1953's "The Island Monster" ("Il Mostro Dell' Isola" or Monster of the Island) would appear to be the nadir of Boris Karloff's screen career, made during a listless decade where his television work far surpassed 8 feature film roles that hardly taxed his thespian abilities ("The Haunted Strangler" and "Corridors of Blood" the happy exceptions). Just as the later "Voodoo Island" offered him a sunny vacation in Hawaii, this minor effort from director Roberto Bianchi Montero served his desire to do some fishing off the coast of Italy in Sept. 1953, set on the island of Ischia near Naples where a local inspector must go undercover to ferret out dope smuggling. Unfortunately, any attempt to remain in disguise is foiled by the untimely arrival of not only his wife and daughter but also the family pooch, whose bloodhound abilities make Scooby Doo look like an amateur. The villains depend upon the wife's jealousy to lure her away from the hotel room where her child is an easy target for kidnapping, but things go downhill from there for head honcho Don Gaetano Bronte (Karloff), leading a double life as wealthy philanthropist by day, dope ring kingpin by night, using his free hospital as a means to smuggle in drugs instead of medicine. Location shooting provides scenic background, but the nonexistent budget and paucity of action make this a real chore to sit through, made even worse by an unprofessional dubbing job that makes the bawling brat sound worse than nails on a chalkboard. In a film where the adults behave like blithering idiots and nothing occurs to pique one's interest, Karloff's mere presence is all there is to offer solace for completists (over 20 minutes screen time), others may rejoice in avoiding it altogether. Montero would later be responsible for another Karloff credit, as narrator for 1964's shockumentary "Mondo Balordo" on its US release in 1967, but undoubtedly his happiest venture in Rome would come in Mario Bava's 1963 "Black Sabbath," providing one of the actor's last truly great roles as a Russian vampire known as The Wurdulak.
