Horror Island (1941)

The owner (Dick Foran) of a small boulder of an island is heavily in debt. He decides to bring tourists to the island and charge them for a weekend of ghostly thrills and buried treasure. But his first trip turns deadly as someone is murdering the guests one by one. Directed by George Waggner. Although this is a strictly by the numbers, this minor fright effort by Universal features the usual group of strangers in an old dark house (with secret chambers and hidden passages, of course). There's more than a bit of Agatha Christie's TEN LITTLE INDIANS in the story line and the usual over abundance of comedy relief, this time provided by Fuzzy Knight and Leo Carrillo. It's mercifully brief at barely an hour so it doesn't wear out its welcome. If you're partial to this kind of stuff (as I am) then most likely you'll tolerate the cliches. With Peggy Moran, Iris Adrian, Walter Catlett and Lewis Howard.