morrison-dylan-fan Moving to ICM after IMDb stupidly shut down its message boards,I decided to take part in a poll on the best titles of 1940. Originally planning to end my viewings with the Peter Lorre-starring Stranger on the Third Floor,I was sadly unable to find the movie in time,but thankfully stumbled on another 1940 Lorre film which looked like it had a similar mood,which led to me going to the island.The plot:Working undercover with his partner, undercover secret service agent Mark Sheldon is told by his friend that he has found out about a desert island where men are being sent to for modern slavery. Just before he reveals who is in charge of the island,Sheldon's pal is shot in the back. Desperate to get his revenge,Sheldon goes deeper undercover in order to secure his own tickets to the sadistic island.View on the film:Shooting Sheldon's friend in the back with ultra-stylish low lighting,director Charles Barton & cinematographer Benjamin H. Kline swing the fruit of the jungle between early proto-Film Noir espionage and burning hot proto-007 "Adventure." Peeling open baddie Stephen Danel's lair,Barton make up a hideout worthy of Bond,as Barton and Kline cover the island in bright lights that create a scorching hot atmosphere. Kept to a smooth 68 minutes,the screenplay by Robert Hardy Andrews keeps the action on a razor edge,via pulling Sheldon out of his big city Noir and into a jungle where he is out of his depths. Whilst keeping Sheldon's manner blunt,Andrews gives the flick shots of a mischievous nature by giving Danel peculiar edges that includes a hatred for a rather cute monkey. Joined by a rough and ready Robert Wilcox as Sheldon and a glamorous Rochelle Hudson as island babe Lorraine Danel, Stephen Danel deliciously chews every scene as Peter Lorre,thanks to Lorre linking Danel's menace with a wicked playfulness,on the island of doomed men.

betsmith6 The basic story of Island of Doomed Men seems to be based on the true story of Narvassa Island. The main difference was in real life, the men were mining guano, not diamonds and they were black contract workers from the Balitmore area, not paroled convicts. Like in the movie, the men were treated brutally like slaves. This eventually led to an uprising with several of the overseers murdered. Some of the black workers were then put on trial for murder but when the true story of what was allowed to occur was publicized, they were pardoned by President Harrison. Narvassa Island, located between Cuba and Haiti, was designated a wildlife refuge in the 1990s.

ice_9-1 Peter Lorre was born to play Stephen Danel with lines like: "Mr. Smith, you shouldn't hold my wife like that." and "I told you not to keep the monkey in the house!" The poster for this film is an eerie green and Peter Lorre leers in way that makes you never want to go to his penal colony / island. This film is not available on DVD although it is a classic and very rarely shown on TV. What exactly is the relationship between Stephen Danel and the monkey? Why does the monkey upset him so much. We will never know. The film should be colorized by someone and excerpts should be made into a Kinks video. The film was re-released in the 1950s and only a few of the Peter Lorre biographies spend any text on this film. Casablanca was right around the corner. Bogart could have been on that island but they surely did not have the budget for him

Anne_Sharp This delicious low camp kinkfest proves that studio-era censorship wasn't nearly as thorough as it's purported to have been. In what seems almost like a rehearsal for the tormented lustmurderer Dr. Rothe in "Der Verlorene," Lorre gives unexpected depth and nuance to the melodramatic villain Stephen Danel, with just a dash of his patented quirky humor. Though the film itself is crude and pulpy, with an extreme BDSM quotient (Danel's prisoners are kept in line with cat o' nine tails, as, it's strongly implied, is Mrs. Danel) Lorre's deft performance lifts "Island of Dommed Men" from the realm of the ridiculous into sublimity.