Scarecrow-88 Bill Martin(Dick Foran)has been a failure at almost every small business he has started, his pal, Stuff(Fuzzy Knight), always wondering when the two would find real jobs so that they could get themselves out of debt. Martin has the deed to an island and castle, deciding to try his hand at a new business venture, inspired by a peg-leg "pirate", who discovered a treasure map found in a corked bottle floating in the ocean. The mysterious "The Phantom", a shadowy man in a black top hat and cape, attacks Peg-Leg and takes a part of the map. Martin accidentally crashes into the car of Wendy Creighton(Peggy Moran), owner of a yacht club, sweet-talking her into coming on board his boat, the Skiddoo along with other customers who fork over 50 bucks for the treasure hunt trip to his "ghost castle" for "adventure and thrills". Also along for the ride is Bill's cousin George(John Eldredge), who wants to purchase the island, Professor Jasper Quinley(Hobart Cavanaugh), who authenticates maps(calling the one in Martin's possession a fake)and walks in his sleep, Thurman Coldwater(Lewis Howard), a friend of Wendy's(bored almost immediately, seemingly only on the trip as a favor to Wendy), Sergeant McGoon(Walter Catlett; a policeman who charges Martin of false advertising in regards to ghosts being on his island), Rod Grady(Ralf Harolde; actually a criminal on the lam)and Rod's wife, Arleen(Iris Adrian; with eyes for George). The Phantom(Foy Van Dolsen)immediately attempts to harm members of this expedition using a crossbow and suit of armor, while also speaking across an intercom set up by Martin and Stuff to spook the customers as to frighten them off the island so he could get his hands on actual treasure possibly inside the castle. Like in other Universal features, the castle has secret passages and members of the treasure hunt fall prey to a killer. A terrific cast(Moran and Foran were together in the best Mummy sequel, THE MUMMY'S HAND)works wonders and the treasure hunt, not to mention the whodunit that develops when one among the group starts picking off individuals(after each murder, the killer uses chalk on a wall to decrease the number still remaining), is entertaining. HORROR ISLAND is over before you know it and benefits from the wonderful chemistry between Foran, Moran, and Knight. I consider HORROR ISLAND the kind of enjoyable B-movie fare perfect for a Saturday afternoon when you have some time to kill, but it's more of an adventure than a horror film. I think HORROR ISLAND would team very well with the other Foran vehicle, THE MUMMY'S HAND..I just wish he had made a few more for Universal studios, he is quite charming and has a nice presence on screen, as does the lovely and vivacious Foran. Probably the most pleasant surprise in the Universal Movie Archives set released not long ago.

dougdoepke Fast-talking promoter takes motley group of people to haunted island in search of hidden treasure. Shot, edited, and released, all in 25 days, and frankly it shows. Must be some kind of record, even for a B-movie quickie. In my book, it's the screenplay that suffers most. Looks like they took 90 minutes of material and crammed it into 60 minutes of film. If you can make sense of the castle goings-on, there should be a place for you in the space program. Also looks like the writers took every dark-house gimmick and shoe-horned it in somewhere, anywhere. Note how many puzzles (crossbow killing of the phantom; George's killing) are given abruptly awkward and hurried explanations. Apparently, there was no time for anything else. All of which would be okay if the scary parts were really scary or the funny parts, funny. But unfortunately they're not.What the movie does have are expensive leftover sets, Woody Bredell's first-rate photography, and two really likable leads (Moran and Foran). Foran makes an engaging fast- talking promoter, while Susan Hayward look-alike Moran is both cute and lively. There were a number of these haunted mansion films during this period. My favorite is Bob Hope's Cat and Canary (1939), which really shows how the premise should be done. Too bad that Universal didn't give the production more time to develop, especially to better organize the screenplay.

The_Void Horror Island was obviously made on a shoestring budget to accompany some bigger Universal film. I wasn't surprised it took only twelve days to shoot. In spite of this, however, Horror Island is an entertaining little flick that never really has time to get boring. The first half of the film is the best; and this is mostly thanks to Dick Foran. He plays a 'wheeling and dealing' businessman who has a lot of creditors on his back. This leads him to begin offering trips to a haunted island where his punters can look for buried treasure. After getting together a party of people through various means, they set off to the island...and the film goes downhill from there. There's some subplot about a mysterious phantom wanting the treasure for himself; but it seems like the writer didn't really know what to do once we get to the main bulk of the film and a lot of the early momentum is lost. Still, the film is always at least amusing and at only sixty minutes, there's not enough time for it to outstay its welcome. The whole thing is rather jokey and silly and I'm not surprised it hasn't endured as one of Universal's classics. Still, it's worth a look if you have an hour to spare.

MARIO GAUCI I had first known about this through a still in the Halliwell Film Guide, though the noted late critic usually dismissed similar programmers: it turned out to be a fun horror comedy (from a story by Curt Siodmak) whose 60-minute length zips by – providing plenty of characters (even if the gangster-on-the-lam and his moll don't really work here), action, old-fashioned thrills (a caped maniac after hidden loot is loose in a remote castle), chuckles – and a surprise villain; the film is a shade overbalanced by the comedy, but the typical Universal atmosphere (and a few of its more notable sets!) are certainly present throughout. It also features a good second-tier cast: likable Dick Foran and cute Peggy Moran – re-united after the superior THE MUMMY'S HAND (1940) – are the leads and they're ably supported by the likes of Leo Carrillo, Fuzzy Knight, Hobart Cavanaugh and Walter Catlett; however, it's Lewis Howard who steals the film as Moran's chronically tired companion – even though he's absent through most of the second half! Michael Elliott had rated this a *** and I almost did myself – but, in the long run, I don't think the film has quite the same draw as even some of the lesser titles in the Universal monster cycle; still, for an 'old dark house' type of film – of which the studio did their fair share – it's well up to par. Incidentally, I had acquired another copy of this on DVD-R last year, but the disc froze several times during playback and I had to give up after a while; I'm glad I caught up with it eventually, as the film deserves to have a legitimate DVD release along with some of the other rare/lesser-known Universal horrors, like MAN-MADE MONSTER (1941) – which I've never watched! – and NIGHT MONSTER (1942).