...still creepy after all these years
by Bruce Cantwell
The scariest movie of the Universal monster movie era is the Paramount production of an H.G. Wells science fiction story. It employs one of Wells's favorite themes: genetics run amok, an eerie performance by Charles Laughton (reveling in gentile evil as the infamous Dr. Moreau) and a host of mutant creatures far more frightening than Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein's Monster combined.
 A cargo ship en route to an uncharted island picks up shipwreck survivor Edward Parker (matinee idol type Richard Arlen) who was bound to join his generic movie blonde fiance Ruth Thomas (Leila Hyams) in Apia, Western Samoa, when his ship slips out from under him.
Parker wakes in the cabin of the enigmatic Dr. Montgomery (Arthur Hohl), in whose company, he meets and immediately nettles the ship's Captain Davies (Stanley Fields).
 When Captain punches out Montgomery's loyal-as-a-dog-and-not-much-better-looking assistant M'ling (Tetsu Komai) for no good reason, Parker cold cocks him.
This mutinous act earns Parker his walking papers and he's tossed overboard with the cargo at first port. The genial Dr. Moreau offers safe passage to the titular island, where, as we expect, the plot thickens.
H.G. Well's story has held up (it's been remade three times) because genetic research remains a hot subject and the good doctor's introduction of sexual selection into his repertoire of experiments provides Hollywood with one of its most marketable selling points.
This version of the story holds up because of its eerie black & white photography, imaginatively made-up beasts (even by today's standards) and a perfect villain at its center in Laughton.
Pop up some corn, turn off the lights and enjoy.
 
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