Are We Not Men? – ‘Island of Lost Souls’ and What It Means to Be Human

After the success of Dracula in early 1931, several studios large and small rushed into production on their own macabre features. With the early thirties being the depths of the Great Depression, these studios were eager to make films on low budgets that could turn large profits. As has continued to be the case even to this day, horror films were the prime candidate. Besides Universal, the studio with one of the strongest track records in the genre during this time was Paramount. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) had been a financial and critical success, winning its star Frederic March an Academy Award for his dual role. The studio decided to return to the well of literature for its follow-up, adapting H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau into Island of Lost Souls (1932), which remains an important and effective example of early science fiction/horror.

The film stars Charles Laughton as Dr. Moreau, who is in many ways reminiscent of Dr. Frankenstein, but far less empathetic than Colin Clive’s version of that character from Universal’s film of the previous year. Like Frankenstein, Moreau comments on the godlike powers he possesses in creating the beast men that inhabit his island. “Do you know what it means to feel like God?” Moreau asks Edward Parker (Richard Arlen), a castaway from a shipwreck that arrives at the island via a supply ship that discovers him in a life raft. Unlike Clive’s Frankenstein, Laughton’s Moreau does not think better of his actions later, but continues to make more beast-men, and one panther woman, through mysterious and apparently cruel means in his “House of Pain.” He rules over his creations as a dictator, exploiting them for labor through the threat of punishment and torture. Laughton’s portrayal of Moreau is layered and nuanced, however, making him more than a mad megalomaniac.

Helping to control the beast-men of the island is The Sayer of the Law, played in heavy makeup by Bela Lugosi. It is believed that Lugosi took the role to dispel a rumor that he would not work in makeup, which started because he turned down the role of the monster in Frankenstein. According to film historian Gregory Mank, the reason Lugosi took the role may well have been out of necessity as he, generous to a fault who often helped needy friends financially, filed for bankruptcy during the filming of Island of Lost Souls. Whatever his reasons for taking it, Lugosi never gave less than his all to a performance, no matter the studio, budget, or size of role. The Sayer of the Law is not a large role but is one of the most memorable in the film.

The scene in which the law is spoken is one of the film’s best. It features a large horde of beast-men gathered below a towering, Luciferian-looking Moreau in his white suit, perfectly trimmed goatee, holding the bullwhip he uses to keep order. The scene plays like a religious ritual, with Sayer as the priest, and Moreau the object of worship. He announces, “what is the law?” receiving the response from Lugosi’s Sayer, “Not to run on all fours. That is the Law. Are we not men?” To which the congregated beast-men respond, “Are we not men?” in slurred, grunting, and above all submissive tones. Moreau again asks, “what is the law?” to which Sayer responds, “not to eat meat. That is the law. Are we not men?” and finally “not to spill blood. That is the law. Are we not men?” He then concludes with a chilling invocation that echoes the final lines of the Lord’s Prayer (for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory…), by saying “His is the hand that makes. His is the hand that heals. His is the House of Pain,” with the beast men again responding after each phrase. In this sense, Moreau is like a cult leader, oppressing those under his sway and further feeding his monumental ego.

The scene is also a showcase for the incredible makeup work of Wally Westmore, who is uncredited on the film, and his crew. Westmore was the head of makeup at Paramount and remains best known for his work on Frederic March in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. For Island of Lost Souls, Westmore and his team created a vast array of memorable monsters including the Pig Man, and others who resemble goats, wolves, gorillas, and any number of other animals. Considering that these were created in the days of collodion, greasepaint, and yak hair, they are especially remarkable.

Another memorable cast member was an unknown found in a nationwide contest in which some 60,000 women entered and competed for the role of Lota the “Panther Woman.” The role eventually went to Kathleen Burke, who is credited in the opening titles as “The Panther Woman.” This was not unheard of in those days; Boris Karloff was credited as “?” in the opening titles of Frankenstein, his name only appearing in the cast list at the close of the film. In Island of Lost Souls, Lota is the only woman on the Island and the only of Moreau’s creations that he gives some level of free agency to. He intends to extend his God-like role by making Parker and Lota the Adam and Eve of his paradise, hoping they will be able to create life through natural means and populate his world with beast-human hybrids. Parker only discovers that she is another of Moreau’s creations when he feels her claws on his back. Burke plays Lota with a subtle animal nature, slinking, staring, and moving with the speed and agility of a cat.

Island of Lost Souls is also a case in point that horror and science fiction have always been genres in which complicated political and social issues could be explored and discussed in creative and compelling ways. The original novel was a tract against the cruel practice of vivisection, in which surgeries were performed on animals while they were awake. The film includes discussion of vivisection but expands it to other forms of animal cruelty and experimentation. The film also delves into prison reform, class struggles, and worker’s rights. Moreau can be seen as a wealthy industrialist, cruel warden, or cult leader, in all cases oppressing the poor and powerless.

The film culminates in a kind of workers revolution or prison riot in which the beast-men, realizing that because of their numbers they hold much more power than Moreau, rise up and overtake him. They capture Moreau and strap him to the surgical table in the House of Pain, performing what are doubtless inept and excruciating surgeries on him, likely ripping him to pieces. In this way, Island of Lost Souls has much in common with another great film of 1932, Tod Browning’s Freaks, which also starred Leila Hyams who plays Parker’s fiancée Ruth in this film. In Freaks, the sideshow performers take their revenge on a trapeze artist who has wronged one of their own, turning her by unknown means into a deformed bird-woman. Something similar no doubt happens to Moreau, though we are left to imagine his fate.

Island of Lost Souls was like Freaks in another way as well, both films were extremely controversial when released in 1932. Island of Lost Souls faced several cuts from regional censors who objected to the sexual and what they deemed to be blasphemous elements of the film. It was banned in Great Britain outright until 1958 when it was finally released in a very truncated form. Originally produced before the Production Code (generally called the Hayes Code) was enforced, the film also faced heavy cuts for its 1935 re-release when the Code was in full effect. Considering that the film was already only 70 minutes long, these cuts truncated it to barely an hour. Fortunately, the film has now been fully restored and released in a stunning Blu-ray by the Criterion Collection. Despite this, the film is still largely underseen and under-appreciated, especially compared to Universal releases of the period. This is unfortunate as the film remains one of the best of the era.

Unfortunately, not everyone agreed with this assessment. H.G. Wells, still living in 1932, was not a big fan of movies and by all accounts, hated the film, feeling it strayed too far from the ideas of his original novel. Despite Wells’ objections, Island of Lost Souls remains by far the best adaptation of his story to date. The novel has been adapted officially twice more for the screen. The 1977 version was widely panned at the time, but as often happens has gained some level of reappraisal in the ensuing years. Far more notorious is the 1996 debacle originally begun with Richard Stanley and finished by John Frankenheimer starring Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer. Though I’m sure that film has its defenders (it seems like every film does), there is little to redeem it.

Despite the legacy of censorship and less than stellar later versions, Island of Lost Souls still retains its power. It is proof that, despite our best efforts, we still struggle with many of the same problems that plagued us ninety years ago, though clear progress has been made. But beyond the socio-political and economic explorations of the film, it asks us to question something much more universal, namely what it means to be human. The film is empathetic to the plight of the beast-men, who Moreau sees as mere brutes and beasts. It is Moreau, however, that is the true beast of this film, cruel and inhuman despite his intellect and guise of humanity. He demands that his creations ask themselves “are we not men?” but never asks it of himself. This lack of self-reflection makes him more animal than the beast-men he rules over with an iron hand. And perhaps that is the ultimate goal of the film, for each of us to ask ourselves “are we not human?” and examine what that means for each of us.

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