Island of Lost Souls

To continue, and round out this recent look at ape-men, we digress to 1932 to pick up one of the classics of the mad-scientist-making-beast-man films: Island of Lost Souls (ILS). Paramount produced an adaptation of H.G. Wells' novel, "The Island of Dr. Moreau," that followed the book reasonably well, though not exactly. Charles Laughton starred as the "mad doctor." The film is famous for its "Panther Woman", Lota (played by Kathleen Burke). She is a good reference point for the ape-woman films that followed ten years later. As a point of interest to Monogram's "Ape Man" films, Bela Lugosi plays the Sayer of the Law, wearing much beast-man makeup -- a nice tie-in to later ape-man movies starring Lugosi.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Edward Parker, shipwrecked, is picked up by the freighter Covena. He is nursed back to health by Montgomery. When healthy, he has a wire sent to his fiancee, Ruth, in Apia, saying that he's okay and will join her in six days. Afterward, however, Parker runs afoul of the Covena's drunkard captain. Upon completing transfer of Montgomery's shipment of animals to Moreau's schooner, the captain has Parker tossed onto the schooner and steams off. Parker, now the uninvited guest of Dr. Moreau is shown cold hospitality. The natives of the island look odd, and shuffle about rather than simply walk. Moreau thaws some to Parker, as he has a new plan in mind. He wants to introduce him to Lota, his "finest creation". She's the only female on the island. She fears the only real men she knows, Moreau and Montgomery. He hopes Parker will reveal/awaken real human woman traits in Lota. Parker is enticed by Lota's innocent and obvious affections. He and Lota flee, fearing Moreau, but are captured by beast men and taken to their village. He is rescued by Moreau and learns that the natives are Moreau's work. He uses surgery (vivisection) to shape them like humans. Parker, horrified, demands to leave, but the schooner has been mysteriously scuttled in the night. Lota seeks out Parker again. During a hug, he finds that she has claws. She is reverting to her panther origins. Meanwhile, in Apia, the Covena docks without Parker. Ruth arranges for a ship to take her to the coordinates grudgingly shared by captain Davies. Ruth and Capt. Donahue arrive on Moreau's island. Moreau plays the cordial host, but has dark schemes in mind. Ouran, Moreau's lead beast-man, breaks into Ruth's room. Scream. Chase. Captain Donahue sets off to go get some of his crew as reinforcements. Moreau sends Ouran after him. Ouran kills Donahue and takes him to the Beast Man village. You spilled man's blood. You broke the law. Ouran says, The law is no more. HE told me to kill. The beast men realize that if Donahue could be killed, so could Moreau. They mass to revolt. Moreau tries to cow them into subservience again, but to no avail. Parker, Montgomery, Ruth and Lota flee for Donahue's skiff. Lota drops back, sensing a pursuer. She attacks Ouran. Parker, realizing Lota's absence, goes back. With her last breath, Lota says, "you go." The beast men take Moreau up to his House of Pain surgery and each have at him with scalpels. Much screaming. Ruth, Parker and Montgomery row away as the island burns. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
An H.G. Wells story is just bound to be entertaining -- even when put through a Hollywood filter. The story moves right along, and is filled with thought-provoking elements to spawn dozens of conversations.

Cultural Connection
Playing God. This is a very common trait among classic old sci-fi's "mad doctors." At one point, Moreau asked Parker, "Do you know what it means, to feel like God?" Certainly, Moreau had presumed to shape animals into his own image by brute use of medical science. He had also instilled in his creations, The Law, which tried to legislate what the scalpel could not create, and to deify himself. "His is the hand that makes! His is the hand that heals." Most of the mad doctors that were to come to films, would in some way or another presume this same role of smarter-than-the-rest, and wiser-than-all, such that whatever they planned was automatically "good" (in their own minds).

Notes
Based on the Book -- ILS follows Wells' 1896 novel fairly well, with some of the usual condensing and Hollywood tampering. In Wells' novel, there was no seductive Lota character trying to charm the protagonist. There was no fiancee, Ruth, coming looking for him. Indeed, Wells' story had none of the romantic angles that Hollywood insists upon. Later remakes, such as 1977's Island of Dr. Moreau and 1996's remake with Marlon Brando, would harken back to the novel for source material in their own ways, but would also build off of the story line of ILS, such as having an animal-woman. Actually, Wells' novel featured an ape-man, just to cement the tie-in to our recent topic thread.

Imperial Footprint -- Woven throughout Wells' story, and still evident in Paramount's movie, is an indictment of old-world imperialism. (As was War of the Worlds) Surgical "science" was the tool, but the goal was the same -- make the "natives" look and sound "just like us," no matter how painful. Moreau's methods were physical rather than cultural, but the analogy fits. Having Laughton dressed in colonial white (vs. his creatures' drab grubbiness) with whips and pith helmets, fit that model. The revolt of the Beast Men was a startlingly accurate prediction of the uprisings that ended colonialism.

Misread Blasphemy -- Censors in the UK banned ILS several times. Partially for the implied cruelty to animals, partially for the presumed blasphemy. It's a pity those religious objectors did not see the analogies supportive of biblical views. Consider how Moreau's imposed order was all that kept his creations from reverting to pure animal. When that order was removed, their primal, uncivilized beast nature took over. This was even paralleled within Moreau himself. When he cast aside God (as a youth), he became a cruel "beast" himself -- completely selfish and insensitive. This all paralleling the biblical view -- man, when he's cast away God's standards, has nothing left but his own "fallen" self-centeredness as his guide. No good comes of that. "Modern" man, who becomes is own god, is capable of great evil. This was theme common to many of the mad-doctor genre. It's actually more biblical than blasphemous.

Dark Science -- Mary Shelley gave the notion a voice in her novel, "Frankenstein." Science was just as capable of going "bad" as doing good. Most of the mad-doctor genre echoed this theme.  Moreau, like many a mad scientist of films, could be seen as a parallel to Satan. Cast out of heaven (civilized London) for his transgressions. He looks like a heavenly being (dressed in British colonial whites), just as Satan can appear as an angel of light, but inflicts a reign of torment on the earth (represented by the island). Moreau did, en masse, what Frankenstein did only once.

Short-Lived Animal Women -- It seems that Hollywood (and audiences) liked the character of animal-women, but playing one on-screen was not the path to stardom. Kathleen Burke was hyped as the panther woman, but went on to only a few more films, mostly with small parts. Later animal-women (such as Acquanetta, the ape-woman of the 40s) would find similar career arcs. As much as execs and audiences liked them, they didn't seem to want to bring them home to meet mother.

Bottom line? ILS is a classic that should be seen by all sci-fi fans -- that is, those who appreciate more than slobbery-toothed monsters, laser battles and explosions. ILS is one of those foundational movies, like Frankenstein ('31) which later film makers would reference, adapt and remake. On its own, ILS has enough of Wells' complexity in it to provide hours of conversation (with the right people). ---

F.P.1 Doesn't Answer

An apropos digression from Der Große Verhau is a much older German sci-fi: F.P.1 anwortet nicht. In 1932, Fox, British-Gaumont, and UFA collaborated to create a science fiction movie, F. P. 1 (FP1), which stood for "Floating Platform One." F.P.1 would be, essentially, a fixed aircraft carrier "island" set in the mid-Atlantic to allow early 1930s aircraft (of limited range) to cross. FP1 is the story of the building of this dream and unseen forces sabotaging it. There were actually three FP1 movies, one in German, one in English and one in French. (More on that below). The screen play was co-written by Walter Reisch and Curt Siodmak (who would soon write the Wolfman stories and later sci-fi movie stories like: Magnetic Monster ('53) and Earth vs. Flying Saucers ('56).

Quick Plot Synopsis
At a black tie party, Major Elissen tells his photographer friend to meet him at the Lennartz Shipyard at 11:00. Claire (Lennartz) overhears this. Ellissen smiles denials and tries to hit on her. She smiles but says no. He keeps her forgotten fan. At the shipyard, Ellissen pulls a fire alarm. When the trucks come, he sneaks in amid the tumult. He takes the plans for F.P.1 out of a file drawer. He leaves. Claire and the Lennartz brothers discover the F.P.1 plans are missing. (It was obvious that they were). Claire finds Ellisen, accuses him of being a thief. He charmingly tells her to have her brother look on his desk. The plans are there. It was all a stunt by Ellissen to make the Lennartz brothers notice the plans, which Ellissen's friend, Droste, designed, but everyone ignored. Claire is charmed by Ellissen. She wants to settle down with him, but he's fixated on aerial adventuring. He's been given a special plane with which he plans to be the first fly around the world non-stop. Claire is very disappointed. Ellissen leaves. Claire throws herself into helping Droste build F.P.1. Several acts of sabotage hint that someone does not want F.P.1 built. Nonetheless, F.P.1 is completed and near its position in mid-Atlantic. Meanwhile, Ellissen returns to Hamburg, a failure. He crashed his plane. He's considering Claire's offer to settle down. Out in the Atlantic, a storm approaches, so Droste opens the ballast valves to take on more sea water and ride lower. Later, when the radio man is taken suddenly ill (poisoned), Droste catches his first mate, Luben, in the radio room. A message comes in, telling of a ship waiting south of F.P.1. Luben was the saboteur. The ship is his getaway. The valves are stuck open because Luben drained all the diesel fuel that runs the generators. Just as Claire is radioing F.P.1 from Hamburg, Droste and Luben have a shootout in the radio room. Droste is hit in the shoulder and down. Claire hears all this. The radio goes dead. (hence the title) She has a plane, but the only pilot available on short notice is Ellissen. He agrees to fly her if it means he still has a chance with her. She kind of agrees. They fly to F.P.1, but break a wheel on landing. Everyone on F.P.1 is knocked out by gas. Claire finds the wounded Droste and cuddles him so affectionately that Ellissen knows he never had a chance. Luben departs in a small boat, with supplies, but the evil unnamed Mr. Big never sent the ship, so Luben is doomed. At the rate water is coming in, F.P.1 has only 17 hours left. Before he left F.P.1, Luben damaged the several planes in the hanger. Droste suggests they combine parts from the planes to make one fly-able plane. Ellissen, in a pity-party gets drunk and rages at life. Yet, when the time came, he flies the jerry-rigged plane with what little fuel they could scrounge up. He drops Claire's fan to the deck with the message, "Goodbye, I'll find you a ship.". He does. Messages are relayed. Help comes, bringing fuel. The generators are started. The water is pumped out. F.P.1 is saved! Ellissen offers to join the crew of the ship he parachuted to. They are on an adventure looking for Andean Condors. Droste and Claire hug as F.P.1 becomes a hub of transatlantic importance. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
There is a special charm to pre-nuclear science fiction. Infusing the story of FP1 is the wide-eyed wonder with which pre-WWII folks viewed the march of science/technology/progress. Here, the marvel of air travel is the background "star" as mankind's ticket to a glorious future. The early 30s fashions are fun too.

Cultural Connection
Aviation always had a magic to it, but after Lindberg's solo crossing, there was a sort of gold-rush fever of enthusiasm for air travel. It had an aura of future-ness, rather like space travel would in the 50s and 60s. The technology for stationary floating platforms was futuristic for the 1930s. Though Edward Robert Armstrong had been promoting the idea of "Seadromes" since 1927, late 20s technology was not up to the task. Floating offshore oil platforms, which would use many of Armstrong's ideas, would be a sort of FP1 fantasy come true, but not until the early 1960s.

Notes
Three For One -- In the early days of "talkies", sound synchronization was technically difficult, so dubbing a film into various languages was not practical. To release a film in another language, the production company shot another take, with actors speaking the other language. FP1 was shot with three different casts, speaking three different languages. The english version was titled simply, F.P.1. Later, it would be called, F.P.1 Doesn't answer. This is the title of the German version: F.P.1 antwortet nicht. The French version was titled, i.F.1 ne réspond plus. The scenes are the same. The sets are the same. The model work and distant shots were the same. Much of the dialogue was the same, just in different languages. The casts, however, were completely different. More on that below, but as a quick note, Peter Lorre plays the sidekick photographer in the German version. It's quite a hoot to see Lorre delivering lines in German.

Three Different Heros -- The Ellissen character was played by three different actors: Hans Albers in the German version, Conrad Veidt in the English and Charles Boyer in the French. Each played the role with very different styles. Albers' Ellissen was animated and more the flamboyant playboy (some think to the point of being hammy). Veidt played the role as almost melancholy, the lonely adventurer. Boyer was more stern, stoic and driven (think Mr. Anton in Gaslight '44).

"Extended" German Version -- While the story is exactly the same, the German version runs a little longer. It opens with a montage of air show clips and aerial footage. Under that played a rousing song (band and male choir) "Flieger, grüß mir die Sonne," (Flyer, greet the Sun for me) written by Reisch. The English and French versions omit this intro. Later in the German version, while Ellissen is on FP1 and sulking about losing Claire, he listens to a phonograph record of the song, which both inspires him to fly again, and mocks his self pity. It is his turning point. The English and French versions omit this too. Ellissen just bucks up for no particular reason. (though NOW you know why.)

Savior From the Skies -- The German version had a distinctive scene which was omitted from the French and English versions -- the savior-moment. In the German version, it is German aviation, and particularly two marvels of German engineering, that come to the rescue of FP1. The barrels of fuel are loaded onto German transport planes such as the Junkers G38 and Dornier X, that fly to FP1 and save the day.

Naturally, German audiences in 1932 would be excited to see their native technology as savior of their symbolic future. Also natural that the English and French would be less enthused about including that. Yet, even in the English version, look at the final shot of the FP1 model at the end, surrounded by float planes, etc. Where did they come from? These were the aerial saviors shown in the German version. Aviation as savior of the future would be a recurring element in the 30, such as the movie version of H.G. Wells' Thins To Come ('36).

Glory Is Fleeting -- Armstrong's idea of a mid-Atlantic stopover, which seemed like a wondrous fantasy in 1932, would soon become unnecessary. It only solved the problem that commercial airplanes of early 30s did not have sufficient range to fly like Lindberg did. That techno-shortcoming was also the Zeppelins' brief reason for limelight. By the late 30s, longer-range aircraft would be designed and built that could fly the oceans without stopping. Even if built, FP1 wouldn't have had long before it was irrelevant. Which is exactly the point of our next 30s sci-fi film: The Tunnel.

Bottom line? FP1 is a fun taste of sci-fi before nukes and flying saucers -- when transatlantic flights were as almost-possible as moon flights were in the 50s. FP1 may not be as much fun for viewers who (A) require color films, (B) require lavish special effects, or (C) require monsters/aliens. Fans of old movies can enjoy it. Fans of the classic sci-fi genre can see sci-fi in its pre-nuclear form.