Not The Famous Monster

THE ISLAND MONSTER-1954-Critics go on and on about how bad this movie is. True, it's boring and one of Karloff's worst. His real voice isn't even used. A bad imitator dubs him. THE ISLAND MONSTER isn't very good. The story drags and the dubbing is terrible but the film was never meant to be viewed outside of Italian speaking countries. This wasn't that uncommon (it happened to Christopher Lee in the German made Sherlock Holmes and would again effect Karloff in THE SNAKE PEOPLE). In the mid-fifties Boris wasn't making a lot of movies. He concentrated his career on TV (he started the “Col. March” TV series the same year) and the stage. Still he felt if someone wanted him for a film he was usually willing to take it. And getting a free trip to Italy for his wife and himself couldn't hurt. He was also probably under the assumption that it wouldn't be shown outside of Italy. It wasn't a pleasant experience for him being the only English speaking cast member and he didn't like the fact that his character was totally unsympathetic in the end. Personally I was glad to see it when it showed up once on WOR’s “Fright Night” in NYC.

Mario (Renato Vicario), an undercover cop in Naples investigates the smuggling of heroin. He meets Guy Gaetano (King Karloff), the island’s “benefactor”, who has built a hospital for sick babies. He goes to a club where everyone acts suspiciously and he pretends to romance D'Auro (Franca Marzi), a singer there. Trouble of another kind brews when Mario's wife Fiorella and little daughter (and their dog) come to visit and wife sees Mario talking to D'Auro. She meets with a smuggler named Foster (Carlo Duse) because they are all in the dope ring and take their orders from an unseen boss (gee...I wonder who that is?). Foster wants the singer to kill Mario. I guess she refuses because later Fiorella is lured from her hotel room with a phony phone call and leaves their daughter alone in an unlocked room. The girl is kidnapped and taken to a secluded island. Of course later it's revealed Gaetano is the ring leader and is also the “monster” of the title, an evil guy who pushes dope and kidnaps a child. 

I guess the producers thought a movie with Karloff in it with monster in the title would deceive many film-goers into thinking it was some kind of horror movie. Eventually the daughter is rescued but not before D'Auro is shot. Mario kills Gaetano. From what some of the characters say it seems this drawn out potboiler was longer but scenes were edited out. Director Roberto Bianchi Montero went on to make many more films in his native country.

Thanks for reading!