The Panther Woman Stole The Show, Girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But "Island Of Lost Souls" Was More Disturbing Than I First Thought!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                    I mean, with Kathleen Burke writhing before Richard Arlen as Edward Parker, in a style unseen until Olive Deering in DeMille's 1956 "The Ten Commandments," not to mention sadism and vivisection, "Island Of Lost Souls" turned out to be a most disturbing evening, and one of the most disturbing films "Svengoolie" has ever shown.

                                     Charles Laughton, as Dr. Moreau, certainly hammed it up, what with his white suit, his wry delivery of lines, cracking the whip like he was hosting an S and M party, and his classic "Playgirl" pose--to lure Richard Arlen, I suppose--so the film had its campy moments.  But the psychological and scientific underpinnings were terrifying, and the screams from the House Of Pain were gruesomely chilling.  If the Hays Code had been in place, then, this would never have been made.  As it was, according to Svengoolie, the film was banned in 1932 in some Midwestern states, and in the U.K.  Guess it went over the heads of the rest of America.

                                          Girls, I was so impressed by this film, I picked up a copy of what it was based on--H.G. Wells' novel, "The Island Of Dr. Moreau."  It has so many parallels to "Frankenstein," there is no Panther Woman in it, although Moreau tortures a puma, trying to make it into a woman, and the entire thing is narrated by the main character, here named Edward Prendick.

                                            Take it from me, dolls, this was not a film for children or the faint of heart. Even I was pretty unnerved by it.

                                               But you just got to love The Panther Woman's look!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                               Who knows?  It may have foreshadowed "She Demons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"