Classic Horrors Club

My contemptuous relationship with horror/comedies is public record, but I’ve discovered one I quite enjoyed. It’s Horror Island (1941.) I wouldn’t necessarily call it “smart” writing, but the judiciously scattered jokes and puns come from the characters, not the situations, and elicit a minimum amount of groaning. 

For a one-hour movie, the plot is twisted and events unfold so quickly that there’s no time to question their validity. In fact, that’s a potential flaw. It didn’t bother me in this case, but so many characters convene at one time that it’s never completely explained who some of them are. For material so light, you do have to pay attention to catch the nuance.

Bill Martin (Dick Foran) is an opportunist. When the possibility of finding treasure on the remote island he owns turns out to be a fluke, he asks himself, “What if?” and creates an excursion to hunt for it anyway, with the assistance of his sidekick, Stuff Oliver (Fuzzy Knight), and map-holder Tobias Clump (Leo Carrillo.) 

Ten people join the maiden voyage and are taunted by a mysterious “phantom” when they arrive on the island and check into its abandoned castle. From there, it’s part Agatha Christie “And Then There Were None” and part The Old Dark House. Somehow, all the ingredients combine to create something familiar, yet fresh.

Foran was a popular B-movie regular who made over 50 movies in the 1930s, but I became familiar with him a little later in The House of the Seven Gables (1940) with Vincent Price and The Mummy’s Hand (1940.) The other headliners were similarly prolific, but none necessarily in thrillers, rather in comedies and westerns.

Peggy Moran plays Martin’s love interest, Wendy Creighton, but the movie is subtle with their romance. It’s the typical male fawning over the female, but not too much, and the spunky female wisecracking back, but not too much. Maybe in a movie with this much happening, everything is a little watered down.

Nevertheless, it works for me. This is not a rave review, by any means, but for a horror/comedy that’s light on the horror, my faint praise almost makes it one. I see that online ratings are generally above average for Horror Island, so it must have a similar effect on other viewers. Will it on you?

---

---