Island of Lost Souls

Island of Lost Souls (1932)

Timing: 1:11 (71 min)

6.91/10
217

6.472/10
768

7.3/10
12000

All about film

Video 2

Photo 5

Actors and characters

Release date

1932-12-24

Country

United States

Production

Paramount

Genre

Adventure, Horror, Science Fiction

Budget

$300 000

Revenue

$0

Website

Director

Erle C. Kenton

Actors

Charles Laughton, Richard Arlen, Leila Hyams, Bela Lugosi, Kathleen Burke, Arthur Hohl, Stanley Fields, Paul Hurst, Hans Steinke, Tetsu Komai
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Erle C. Kenton

Operator

Karl Struss

Composer

Artist

Audition

Editing

All team (11)

• 60,000 girls auditioned for the role of Lola. Following a nationwide competition organized by Paramount Pictures, the role went to Kathleen Burke (1913-1980).
• Writer Herbert George Wells (1866-1946), author of the novel “The Island of Doctor Moreau” (1896), which served as the literary basis for the film, did not like the film. He felt that the emphasis on horror completely overshadowed the philosophical themes of his work.
• The British Board of Film Classification did not approve the film in 1933, so the film remained banned in the United Kingdom until 1958, when it was released with an X rating, although some scenes had to be cut. The Board, in particular, objected to references to vivisection and “the dismemberment of a living person,” as well as to Doctor Moreau’s line, “Do you know what it’s like to feel like God?” The complete version of the film was released on DVD in 2011 with a PG rating (contains scenes not suitable for children).
• When creating the language of the mutants, sound engineer Loring L. Rider recorded a mix of sounds made by animals and speech in foreign languages, and then played the resulting mix backwards at different speeds. The sound he produced was nauseating, causing some viewers in theaters to vomit.