586 Island of Lost Souls

[TechNoir]

I am a little confused. What does Devo have to do with this?

I'm not a Devo expert but their first album was called Q:Are we not men?A:We are Devo!.Also The Cramps were influenced by this film,their 1981 album Psychedelic jungle has a track called The natives are restless.

I love Devo, but I don't see the connection between the title of the first album, to the title Island of Lost Souls. I am assuming that the band just really enjoys the film.

[swo17]

"Are we not men?" is an oft repeated refrain in the film. See also the interior artwork here.

[Jeff]

The chorus that keeps repeating the "Are we not men" is directly from the very first Island Of Lost Souls (1932). There were 2 remakes that were both tepid and not nearly as compelling as the original. The original had a mad scientist on a deserted Pacific Island where he operated on animals - beasts from the jungle, in a room called the House Of Pain. He operates on these beasts to try to raise them up on the evolutionary chart. It's a very painful operation and when he does this, you can hear them screaming in the middle of the night in the House Of Pain. His biggest success was a female named Lota who used to be a panther, but these animals keep devolving backwards. Lota gets cat claws, and she knows she's devolving. He has to do a painful operation to bring her back again, but in the meantime you see all these characters that are like sub-human, half-animal, half-man creatures that stumble around the jungle. Some of them could hold menial jobs at the House Of Pain. At one point, they were walking in a line around a fire in the woods at night while the doctor's working in the House Of Pain, and they were casting shadows on the side of the House Of Pain, and I saw these shadows of these sub-human creatures just slouching past the wall, and I was like, 'Holy crap, I know all those people, they live here in Akron with me.' That's where the inspiration came from. The mad scientist would crack a whip standing on a rock and all the animals would come to attention, and he'd go, 'What is the law?' Usually it meant one of them had broken the law, like bad dogs that aren't house trained yet. They would all go in kind of a humble fashion, 'Not to spill blood.' Then he would go 'Are we not men?' and he'd crack the whip again and then he goes, 'What is the law?' and they'd have another law they'd have to repeat like 'Not to eat flesh' or 'Not to walk on all fours.' Then he'd crack the whip again and go 'Are we not men?' So that's where the line came from. There were like, watered down, wussy versions of it in the later Islands Of Dr. Moreau stuff, but that was a really intense movie.

[Thomas Dukenfield]

I'm curious why Beaver thinks the 1932 Island of Lost Souls is "presumably... in the public domain."

I couldn't figure out why that would be presumed either. It's absolutely owned by Universal.

Maybe because there are quite a few 30s horrors in the public domain (White Zombie comes to mind), Gary thinks Island is one of them. However, if it was in the public domain, we would've seen about 20 crappy DVD releases of it already (a la White Zombie).

[TechNoir]

Thank you swo17, and Jeff. I thought I had seen this before, but perhaps not.

[colinr0380]

Mondo Digital review

[swo17]

10 Things I Learned while working on Island of Lost Souls

[ptatler]

Here are my thoughts on the film and disc should you need any convincing. This will always be in my personal pantheon, regardless of whether or not it's empirically good. I hope the CC disc helps boost ISLAND's profile a bit.

[Jack Phillips]

I have to say I was underwhelmed. Perhaps it was because, the day before, I saw a real corker of film, also from 1932, Afraid to Talk.

[SamLowry]

I'm not a Devo expert but their first album was called Q:Are we not men?A:We are Devo!.Also The Cramps were influenced by this film,their 1981 album Psychedelic jungle has a track called The natives are restless.

All this talk of Devo, Oingo Boingo & The Cramps, but no mention of Blondie? The horror...

[tarpilot]

empirically good

Those are near-unfailingly the worst movies, so I'd stick with the personal pantheon

[kneelzod]

Perhaps it was because, the day before, I saw a real corker of film, also from 1932, Afraid to Talk.

That it was...although they really should have put the film in T1. T2 gets pretty hot and uncomfortable when it's crowded the way that show was on Sunday. Incidentally, it was refreshing to see a such a strong pre-Code non-horror title from Universal. AFRAID TO TALK is also known as MERRY-GO-ROUND as I learned from IMDb, which uses the latter as its primary listing title.

Back on topic, can't wait to pick up spine #586.

[TechNoir]

I'm not a Devo expert but their first album was called Q:Are we not men?A:We are Devo!.Also The Cramps were influenced by this film,their 1981 album Psychedelic jungle has a track called The natives are restless.

All this talk of Devo, Oingo Boingo & The Cramps, but no mention of Blondie? The horror...

The horror is in that song. I never liked that album much.

[Cold Bishop]

Afraid to Talk is fairly well-known around these parts. And as one of its biggest boosters (and Ed Cahn in general), I still don't think it's a better film than Island of Lost Souls

[zombeaner]

While we're on the subject, any fans of 80's UK trash may recognize this Tall Boys classic

[JPJ]

Thanks for posting the link Zombeaner,I had forgotten that song.This is sort of off topic but does any of the forums UK member remember London's Psychotronic video store?Wasn't the owner in the Tall boys or maybe some other psychobilly band like The Stingrays??

[movielocke]

watched a bit of the Landis/Baker/Burns supplement, Baker's body language is pretty hilarious, he seems pretty irritated by Burns. Landis for some reasons seems to be channelling Leonard Maltin, which is interesting and frightening.

[manicsounds]

Landis, like Leonard Maltin, cannot stop moving his head around while talking. (just watch every Maltin interview, when he stops talking, his head stops moving)

Just finished the disc, except for the commentary. Excellent and varying selection of extras.

[Gregor Samsa]

Landis, like Leonard Maltin, cannot stop moving his head around while talking. (just watch every Maltin interview, when he stops talking, his head stops moving)

Just finished the disc, except for the commentary. Excellent and varying selection of extras.

Agreed. The commentary's well worth checking out when you get the chance too. I particularly liked the ending sections where a large variety of initial reviews are quoted, which gives a very strong (and interesting) idea of how the film was received without later cultural baggage.

[manicsounds]

Just did, Gregory Mank was excellent in his research and knowledge. I know I've heard him before, but I can't find a list of commentaries that he's done. I have "Mask Of Fu Manchu" from the "Hollywood Legends Of Horror" collection. Anything else?

[Grand Wazoo]

Here's a nice list of commentaries from his website.

I remember looking for this after hearing his Cat People track. He's a very enjoyable, energetic speaker. I wish more commentaries had the speaker take this much joy in the subject.

[matrixschmatrix]

The Jekyll and Hyde and Cat People commentaries are excellent, too. I'll have to look the other ones up.

[manicsounds]

Yes, "Cat People", that was the other one. Now I'll have to watch "The Mayor Of Hell" sometime soon.

[reaky]

I like the notion of getting Devo in to talk on a film they like and that inspired their music. I can see this as a trend that could catch on.

Coming soon to The Criterion Collection: Scott Walker on Bergman (The Seventh Seal); Mick Jones on Nicolas Roeg (E=MC2); Morrissey on Visconti and Pasolini (You Have Killed Me); David Sylvian on Cocteau (Ink In The Well, Orpheus). We don't have to call Deep Blue Something.

[tarpilot]

Le Tigre roundtable on Cassavetes!