Is that a monster at my breast, or am I just nursing?
Having just finished viewing Voodoo Island (1957) with Boris Karloff and Elisha Cook, Jr., I am forced to the unpalatable position of finding that the theme of the movie is that one should abandon rationality and surrender oneself to the mystical forces behind Voodoo. A man is examined by a noted scientist and doctor, Phillip Knight (Karloff). He betrays no organic disease, but is unresponsive. He and three others had been dispatched to an island to survey it for a tropical island; he is the only one who returned, found on an island 50 miles away from the target.
Knight proposes they visit the island in hopes of discovering the source of the man’s problem. After an obstacle-ridden flight, they finally arrive at the nearest island with a landingstrip, and embark on a boat for the final leg. Despite mechanical problems, the island is attained. Various adventures occur as members of the party are picked off by carnivorous plants, voodoo, and perhaps other things – I sorta lost focus part way through.
Eventually, taken captive, the primacy of the voodoo is demonstrated for Knight, who, faced with his error, immediately acknowledges it and makes full confession to the native chief, upon which the survivors are released.
Good acting and dialog couldn’t cover for a story that never quite finds a focus. While the opening scene had my Arts Editor and I initially fooled (and pleased at being fooled), the carnivorous plants were mostly laughable – it would have been better to just hint at them, make us wonder. I hoped the initial scene would set a theme to follow, but no, the director didn’t go that direction, at least with anything notable. And the characters were never really setup properly, so it was hard to feel sympathy for each one at they met their fates. Perhaps they shook hands with their fates – it seems like the polite thing to do.
Really mediocre, so not recommended (unless you’re an Adam West completist – bonus, he doesn’t get a credit, so you have to guess!).
