Isle Of The Dead (1941) - Movie Review скачать в хорошем качестве

Isle Of The Dead (1941) - Movie Review

#BorisKarlof #MovieReviews #SkeltonKnaggs This was a fun, spooky film set in 1912 Greece around the time of the first Balkan war with Boris Karlof, a creepy setting, and an ancient Greek vampire monster. So Boris Karlof plays Gen. Nikolas Pherides. The film opens with him having just giving the order for one of his troops to shoot himself over a mission failure, kind of setting up that this is a no nonsense kind of character. With him is Oliver Davis (played by Marc Cramer), a correspondent for the Boston Star. Even though there's a war going on, they both travel to a local graveyard, where the general was going to put flowers on the grave of his wife. Apparently this is a time of plague, with typhus killing people. Curious to see a film with people wearing face masks at one point too. A time of plague and precautions. I wonder what that could be like to live in a time like that? Anyhow, they travel by boat to a small island - a graveyard island - where the General discovers the crypt has been broken into and the body gone. It gets weirder as they hear a woman singing and go to investigate, and find an occupied house where they are welcomed in. They meet Albrecht (actor Jason Robards) who welcomes them in to meet some of the refugees of the war that live there. He explains the tomb was likely raised as part of archaeological discovery years ago by some of the locals. We also meet housekeeper Kyra (Helene Thimig), Saint Aubyn (Alan Napier - Alfred of Batman fame!) and his wife Mary (actress Katherine Emery). Thea arrives, played by the lovely Ellen Drew. I saw her recently in Man from Colorado with William Holden. She doesn't seem initially fold of Gen. Pherides, thinking he's a harsh man, and doesn't want to serve him wine. The folks offer the General and Oliver a place to stay for the night though, and Oliver gladly accepts. Soon he's taking a bath in a crazy shoe-shaped bathtub. I need one like that! Later that night Thea goes to get some medicine for another woman and encounters creepy old Gen. Pherides in the hall. He's still a little bothered about the earlier wine incident and brings that up, but she's not fond of his actions as general. When one of the guys becomes ill at the house, the general summons his doctor, Dr. Drossos, played by Ernst Deutsch (of The Third Man - I need to watch that one again for this channel.) Anyhow, the doctor meets with everyone to tell them it's a serious outbreak of septicemic plague going on and everyone is restricted to quarantine on the island. Hmmm, quarantines... Oliver, meanwhile, seems to fancy Thea. The old woman, Madam Kyra warns of death and doom and so on. There's talk of the "vorvodika", as this evil vampire spirit thing from local folklore. St. Aubyn dies, presumably from the disease, and the general says the body must be removed. Thea is reluctant to obey the generals order on this. The doctor speaks with the widow (Mary Aubyn) expectedly acts with alarm about this, as she has fears of making sure the body is actually dead and so on, prior to burial (I mean, don't we all have that concern) but she apologizes later apologize to the doctor for getting all animated. Well, tThe doctor soon falls to the disease as well, and the general starts to suspect something evil is going on. I have to admit, I like Boris Karlof but the pacing to this point (almost 40 minutes in) is a tad slow. Granted, it's a moody, creepy psychological thriller, but the pace for the first half is a tad slow. Mary Aubyn confronts the General and tells him off about his controlling, and soon after has a fainting spell and passes out, where she's tended to by Thea. That night Thea hears the taunting voice saying, "vorvodika...vorvodika..." over and over, calling her out (the voice of the creepy old woman). She freaks out about it and unsure what is being talked about. Is she or isn't she? Closing thoughts: this was interesting to see the creature of the film as involving ancient Greek vampire legends, and Boris Karloff does a fine job as the controlling paranoid general who seems to get more and more loopy as the film carries on. Setting this in a creepy old house during a time of quarantine was also interesting (and timely). But again, the film pace did seem to run a little bit slowly up until the last 15 minutes or so. It's a brief film, though, so that's fine, and I liked the variety of characters. Cool to see briefly Skelton Knaggs, who was in another Universal horror film and has, I think, one of the coolest names ever. Free music courtesy of:    / audiolibrary   Turn - the Tower of Light