very first American picture, whose face is entirely (save for the final scene) swathed in bandages, still cows (almost) everyone into submission with his threatening locution alone (for sure, his short stature can of little avail in this case), a pitiful villain only rues the day in his last gasp.
referential entries: Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack’s KING KONG (1933, 7.8/10); Whale’s THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932, 6,7/10); Leigh Whannell’s THE INVISIBLE MAN (2020, 6.9/10).
在看这部片子的时候，这些问题一直不停的呈现在观众面前。教授为了控制怪物而定下的教条，最后因为自己没有遵守，犯下了暴力，而被怪物们欢呼：there is no law！ 于是教授自食其果，被从教条中释放的怪物吞噬了。而讽刺的是，有了认知到不应该盲从，开始有自己的思维的怪物们与看似兽性的行动相反，其实反而更接近人类一步了。这经典的一刻到现在来看依旧非常的发人深省。在其看似简单的科幻恐怖设定下，其实展现的是古今恒定存在问题的解答思索。同样，懂得了爱情的豹女流下了眼泪身体却渐渐的退化，而被勾起了原始天性的男主却尝试说服自己是道德的，这是否也是本末倒置呢？
A double-bill of pre-code horror adaptations of H.G. Wells’ novels, both have a mad scientist going to extremes in their purported scientific experiments, in Erle C. Kenton’s ISLANDS OF LOST SOULS, Dr. Moreau (Laughton) is secluded on an off-the-map South Pacific island, carrying out beast-human chimera horrors (to what purpose? we are not 100 percent sure), whereas in James Whale’s THE INVISIBLE MAN, Dr. Jack Griffin (Rains) inflicts on himself the burden of invisibility (the film is set in a wintry Sussex, running stark naked is certainly not a pleasurable activity), and tries to conquer the world with “reign of terrors”? Yes, he is irrefragably mad.
Two mad men, one unwisely invites an outsider into his inner sanctum, which inevitably will bring doom to his unethical creations, Dr. Moreau’s monomania is to posit himself on the pedestal as a “God”, founding his own Creationism, by tampering with the natural process of evolution; another, driven by his infeasible and camp ambition, is a forlorn hope by acting as a lone wolf, against the mass’ collective endeavor to cop him at any cost, Dr. Griffin’s undoings are his poisoned cravings for power and cruelty (at one point, Rains’ gestures even imitate Mussolini’s), Both films faithfully convey Wells’ alertness and condemnation of “übermensch”, and if their plots are conventional to a fault, those two oldies are robust for their atmospheric constructions.
In ISLANDS…,, although the fog-wreathed island makes for a striking presence, it is the ghastly-looking maquillages and prosthetics applied to those “strange-looking natives” elicit our primordial abhorrence (with Bela Lugosi hidden underneath a hirsute mask), or in the case of the panther woman Lota (a doe-eyed Burke, exploited for her exotic looks), our fixation and some befuddlement (one may gripe that the animality of the mutated herd is underrepresented here). However, Kenton’s overall execution is more perfunctory than satisfactory, leaving much of the contentious arguments to be desired.
Whale’s THE INVISIBLE MAN, contrarily, ages much better, foremost, owing to its cutting-edge, deceptive matte effect to reify the alchemical transmutation of Dr. Griffin’s bandages-unfurling invisibility, and the end result is still stunning to behold. While ISLANDS… cannot blot out the unsavory whiff of white man’s burden and slavery (a loyal servant is played by the oriental Tetsu Komai, naturally with canine genes), THE INVISIBLE MAN has more thrills and spills for viewers to bask in, be it when Griffin makes the fur fly in the village where he unwisely chooses to lie low, with a scene-stealing Una O’Connor squealing and quibbling like nobody’s business, or his sinister turn with Dr. Arthur Kemp (Harrigan, perfectly cast as a craven ordinary Joe), whose demise adds a layer of wantonness onto the mania-at-large, whereas Gloria Stewart, who plays Griffin’s fiancée, is considerately kept out of harm’s way.
It is no wonder that two eloquent British thespians are headlining the two pictures, a young, whip-thrashing Laughton is both crafty and incredibly naive as Dr. Moreau, but never boring, even Dr. Moreau’s actions are nigh on irrationally; Rains, in his very first American picture, whose face is entirely (save for the final scene) swathed in bandages, still cows (almost) everyone into submission with his threatening locution alone (for sure, his short stature can of little avail in this case), a pitiful villain only rues the day in his last gasp.
referential entries: Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack’s KING KONG (1933, 7.8/10); Whale’s THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932, 6,7/10); Leigh Whannell’s THE INVISIBLE MAN (2020, 6.9/10).
亡魂岛 Island of Lost Souls (1932)
疯狂科学家的恐怖实验，导致变形怪物的灾难。这种经典的恐怖片模式在30年代好莱坞已经开始成型了。而其中虽然最有名的是弗兰肯斯坦，但是这部亡魂岛在我来看是一部从多种层面上都非常完美独到，很有观赏价值的影片。
故事改编自1896年小说，说男主坐船路程中误入了Dr.Moreau教授的孤岛，教授一开始对这位陌生人非常友好，可男主渐渐发现这位孤僻疯狂的科学家好像在做一些恐怖的实验。神秘房间听到的凄惨叫喊，深夜岛上怪人们的集会，教授的可疑的助手，以及出现在男主面前诱惑的美丽女子却有着诡异的天性。
随着渐渐的深入，男主得知原来这座岛上的怪物都是Moreau教授的人体实验的牺牲品。由于研究危险的基因转变和物种交配，Moreau教授被驱逐出英国，仍然一意孤行的他继续在岛上作着他的实验，一心想要把动物进化成人的他把失败品和怪物们当做自己的奴役，并定制了规条让怪物们完全服从于自己，制造怪物的目的是因为这让他觉得自己像是能够主掌万物的神。而他最成功的作品，豹女，是他最大的骄傲，为了得到完美结果，他不惜用豹女去引诱毫不知情的男主，只为实验豹女有没有完整的人类感情，会不会爱。而男主的人身安全也开始岌岌可危。
我一向认为，一部超凡的电影是可以在一个剧情的过程里包含了不同的寓意的电影。或者说，这就是意识形态的成功塑造，在一个故事里，用不同的方式去看，就会得电影里所表达的不同却又相同的东西。
这是一部从二元对立去看很多问题的片子，黑白画面下的文明与原始的对比，人工的科学与自然的进化，等级制度下的君主和奴隶，男人和女人的感情对比。我们是否自以为文明而违背了原始的天性？我们的科学是否只是自私的道具？我们的文明创造出了双重标准的等级制度，不平等的世界。
在看这部片子的时候，这些问题一直不停的呈现在观众面前。教授为了控制怪物而定下的教条，最后因为自己没有遵守，犯下了暴力，而被怪物们欢呼：there is no law！ 于是教授自食其果，被从教条中释放的怪物吞噬了。而讽刺的是，有了认知到不应该盲从，开始有自己的思维的怪物们与看似兽性的行动相反，其实反而更接近人类一步了。这经典的一刻到现在来看依旧非常的发人深省。在其看似简单的科幻恐怖设定下，其实展现的是古今恒定存在问题的解答思索。同样，懂得了爱情的豹女流下了眼泪身体却渐渐的退化，而被勾起了原始天性的男主却尝试说服自己是道德的，这是否也是本末倒置呢？
人类到底是什么？我们与动物的区分在哪里？这是这部电影的真诚的问题，但是表达的方式却充满了娱乐性故事性。剧情的发展环环相扣，实验室的恐怖场景，豹女的魅惑，Bela Lugosi的开始得到知性的怪人，都是非常到位踏实的元素。这是一部在享受的过程中也能够思考的经典名作。
感觉还有不少逻辑硬伤n1、开头船上的有毛茸茸耳朵的是不是兽人，如果是那么应该不只有一个被售卖，如果不是解释不通船员的来历n2、博士为什么要待帕克去他的岛，又不能控制也不危险，对待他像对待一个宾客一样。如果想看看他和罗塔的结合从而进行研究，那找一个色鬼流浪汉也好过他n3、船长2（带未婚妻来的）是如何发现博士的岛的，又是如何确认岛上帕克一定在。博士也说了岛屿不在地图上，按理来说应该十分隐蔽的，常人也不会随意深入陌生的岛屿，未知的危险太多了n4、博士最后竟然没有尝试着用枪射杀几个兽人从而重新建立新的威信n不过早期的科幻作品大多这样，并不会太在意一些逻辑，
原版小说和电影的主要区别：全文出现在岛上的人类只有主角，博士和助手，没有这个女兽人和未婚妻等其他人类。博士对主角也没什么特别的想法，只是想在下次出海时把他送回去。原著博士是意外被逃跑的实验品杀死的，助手也博士死后沮丧酗酒意外身亡的，这两人在岛上一直是神一样的存在，从未被质疑，倒是主角没有抓住机会在博士死后树立威信。最后岛上的兽人开始出现全面退化，基本变成了原来的野兽，主角决定独自逃离这个岛，最后终于找到了一个木筏和部分补给，在海上幸运地遇见了船，最终回到了人类社会。电影和小说在中期开始就不太一样了，原著里博士只是个疯狂的学者，对主角并没有什么恶意。
小说里岛上的女兽人有好几个，比如女猪人，年老的女狐人，但都和主角没什么关系。博士是追逃走的半成品狮人时和狮人一起死了。鬣狗猪人的兽性一直没有消除，在岛上杀过不少放养的兔子和兽人，是主角最主要的敌人，还杀了主角后期唯一的跟班狗人，最后主角在逃离前终于杀掉了他。