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| San Francisco Examiner - March 6, 1946 |
Twenty or so years ago, more or less, I purchased a DVD box set of the horror films Val Lewton produced for RKO. I watched them all, of course, but some lodged in my memory and others did not. Isle of the Dead is one of the latter.
Citing Arnold Böcklin's painting The Isle of the Dead as its inspiration (the painting is used as a backdrop for the film's opening title) and namesake, Isle of the Dead was directed by frequent Lewton collaborator Mark Robson.
While Robson had a lengthy directing career filled with all manner of notable titles, I knew him best as the director of Earthquake (1974).
The second half of this RKO first run double-bill is Zombies on Broadway, which was the studio's attempt at an Abbott and Costello style comedy. I have not seen it. But... John Stanley, in his book Revenge of the Creature Features Movie Guide, said, "Taken as a period piece, it is quite funny..." I'll take his word for it.
But I did learn a couple of interesting tidbits about the film. One being that Darby Jones, whose zombified countenance provided memorable nightmare fuel in Lewton's 1943 production I Walked with a Zombie, played one of the zombies commanded by the mad scientist Paul Renault (Bela Lugosi, of course). Another being that the film was directed by Gordon Douglas, who helmed the classic giant monster movie THEM! (1954).
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