Dr. Moreau on the Big Screen

Both based of The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells, The Island of Lost Souls and The Island of Dr. Moreau strive to reinvent the story in their own ways. Universal Studio's The Island of Lost Souls largely ignored the heavy philosophical tones of the book in exchange for ramping up the horror of beast-people. Sixty years later, New Line Cinema's The Island of Dr. Moreau sought to bring the 1896 story into the 20th century and mixed modern technology with the age old question of what it means to be human.

The Island of Lost Souls-1932

Source image from IMDb

A Shipwreck Survivor Turned Hostage!

A cargo ship finds shipwreck survivor Edward Parker (Richard Arlen) floating among debris in the ocean, and deposits him and an ex-doctor named Montgomery (Arthur Hohl) along with its cargo on a small, uncharted island. The island’s owner is a mysterious scientist rumored to conduct dark experiments; Dr. Moreau (Charles Laughton). Parker soon discovers the strange residents of the island are products of Dr. Moreau’s deranged experiments to turn animals into humans like the Panther Woman, Lota (Kathleen Burke). Parker’s fiancée, Ruth Thomas (Leila Hyams) and Captain Donohue (Paul Hurst) come to rescue Parker. The threat of his experiments being revealed to the outside world causes Dr. Moreau to order one of his creations to kill Donohue, violating the law of “Do Not Spill Blood.” The animal people revolt against Dr. Moreau, giving Parker, Ruth, Montgomery, and Lota time to escape. Lota sacrifices herself to ensure the safety of her friends and Dr. Moreau is killed by his own creations in the room of their conceptions. Parker, Ruth, and Montgomery float away to safety as the island burns down.

The History of Lost Souls

The Island of Lost Souls is a Sci-Fi Horror film directed by Erle C. Kenton in 1932 based on the novel The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells. When it came out, however, it is reported that Wells did not like the adaptation and felt it lost much of its philosophical tones. Bela Lugosi was abruptly cast as the Sayer of the Law and Kathleen Burke won her role as the Panther Woman in a contest hosted by Paramount Pictures. The film was banned and later censored in the UK because of its depictions of animal cruelty, vivisection, the cutting up of a living man, and comparing man to God.

The Villainy of Dr. Moreau

The Island of Lost Souls is a story about hubris, not unlike the story of Icarus flying too close to the sun. It also raises questions about the ethical implications of scientific inquiry; when should morals supersede scientific curiosity? Dr. Moreau wants to create humans from animals. They gain sentience only to be treated as subhumans by the doctor. Perhaps because of his isolation or because he feels the pursuit of knowledge validates all actions, the doctor is incapable of seeing even humans as human and not pawns. His lines serve to manipulate those around him for his gain or observation. Before he leaves Lota and Parker to talk, Dr. Moreau tells Montgomery that Lota has no reason to fear Parker because he’s new to her, even though she is afraid of both himself and Montgomery. He stands in the shadows to see if she develops feelings for Parker as he feels that would be a sign of her humanity.

But oddly enough, the doctor’s parameters for measuring humanity are never clearly established. For example, Parker, Dr. Moreau, and Montgomery view Lota as more complete than the other creations mostly because she doesn’t have hair growing all over her face. Dr. Moreau says he wants to see if she's “capable of women’s emotional impulses,” as if emotional awareness was indicative of gender rather than humanity. So, what are Dr. Moreau’s guidelines for determining humanity? His notions and biases perhaps or just a lack of claws? He might have had an aversion to humanity altogether, seeing as he portrayed himself to the animal people as a god. He never wanted to create an equal, he only wanted to create subservient beings.

There is a special reason why Dr. Moreau views Lota as his most successful creation yet. No doubt because of the decade during which this film was made, her humanity is constantly decided by

men and what they perceive to be her “womanly ways” like tenderness or emotion. But even when Moreau admits to her humanity, he treats her like an animal. Lota begins to cry in the latter part of the film, and Dr. Moreau sees this as proof of her humanity yet proceeds to grab her by her hair the way

he would no doubt grab a cat by the scruff of its neck. For him, she was fuel for his god complex. He created the laws such as “Do Not Spill Blood” as monuments to his power, but hypocritically believes women to be subservient and weaker. Instead of having to banish her to the forest, he maintains his cognitive dissonance by keeping Lota in his house. She needn’t follow his laws; in his eyes he was always above her.

So, then, a man who feels he is a man among beasts, a god among men, breaks his own law. The animal people revolt against him and his humanity is exposed. The irony of it is that would this man have considered treating his creations with dignity and compassion, as actual people, this would have never come to be.

The makeup effects of the mutated animal/humans in the film are a precursor to Universal’s later film The Wolfman (1941). When looking at them, particularly Bela Lugosi’s makeup, one cannot help but make the connection between them.

Much of the beginning dialogue occurs while the characters walk from place to place, but the talk is brief with long shots of them walking; through the jungle, through caves, through weird pathways around the house that seem to exist despite the house’s layout. It’s disorienting and adds no weight to the conversation as the viewer cannot discern whether their destination is the pain room or just the character’s bedroom.

Basic editing techniques were used quite well toward the end of the film. Dr. Moreau tries to subdue the uprising of the animal people by whipping them back. The whip strikes them across the face, but they march onward undeterred. The cuts made while the actors were walking were seamless enough and help drive home the point that they would not fear the doctor anymore. Truly the most chilling shot in the film is while the creatures are confronting Moreau’s misdeeds in their creation. They step forward from shadow into the light, from just a blur into focus and we see the horror that is their personage and confirms the sins of the doctor.

Shots linger for far too long, with little to no action or relevance. When the Panther Woman learns Parker is trying to read about a way to contact home in the book, she throws it into the pond at Dr. Moreau’s house. The shot shows her reflected in the water throwing the book in and then the ripples created. The shot remains static for around twenty seconds while her action lasts only three. Nothing of Parker or the Panther Woman can be made out in the ripples, and their spoken reactions to the situation fall short without the emphasis of their expressions. It becomes difficult to maintain focus on the film.

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The Island of Dr. Moreau – 1996

Source image from IMDb

A Society of Half-Humans

The lone survivor of a plane crash, Edward Douglas (David Thewlis) is picked up by a ship where neurosurgeon, Montgomery (Val Kilmer), nurses him back to health. He takes Douglas to his island, owned by a Dr. Moreau (Marlon Brando). His welcome is graced by Moreau’s daughter, Aissa (Fairuza Balk), but Douglas soon finds out that the island is full of half-human half-animals, who were created by the doctor. After one of them is put down for breaking the law of killing, it’s discovered they have been chipped to be controlled. The creatures, led by Hyena-Swine (Daniel Rigney) revolt against, and kill Moreau. Aissa begins to turn back into a cat herself and begs Douglas to find her serum, only to find that Montgomery, now insane, has destroyed it all. The creatures kill Montgomery and Aissa, then Hyena-Swine commands Douglas to declare him the new God. Douglas tricks him into killing his allies, who in turn, turn against the would-be leader. With Hyena-Swine dead, the creatures are free to begin a society of their own on the island and Douglas takes a makeshift raft away from the island, towards home.

It Was a Film that Defied All Odds

The fact that the 1996 film The Island of Dr. Moreau was able to be finished at all was a miracle as the planning of it was reported to have gone awry. Originally, Richard Stanley, credited as the writer of the film, was the director but was fired four days into the film’s production and replaced with director John Frankenheimer. Additionally, the role of Edward Douglas changed hands as well. Originally, Bruce Willis was signed on to play Douglas but dropped out, with Val Kilmer picking up the banner. Then, because he was going through a divorce, Kilmer switched to the less intensive role of Doctor Montgomery and Rob Morrow took over the part of Douglas. Once Stanley was fired, Morrow, too, left the production and New Line Cinemas finally brought in David Thewlis as the lead. Between the demands of Kilmer, Brando wanting parts of his character to be changed, and even monsoons, it’s a wonder this film ever made it to theaters. And that all was just the tip of the iceberg. A documentary on the making of this film was released in 2014 called Lost Souls: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau. One of the only faces missing from the documentary is Thewlis as he feared any candid retelling of what happened during production would hamper his acting career. After everything, The Island of Dr. Moreau was completed with a beginning, middle, and an end, but the effects of a messy production are evident.

Sifting Through the Absurdity

Some parts were completely unnecessary to move the story forward. An entire sequence is devoted to Moreau and his smaller counterpart, Majai (Nelson de la Rosa), simply playing the piano together. Majai, however, has his own, personal, smaller piano perched upon Moreau’s. The scene is so absurd, it's laughable (surely why Mike Meyers used it as inspiration for the characters Dr. Evil and Mini-Me in his film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me). This, in addition to Moreau’s complaints about the heat and finding bizarre ways to counteract it, like white face paint and an ice-bucket hat, make him seem more like a fool and less like a mad scientist. But strange as Moreau’s eccentricities are, at least they are consistent. Less can be said for Montgomery’s slip into insanity.

In fact, Montgomery seems to be the least formed character of them all. His slip into insanity appears to happen for… no… reason? It’s suggested that his insanity is caused by Hyena-Swine discovering his shock implant, so Montgomery may feel like the jig is up, but there is no development of this over time. He was always presented as being a bit unhinged, but this doesn’t seem like it would push a person over the edge. His “demise” goes on to be one of the most out of place scenes in the whole film. Montgomery loses his grip on reality and hands out all sorts of drugs to a room full of partying animal people. The music abruptly changes from the instrumental score to a club-mix rock song and leaves the viewer wondering what is going on. Maybe it's due to the animal peoples’ struggle to find a new “father” after Moreau’s death, but there is no follow through with any point the scene is trying to make for the remainder of the film.

The feeling of it all building up to nothing occurs in the case of Aissa as well. Ignoring Fairuza Balk’s gradually disappearing and fake-sounding British accent, her death comes abruptly. She is hung by Azazello (Temuera Morrison) out of spite that she was the favored creation, which was never addressed before this. A shadow shows her dead body and she is promptly forgotten about. Her character was built up to be a large part of the film, she was the reason Douglas was kept on the island and arguably his love interest, and it led up to nothing.

Another glaring problem is that the animal people appeared even less human as they had little to no facial expressions. Though the costumes were intricately designed for such a large-scale endeavor, the bulky masks leave little room for the actor’s facial features underneath them. As they talk about their sorrows and hardships, it’s hard to feel for them with unmoving eyebrows and cheeks. If they weren’t acting like an animal, it was difficult to see them as anything but.

However, this film successfully demonstrates the moral quandary of whether violence is a part of humanity or just a remnant of our animal ancestors. All characters, regardless of human or animal hybrid, eventually display some sort of violence towards one another, even the two purported pinnacles of peace, Dr. Moreau and Edward Douglas. The main difference between these two men is that Moreau inflicts pain for power and fear, and Douglas only in times of desperation. Douglas even uses words alone to defeat Hyena-Swine, a way to say violence begets violence.

Still, as this theme comes to a head at the climax, it abruptly drops off without a second thought. A three-shot fade of the fire at Dr. Moreau’s house, a makeshift raft the next day, and Douglas bringing supplies to it misses the mark of what it was meant to display. While intended to mirror the delirium of when Douglas is picked up by the boat at the beginning of the film, it detracts from the implications of Hyena-Swine’s death in the fire only moments before and lessens the impact of the destruction from the previous night.

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The Mean and the Modern Moreau

It's surprising the extent to which two films can differ despite being based on the same book. The two tell completely different stories and even integral characters do not behave the same. In The Island of Lost Souls, Dr. Moreau is a cruel figure, out for his gain. In the 1996 adaptation, Moreau is a much kinder figure, still keeping his creations at bay with pain from shocks, but he is not averse to nurturing them and teaching them. Edward is originally portrayed as nearly inconsequential but becomes a much more active part in Frankenheimer's version.

The most notable change is in the characters of Lota and Aissa. Lota can barely form sentences and seems to have no will of her own while Aissa could speak, dance, reason, mourn, like the human her character is essentially supposed to be. Of course, their basic similarity is how they both die.

While their situations are not the same, they both perish abruptly and unjustly--Lota especially. She kills one of the animal people to save her friends and somehow just dies of exhaustion? No doubt a product of the period when it was made when women were considered frail and incapable. Aissa meets a similar fate defending Edward Douglas. Killed by Azazello, she dies without dignity and is never spoken of thereafter.

In fact, the differences in deaths are key to distinguishing the films. The villain of Lost Souls is definitively Dr. Moreau, so his death is karma served to him by none other than his creations. Brando’s Moreau is much more the figurehead for the island’s law and order. Once he is killed by Hyena-Swine, the other creatures are free to do as they please. 1932’s Moreau’s death stands to say, “you should never have done this” in the way that they killed him in the house of pain and 1996 Moreau’s death says, “you have been holding us, your creations, back.”

Additionally, Lota’s death is more of a plot device, both to save the main character and to keep any of Moreau’s experiments from leaving the island. This wraps the film up a nice little plot bow as no unanswered questions can arise from her escape. Aissa’s death shows the hatred of Moreau’s creations for their imperfections. They’ve killed most of the humans on the island and now they’ve targeted his most successful human-like creation as her existence only reminds them that they were Moreau’s failures.

The beginning of the 1996 version adds more dimension to the character of Edward Douglas and better states the overall theme of the film. The viewer learns he is a peace seeker and learns the state of mankind, willing to fit for primal needs though they should be beyond that impulse. The Island of Lost Souls jumps straight into Edward Parker being picked up by a ship, and his stay on the island is, rather than planned by Montgomery and Dr. Moreau ahead of time, only the result of a drunken captain.

Overall, the film from 1932 tells the story of a deranged scientist who thinks himself a god, where the 1996 version addresses the philosophy behind what makes humans human. The Island of Lost Souls defines a clear line between good and evil and that line becomes blurred in the Island of Dr. Moreau. H. G. Wells died in 1946 and so never saw the most recent version of his classic story. If he would have been alive to see it, hopefully, he would find that Stanley’s writing better captured his ideas as I’m sure that would be the only saving grace of that film.

Edited by Miles Ericksen