We are DEVO: Island of Lost Souls

What separates man from animal? Through scientific experimentation, can we discover the intangible spark that defines our humanity--once found, could we bestow it upon wild beasts?

H.G. Wells took his crack at answering these questions with his 1896 novel, The Island of Doctor Moreau. It's been adapted to film many times, but the overall plot is the same: Shipwrecked Edward arrives on an island and meets mysterious Doctor Moreau, who is performing experiments to turn animals into humans. Things go wrong as the animals rise up and kill their creator.

The first sound adaptation was 1933's Island of Lost Souls. This movie deviates from its source material by introducing Lota (whose actress is listed in the opening credits simply as "the panther woman"), the most advanced of Moreau's experiments. The doctor wants to see if she can fully bridge the gap between beast and man by loving a human male (she's too scared of Moreau) and producing human children.

Even people in the '30s had a catgirl fetish.

Moreau leaves Edward and Lota together like a researcher placing mice in a cage. Their meeting is just another scientific study; Edward's arrival, another data point to collect. Moreau is cool, in control and without concern for consequences. He is unafraid of his monsters--right until the end when they unmake him. His detached manner suggests that he too is something less than human; after all, he never cries or shows the emotion that he searches so hard for in Lota.

To supplement the surgeries, Moreau forces civilization on his animals with the Law: commandments prohibiting murder, the consumption of meat and other wild behaviors. The doctor is a deific Father who creates and punishes in his surgical suite, better known as the House of Pain. His Law is recited as religious chant by the Sayer of the Law, who is played in Island of Lost Souls by a bushy-bearded Bela Lugosi. He gives voice to the movie's most memorable lines: "Are we not men?"

Or maybe the Dracula and Wolf Man makeup got mixed up.

The 1977 and 1996 adaptations of the book focus on the degeneration of the Law and the resultant violence (though both films include a cat-woman, their roles are different from Lota's). In Island of Lost Souls, the Law is downplayed until the end, when one contradictory order from Moreau shatters his animals' faith. There is no similarly revelatory moment in the book and later movies; in them, Ed sets foot on an island starting to decline, a place where the animals have already begun transgressing against the Law. The '77 and '96 films show only the impossibility of Moreau's animals being anything more than beasts.

Island of Lost Souls is a great movie, superior to its younger brothers not only due to good performances, cinematography and pacing, but ultimately because of its more personal story and superior writing. Instead of solely concerning itself with the loss of humanity, Island of Lost Souls examines advancement and what makes us men. Can animals cross the last emotional barrier? Is Lota human or not? Is Moreau?

The 1996 version preoccupies itself with the geek show spectacle of the animals and the horror and gore of their rebellion. It's a mishmash of mistakes.

This picture is from an actual movie that people actually paid money in theatres to see.

The '96 Island of Doctor Moreau is good for a laugh--you'll see Val Kilmer just not giving a damn and Marlon Brando in white face paint with an ice bucket on his head--but as a film, it's put together about as well as Moreau's monstrosities.