User reviews

The first time I saw this I was a kid and it took me several minutes before the outrage settled in that I was listening to a dubbed in Karloff impersonator because the American distributor was too cheap to hire the old boy back for a proper dubbing by the time this hit the States some four years later. Although Karloff's movie work during the fifties was sparse and mostly lacking in real quality he was very much in demand having been rediscovered by whole new generation who were watching his thirties and forties films on T.V.'s syndicated Shock Theater". Karloff was also doing books,radio programs,Quiz shows,Broadway,revivals of Arsenic and Old Lace,albums full of fairy tales and several great TV dramas including Joseph COnrad's Heart Of Darkness for Playhouse 90. So if a stinker like this came along it probably had something good in it for him like a decent pay and a vacation as others pointed out but even though the market Karloff's style of horror was down at the time he was hardly unwanted or wanting for cash. A few years later Corman would hire him and he would work steady until the day he died. He even sang the Peppermint Twist on a Halloween segment of the sixties rock show Shindig. But what of Island Monster? Well it looks nice and seedy and the Femme Fetale is pretty juicy but the script is talky and nothing really happens in the way of real action. It just sort of plods along like ketchup in December waiting drop on a rancid fry.Karloff still escapes with dignity intact but the star of the show is the trained dog who is there to remind you that you can go along way by being cutesy pootsey.

If you've never had the displeasure of seeing this Italian ISLAND MONSTER (also known as LE MONSTRE DE LA ILE) let me assure you it's easily Boris Karloff's worst film, hands down (I'm not counting the Karloff-narrated MONDO BOLARDO). This is so bad it makes VOODOO ISLAND and his last Jack Hill Mexican "cameo" pictures look good. Not at all a horror film, Karloff plays a seemingly good-natured old soul who's really involved in drug smuggling and all sorts of other underhanded activities on a secret island location. One of these involves him kidnapping the little daughter of an investigator who's been sent from Naples to monitor his movements.

The film makes little sense, but as lousy as it is there's still something oddly fascinating about watching Boris in such a production, amidst the picturesque setting. Style is non-existent with the exception of one fleeting moment where Karloff interrogates the crying child in darkness. The English dubbing is abysmal yet it provides unintended laughs as we hear some guy doing a really bad Karloff impression while an obviously adult woman provides the silly whines and whimpers of the frightened little girl who's been taken hostage. That's funny stuff, and prime fodder for all you MST3K nuts out there. * out of ****

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.

Boris Karloff and the title "Island Monster" does not a horror movie make, as is evidenced in this tepid crime-drama concerning a government investigator sent to break a drug ring, until things go awry when his young daughter is kidnapped. Local benefactor (Karloff) seems a kindly old gentleman, whose hospice for ill children paints him as the town's saint, but there's something distinctly unsavoury about the milk he imports.

Karloff is wasted as the benevolent Samaritan above suspicion while local mule Franca Marzi has a decent role as a nightclub singer whose drug addiction has brought her into the criminal arena, with a sad past and an opportunity for atonement ahead. Fierro is okay as the frantic mother whose child is abducted, and Vicario, playing essentially the leading man, a debonair, ladies' man loyal to the uniform, is consistently monotone.

The Napoli locations are picturesque and there's a hint of the continental lifestyle that's hard to ignore, but the film is otherwise bland and unimaginative, lacking suspense, and hopelessly clichéd - right down to the faithful mutt who does a pretty good substitute for Lassie.

I'm sure there were cheap crime movies made by the dozens in Italy, the only reason this one got dubbed-by an impersonator, is Karloff's role in it. True this is not a horror film though the title is mentioned in the film. The title sequence looks like something from a 1930's B movie serial, though these are the English language titles so can't blame the Italians for that part of it.

Boris appears early on then vanishes for quite a while. It's this non Boris section that makes the least sense as it takes forever for them to actually kidnap the child which is then the focus of the rest of the plot. A good amount of real locations help the film rise above rock bottom production values. The post sound job is really awful with missing sounds and music cutting in and out.

There are a few flashes of style but when Karloff is around it's rather shocking, given the overall poor quality, to see him running around, clubbing a guy in the head, shooting guns and carrying a kid up and down hills, rowing a boat in the open sea, and seemingly quite spry. The impersonator at least tries to sound like Boris which is better than the Italian versions of the otherwise--to say the least--much superior Italian versions of Karloff's Bava-directed films. And unlike several Christopher Lee American dubs of Spanish and Italian and German films where the dubber doesn't sound at all like Lee or ever try to which is totally distracting. So though the dubbing is terrible here at least it sort of sounds like Boris and lets his performance be a little less distracting.

So once the kidnapping plot starts and Boris appears regularly the film gets better and though it doesn't exactly build in excitement it at least ends better than it started. So leaves a better taste in your mouth.

A dog has a significant role which is fun, though odd. Better, or at least professional, post sound work and a more active music score would have helped. Probably the only reason most will see this is for Karloff and though this shows a gutter period before his 1960's work, he's at least got a part to play and a very active role when he's on screen unlike the total rip off scant appearances in those terrible Mexican films.

Reasons to see it? Boris non horror completest and The Dog. The dog's dubbing is the best in the film. Oh, PD version I saw was watchable, not good but OK for what it is. Overall the whole movie and presentation is a few significant--if small-- notches above bottom of the barrel.

In the mid to late 1950s, many international actors starred in Italian films that were dubbed--so it didn't matter that actors like Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart, Broderick Crawford or Boris Karloff didn't speak the language. However, it is very odd to see these films in English because when they are re-dubbed the original English speaker's voice is usually replaced with some voice actor. Here, despite seeing Boris Karloff, you instead hear a voice coming out of him that just doesn't sound like him--it's close but just doesn't sound like him--probably because often the voice and lips are out of sync. I can get used to this, but really wished they'd just subtitled the movie instead. But what I can't understand is when they use horrible voice actors for many of the other voices--ones that sounded bizarre. In this film, at times, it seemed like random people off the street did the voice-overs--especially since some could barely read their lines and the voice of Mario's child is absolutely horrid!! This child who appears about four has a voice that sounds like it comes from a teenager--talk about weird! Now in the case of the first three actors listed above, they appeared in some amazing Fellini movies. Unfortunately for Mr. Karloff, this was definitely NOT a Fellini movie--not even a Murry Fellini film! Instead, it's a very low-budget movie about cops and the mob--exactly the type of film in which you'd never expect to find Karloff. Sadly, in addition to the extremely lousy voice acting, the film has a rather annoying musical score (though the film is unusual in that there is very little incidental music), cheap sets and a rather thin plot.

While old Boris gets top billing, he really isn't the star of this dull suspense film and he is largely wasted. Instead, the main character is Mario--an undercover cop who's trying to infiltrate the mob. Unfortunately, Mario's wife is an idiot and she arrives in time to help spoil her hubby's cover--perhaps she liked the idea of mobsters bumping off her spouse, but I just think she was supposed to be a moron. Regardless if the wife was or wasn't the one to tip them off, the mob seems to know right away who he is and so they dispatch a sweet Italian dish to seduce the fellow. When the wife discovers this "other woman", the marriage is in trouble. And, to make things worse AND to ensure their wicked plans work, they also kidnap Mario's child.

The rest is rather uninspired and dull--certainly NOT one of Boris Karloff's brighter moments on film. Despite this being a very poor production and a waste of time, one reviewer actually gave it a score of 10!! Considering all the problems with the film and an IMDb score lower than 3, you should just assume that one really high score was made by a maniac!

Don't be fooled by the title or the presence of Boris Karloff, this is a dire Italian-made crime picture.

Any virtue the proceedings may have had (and that would seem to be precious little) is sabotaged by the atrocious dubbing. It is possible to get by dubbing little known Italian players, although the young child does sound as if she's been voiced by a woman whose inhaled too much helium, but to dub Boris Karloff is beyond forgiveness. Especially when it's been done by someone doing a half-hearted impression of the great man.

Plot-wise things are pretty grim too with all the clichés of the genre being firmly present and correct. There's a mysterious criminal mastermind, a smoky nightclub, a femme fatale and the requisite number of obvious double-crosses, lack lustre car chases and terrible dialogue. `It's impossible to get anywhere with you,' the nightclub singer sighs from deep within her cleavage, `you're so cool you're always sure to maintain your equilibrium.'

‘Our hero' is an undercover treasury agent and I can't help thinking that he needs a few pointers in how to do the job. The first thing he does when he arrives on the scene is to visit police headquarters and go out on a launch accompanied by the local chief officers. All in broad daylight! Not surprisingly it doesn't take long for the local crooks to blow his cover, although they do fail to recognise him later on when he poses as a member of a rival syndicate from Genoa. Perhaps it was his brilliant disguise of taking off his suit!

It's anybody's guess why Boris agreed to appear in this but perhaps roles were a little thin on the ground at this point in his career. On the other hand, it may simply have been that he fancied a free Italian holiday, which would also explain his presence in ‘Sabaka' (1954), a similarly eccentric choice from around this time. That one was filmed entirely on location in India. Nice work if you can get it.

Finally special mention must be reserved for `International Stars Jeanette and Bob' who present the worst nightclub dance act ever committed to celluloid. Sometimes seeing is believing.

It took four years for this to get a release in the U.S. I wonder why?

This forgettable Italian potboiler is titled rather misleadingly to make us believe that this could be a horror film. The presence of the star-billed horror icon Boris Karloff only further cements this notion. But the sad reality is that this is a very plodding crime film as opposed to cheesetastic horror schlock. Set on an island just off the Italian mainland, it follows a policeman who is dispatched there to root out a gang of drug peddlers who operate in the vicinity. Once he arrives there a young child is kidnapped by the gangsters adding a further dimension to the criminality at play.

Starting with the positives, this one does have an attractive location and it is interesting to see an early example of Italian genre cinema. So it does have some distinctive elements which set it apart from a lot of other similar types of movies from the period. However, it does have to be said that this one is resolutely lacking in excitement at all levels. This really shouldn't be so, given the set-up but to say that the potential in the material is never maximised is unfortunately no understatement. While it is nice to see Karloff, in truth he doesn't really add a lot to this one either. The most interesting character was the dog to be perfectly honest. In summary, this one is pretty much a misfire and mainly only has historical interest I would say.

Three things do bring The Island Monster up a few notches, the title sequence music, the very well-trained dog and the picturesque locations. And The Island Monster while one of Boris Karloff's worst films is at least better than the Mexican films he made towards the end of his career, then again pretty much anything is better than those. But sadly even Karloff can't save it, he does try to bring some menace and dignity to his role but the film pretty much wastes him, he's not very well used and he doesn't even use his own distinctive voice. The rest of the acting is not much better, there is a lack of involvement and it is an acting style that belongs to another type of film really. The dubbing is atrocious, just as bad as the dubbing for films riffed on MST3K, it is true that the kidnapped girl sounds much older than she is and it's jarring. The photography is not particularly fluid and never does anything interesting. While the titles sequence music is great, the music is far too sparsely used and ponderous to make an impression generally. The dialogue is terrible throughout, made even less believable by how it's delivered, while the horror elements are very diluted(to the extent actually that there's hardly any), making the story incredibly plodding and non-eventful most of the time. Nothing suspenseful or exciting to be seen here. The characters are underwritten, poorly explored and unimaginative. So overall, a mostly dire film, there are a few redeeming elements but it is one rare occurrence where Karloff is not one of them but through no fault of his own. 3/10 Bethany Cox

MORD39 RATING: 0 out of ****

I caught this foreign dud as a kid on television, under the alternate title of THE ISLAND MONSTER. It is without a doubt the lowest ebb of Karloff's career.

Those expecting a horror film will be dumbfounded, as this bomb is about a criminal dealing with drug smuggling (as far as I can tell) and kidnapping a little girl. I've seen my share of badly dubbed movies, from the Godzilla features to the European horror imports...but this one wins the award for all-time lousiest dubbing in a foreign film. Karloff didn't dub his own character, but the guy who did sounds like he's doing a cheap Boris impression! The voice of the distressed little girl must have been dubbed by a woman in her thirties or forties...it's a riot!!!

I guess if you want to laugh at the terrible English version, you can get a giggle or two out of this. It's not an easy film to find, but rest assured that if you never see it you shouldn't lose too much sleep; it's so atrocious that it makes the last bunch of Mexican features that Boris and Jack Hill worked on look like classics.

"An undercover government agent arrives on an Italian island in order to investigate a drug-smuggling ring. The agent quickly establishes some contacts on the island and appears to be well along in the case when a complication arrives. His wife and daughter visit him, thus destroying his cover, and the head of the ring, a kind older man with a dark secret, kidnaps his daughter," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

"The Island Monster" has a drug-smuggling Boris Karloff (as Don Gaetano) and his gang kidnapping the daughter of leading man Renato Vicario (as Mario Andreani). Franca Marzi (as Gloria D'Auro) provides ample feminine distraction, which Mr. Vicario has promised his wife he'll avoid, romantically. The film's horrendously dubbed-in-English version is, at least, outstanding in that respect.

* Il mostro dell'isola (1954) Roberto Bianchi Montero ~ Renato Vicario, Franca Marzi, Boris Karloff

"Monster of the Island" was filmed in Rome on the Island of Ischia near (Napoli). In the 1950's the demand for Horror films was at an all time low. Boris Karloff had recently performed in a Broadway play, "Peter Pan" as Captain Hook and he and his wife moved from their New York apartment to London, to begin a new television series,"Colonel March of Scotland Yard". He also accepted an offer to appear in "Monster of the Island", a rarely seen Italian film. This film is about police in Rome who are concerned about narcotics traffic on the island of Ischia. Andreani (Franco Marzi), an agent for the government, is assigned to unmask the identity of the ringleader and destroy the smuggling ring. Working undercover, Andreani meets Gloria (Renata Vicario), a cafe singer who knows the members of the gang. The agent is also befriended by Don Gaetano (Boris Karloff), an elderly philanthropist who continues to finance a nursery he founded. The smugglers kidnap Andreani's child (Patrizia Remiddi), threatening to murder her if the agent's investigation continues. This is an entirely different role for Karloff. However, Boris never gave a poor performance in this film or any major project he was assigned to, even if the dubbing of his voice in a foreign language was not correct or the script is poorly written!

Thanks to Mill Creek Entertainment, this rare Karloff appearance remains a mystery no longer. Admittedly, the English dubbing varies from atrocious to only slightly less than passable, but it is probably no worse than the Italian version, and at least a commendable effort is made to try to imitate Karloff's distinctive voice. Not very successfully, it's true, but at least the dubbers took a tilt at it.

However, what will disappoint fans the most is that, despite the title, this is a not a horror film at all. It's what I call a Clayton's horror film. Clayton's is a non-alcoholic beverage that was extensively promoted a few years back as "the drink you have when you're not a having a drink!" Thus a Clayton's horror film is the horror film you have when you're not having a horror film, because this one is actually a "who is the mystery leader of a vicious gang of smugglers?"

Aside from Karloff (whose role is not all that extensive, despite his early entrance, although he does do a fair bit of running about), the only players that impel much interest are avuncular Giuseppe Chinnici as the helpful marshal and the exotic Franca Marzi as the singer you have when you're not having a singer (maybe she sings in the Italian version, but in this one she doesn't warble so much as a note). Miss Marzi is a rare commodity in movieland, an actress who's not afraid of continuously styling her hair in an unbecoming fashion or being constantly photographed from most unflattering angles.

Although he started back in 1943, director/writer Montero didn't really hit his stride until the 1960s when he made a series of reach-me-down, semi-documentaries on sexy themes. Interestingly, the best scenes in this effort are those on the marshal's ship where the camera is cleverly placed to three-dimensionalize the action (and Maestro Innocenzi adds to the allure of sun, sea and sky with his rousing title theme).

All told, passable entertainment, provided you're not expecting too much and are prepared to make generous allowances.

This movie I liked "ok" it's really not worth watching except to watch Boris Karloff as the quietly wicked character Don Gaetano. Boris, like always, is good but the story and some of other actors are not all that grand.

This film really is for die-hard Karloff fans... but maybe not so much so for fans of the older crime-dramas. If you do decide to watch this one just know the story and most of the actors are lame but Karloff is great!

It's really one of those movies to watch if you can't find anything else better to watch or if you are really in the mood for something different to view from Boris Karloff.

4/10

Italian stinker with a misleading title that tries to make you think it's a horror movie when it's not. The plot's about the kidnapping of a government agent's daughter. Of note only for the appearance of Boris Karloff. Unfortunately he is dubbed by someone else so we don't even get to enjoy that distinctive voice of his. Not that it would have mattered much. Despite the dubbing, using mostly actors with monotone deliveries, the biggest problem is the movie is just unbearably dull. Worth watching for a few laughs at the awful dubbing for the little girl, I guess. Otherwise avoid unless you are a Karloff completist.

All the other reviews are based on the bad English dubbing and the fact that it's not Karloff's distinctive voice (as it was the case for "Black Sabbath", the US version of Mario Bava's masterpiece). But, just as "I tre volti della paura", the original title of Bava's movie, is a better film than its US counterpart, despite the Italian dubbing and the absence of Karloff's voice, "Il mostro dell'isola" is better than its poor US version. First, this US version is cut (about 15 minutes missing), but of course the actors's voices are natural (even the guy dubbing Boris is good). In France it was released (only in the Northern province apparently) as "Le monstre de l'île", almost uncut (3 mins missing), and the dubbing was quite professional, as always. The little girl in the movie was dubbed by the late Françoise Dorléac - Catherine Deneuve's sister - who was 12 years old then. In Belgium it was released under another title, "Femme perdue".

So, what were Italian crime movies like before they realised that they had to put Maurizio Merli in there, with the funky music and the slapping about of the dames and the violence and what not? Like this I guess, which starts of like the most boring film in the world and then actually manages to turn things around and be entertaining. Honestly. First time I tried to watch this I switched it off after the first half hour. Second time I fell asleep. Third times a charm! In Naples, some guy from the treasuary is sent to Capri to find out whose smuggling drugs in the area. Is it the sexy night club singer? Or that guy who keeps following him about? How about Boris Karloff? Probably, right? After rather a lot of talking, things pick up when the agent's daughter gets kidnapped by Karloff. Why you would bring your family on an assignment is beyond me, but that's what happened.

Also, this guy was undercover but could be seen at any time boarding a ship full of armed cops but then they didn't realise that was him later when he turned up claiming to be from a gang in Genoa? I'm guessing the drug runners were sampling their product a bit too often.

Things pick up further when a dog outsmarts Boris and finds the kid, some double crosses are thrown in for good measure and there's even a very slow car chase. Not bad for an ancient Euro crime film, could have done with a funky soundtrack and Massimo Vanni though.

Capri doesn't appear to have changed in the slightest in the time between this film being made and me visiting there in 2001. Even Boris Karloff was still there!

THE ISLAND MONSTER is about a drug smuggling operation in Italy. Boris Karloff is Don Gaetano, the eeevil mastermind, kidnapping and killing his way into our hearts. Karloff does his best to salvage this so-called "thriller", but the dullness is overwhelming even for him.

This glacially slow-moving "drama" contains no real chills or suspense.

Actually, the best aspect is the English dubbing, especially that of the hyper-annoying daughter of the main cop on the case. Her shrieks could curdle mercury!

Personally, as a huge fan of Karloff, it was still a chore to wade through this one...