alr

Island of Lost Souls

Screening on Film
Directed by Erie C. Kenton .
With Erie C. Kenton, Charles Laughton, Bela Lugosi, Richard Arlen .
US, 1932, 35mm, black & white, 70 min.
Print source: Universal

While Universal is rightly considered the home of the Hollywood horror film, Paramount’s leading entry in the genre has lost little of its power to shock. Like its contemporaries The Most Dangerous Game and King Kong, Island of Lost Souls takes place on a remote island that harbors a dreadful secret. This adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau stars Charles Laughton as a particularly and peculiarly depraved mad scientist. The film rivals Tod Browning’s Freaks as the best example of the viciousness of the pre-Code horror movie; it would go on to influence both George Romero and Devo.

Part of film series

Read more

100 Years of Paramount Pictures

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Art of Harry Smith

Read more

The Yugoslav Junction: Film and Internationalism in the SFRY, 1957 – 1988

Read more

From the Jenni Olson Queer Film Collection

Read more
a close-up of a Bissau-Guinean woman wearing a scarf on her head and looking directly at the camera with a slight smile

Le Dépays + Sans soleil

Read more
Peter Sellers wearing a large hat with "ME" embroidered on it, and gripping a Pilgrim-like collar

Carol for Another Christmas

Read more

Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy