Vitals

Richard Arlen as Edward Parker, shipwrecked sailor

South Pacific, Summer 1932

Film: Island of Lost Souls
Release Date: December 23, 1932
Director: Erle C. Kenton

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

The old maxim that a gentleman shouldn’t wear white after Labor Day has long grown outdated, but those looking for one last hurrah in summer whites can find inspiration in Erle C. Kenton’s pre-Code sci-fi/horror adventure Island of Lost Souls.

Set on the titular island (but actually filmed on Catalina), this adaptation of H.G. Wells’ 1896 novel The Island of Doctor Moreau stars Charles Laughton as the eponymous Moreau and Richard Arlen as the shipwrecked Edward Parker, who finds himself at Moreau’s mercy on the island.

The sole survivor from the sunken S.S. Lady Vain, Parker is plucked from the sea aboard the Covina, where he’s treated by the enigmatic ex-doctor Montgomery (Arthur Hohl)—who seems more in command of the ship and its strange animal cargo than the drunken Captain Davies (Stanley Fields), who grumblingly describes their mysterious destination as “Dr. Moreau’s island, and it stinks all over the whole South Seas.”

Parker soon understands this criticism firsthand after discovering that Moreau has been dissecting men and beasts and combining their DNA into grotesque hybrid creatures, snarling in response: “Now I can understand why you and your island stink from one end of the South Seas to the other!” To keep Parker distracted and further his own experimentation, Moreau introduces him to the alluring Lota (Kathleen Burke) without explaining that she is part-panther.

Born 126 years ago today on September 1, 1899 (and shockingly only two months younger than Laughton), Arlen was cast after Randolph Scott was initially considered to play Parker. One of the most prominent actors of the 1920s and ’30s, Arlen brought his experience as a Canadian Royal Flying Corps pilot to his starring role in the first-ever winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture, Wings (1927). Though his stature waned in later decades, Arlen was one of the few major silent-era stars to successfully transition onto television, with guest appearances on dozens of shows until his death in March 1976. Continue reading →