George
Waggner continued directing for Universal in the genre with two more releases in 1941 after Man Made Monster. Before his second
outing with Lon Chaney Jr in the career-making The Wolf Man there was the lively if formulaic B-movie Horror Island.
Working with
a script by Maurice Tombragel and Victor Mcleod based on Alex Gottlieb’s story,
it revolves around an island owned by Bill Martin (Dick Foran) and the search
for $20m worth of treasure hidden on it as a rumoured hideaway of famous pirate
(Captain) Sir Henry Morgan. A playful light-hearted tone is established by the
tall, cool Foran. Though he had just played Steve Banning in The Mummy’s Hand (1940) he was properly
known in the industry as a singing cowboy of various films such as 1935’s Moonlight on the Prairie and later
Rodgers and Hart’s A Connecticut Yankee
(1943). Short of money but not on charm, Bill is an Ivy League graduate – of
Princeton as Foran was in real-life – who handles his penury and constant escapes
from creditors with easy-going good humour. His costume signals from the start
that he’s also the possessor of a ship, denoted by the captain’s hat he wears
in every scene, even indoors.
Wry and
whimsical humour abounds through the film actually. Bill and his faint-hearted partner
Stuff Oliver (fellow musical comedy specialist Fuzzy Knight) are offered a business
opportunity to secure the second half of a treasure map for the island by
colourful Tobias Clump, a leaden name for the very Spanish Leo Carillo sporting
a suitably piratical bandanna and ear-ring. He has been attacked and robbed of
the other half by a sinister black-caped figure he calls the Phantom.
Bill’s shady
cousin George (John Eldredge) attempts to buy the land for two thousand
dollars, only succeeding in increasing Bill’s enthusiasm for finding the hidden
fortune. Bill, Stuff and Clump decide to monetise a trip out to the island by
selling weekend places to the public. Along the way, a party is recruited comprising
the sassy, well-heeled club owner Wendy Creighton (also in The Mummy’s Hand and 1942’s The
Mummy’s Tomb), her idle cynic lover Thurman Coldwater (a name aptly
reflected by Lewis Howard’s performance), Hobart Canavaugh’s bookish Jasper who
switches from prosecuting Bill for advertising fraud into coming along for
proof, crooked couple Rod and Arlene Grady (Ralf Harolde and Iris Adrian) and
Walter Catlett’s splendidly named P.I. Sgt McGoon.
The merry
band’s voyage is eventful right from the off as a delivery boy throws them a bomb
that detonates safely in the water and a magnet is found that was placed to sabotage
the ship’s compass. Once on the fog-bound island and into its desolate castle,
the group are repeatedly besieged by traps that Bill thinks have been set by
Stuff until his pal protests he didn’t set any of them. A suit of armour fires
crossbow bolts and a voice teases the party mercilessly over a tannoy, later
revealed as the incessant taunting of the Phantom who has arrived here before
them.
The second half
of the film is heavily reminiscent of The
Cat and the Canary (both versions reviewed in my site); the booby-traps, of
shadowy menace and the heroine abducted by the assailant’s hands through a
bookcase-cum-door have all been done many times, yet Horror Island’s pace and light comedic quality amongst the chills
and escalating body-count are handled amiably enough by Waggner and atmospheric cinematography by Elwood Bredell A darker edge is
supplied by the unknown killer bumping of the Phantom and inscribing the number
of potential victims left as he culls the cast of its more dubious members:
Rod, then George.
Look away,
spoiler-haters - the eventual identity of the murderer as the meek, nerdy Jasper
is a nice twist, and grants Cavanaugh a display of greater range as his hard
ruthless reality is unmasked.
Overall, Horror Island is a fun and functional afternoon’s
time-passer, the treading of water for Waggner as he geared up to reunite with
Lon Chaney Jr for The Wolf Man…
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