The third film version of H.G. Wells’ tale on Dr. Moreau (self-proclaimed sovereign of an isolated atoll/Mad Genius splicing genes to create humanoid beasts) is generally dismissed as a travesty. And so it is! Just less Travesty/First Definition: Crude, distorted, ridiculous misrepresentation; then its less-pejorative Second Definition: A Burlesque. And its original filmmaker Richard Stanley may even have known it. Where other versions hide the big reveal as climax (‘Are We Not Men?!!’), here all is explained after a couple of reels. What’s left to fill out the running time is riot, release, rebellion and revenge. It proves too little (or is it too much?) for John Frankenheimer, taking over from Stanley fairly early, but faced with little more than ordnance hunts for half his running time. Yet, like the Curate’s Egg, it's good in part as Marlon Brando’s Moreau sends up his own work as Colonel Kurtz in APOCALYPSE NOW/’79*, but here with the distinctive vocal stylings of Charles Laughton. (Moreau in ‘32; still creepy, still effective.) Val Kilmer lolls around as his aide-de-camp, eventually giving himself over to a Brando impersonation. And, as an outsider, horrified by what he discovers, David Thewlis looks half-human/half-animal even without any makeup from creature designer Stan Winston. Admittedly, the tone rises & falls in stages only to dissipate once Brando leaves the scene. But it's good unexpected (and largely unnoticed!) fun for a while.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: As mentioned, the old 1932 version is something of a classic. (https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2012/09/island-of-lost-souls-1932.html) A 1977 version with Burt Lancaster (not seen here) looks merely inadequate. OR: *Eleven years before Col. Kurtz, Brando sent up his own character playing a skinny Guru in CANDY/’68.
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