Isle of the Dead (film)

Infobox Film
name = Isle of the Dead


image_size = 215px
caption = theatrical poster
director = Mark Robson
producer = Val Lewton
writer = Ardel Wray Val Lewton "(uncredited)" Josef Mischel "(uncredited)"
narrator =
starring = Boris Karloff
Ellen Drew
music = Leigh Harline
cinematography = Jack MacKenzie
editing = Lyle Boyer
distributor = RKO Radio Pictures
released = 1 September fy|1945
runtime = 72 minutes
country = FilmUS
language = English
budget =
gross =
imdb_id = 0037820

"Isle of the Dead" (fy|1945) is one of producer Val Lewton's horror films made for RKO Radio Pictures. The movie had a script inspired by the painting "Isle of the Dead" by Arnold Böcklin, which appears behind the title credits, though the film was originally titled "Camilla" during production. (Another of Lewton's films, "I Walked With a Zombie", has the painting hung in the main room of the movie.) It was written by frequent Lewton collaborator Ardel Wray; directed by Mark Robson, the fourth of five pictures he directed for Lewton; and starred Boris Karloff, the first of three pictures he made with Lewton (although the second released).

Plot

The story is set on a Greek isle during the First Balkan War in 1912–1913, when a plague forces a quarantine on the island's visitors. As they die one by one, a young woman is accused of being a "vorvolakas", a sort of vampire.

Production

Filming began for about two weeks in July 1944 until production was suspended when Karloff required a back operation. It was completed in December 1944. In the interim, after Karloff had recovered from the surgery but before the cast of "Isle of the Dead" could be reassembled, he and Lewton made "The Body Snatcher". The film had a troubled production, and the central female character of the original script (named "Catherine") was deleted entirely from the tale.

Reception

The film premiered in New York City on 7 September fy|1945. The cost of "Isle of the Dead" at completion was $246,000, the highest yet for a Lewton horror film, but with domestic rentals of $266,000, and foreign rentals of $117,000, it made only $13,000 in profit for RKO. It was re-issued in 1953 on a double bill with "Mighty Joe Young", and made its television debut in 1959.

Cast

* Boris Karloff as Gen. Nikolas Pherides
* Ellen Drew as Thea
* Marc Cramer as Oliver Davis
* Katherine Emery as Mrs. Mary St. Aubyn
* Helen Thimig as Madame Kyra
* Alan Napier as St. Aubyn
* Jason Robards Sr. as Albrecht
* Ernst Deutsch as Dr. Drossos
* Sherry Hall as Col. Kobestes
* Erick Hanson as Officer
* Skelton Knaggs as Andrew Robbins

ee also

* Boris Karloff filmography

External links

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* [http://www.lewtonsite.com/_isle_of_the_dead_1945.php Isle of the Dead Movie] The Karloff/Lewton film: images, Boecklin paintings, & history.
* [http://www.toteninsel.net/ Toteninsel.net] : an encyclopedia in progress dedicated to A. Böcklin's "Isle of the Dead": copies, parodies, inspirations.