Isle Of The Dead (1945)

In 1912 Greece during the first Balkan war, a handful group of people on a small island are quarantined because of the plague. However, old prejudices and superstitions run rampant and a young girl (Ellen Drew) is suspected of being a vorvolakas, an evil spirit who lives off the life and blood of others. One of the atmospheric and stylish legendary horror films produced by Val Lewton at RKO in the 1940s, this is one of his weakest. In order for the horror to work, the director Mark Robson (PEYTON PLACE) needs to make the unbelievable credible but he doesn't. It all seems rather silly and we roll our eyes at the ignorance of the superstitious old woman (Helen Thimig) and the Greek general (Boris Karloff) as they persecute the young girl. The film does slightly pick up in the last 20 minutes with some genuinely creepy atmosphere (a walk through the forest is reminiscent of the walk through the cane fields in I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE) but it's too late to save the picture. Some of the acting is pretty hideous, in particularly the banal leading man Marc Cramer and Jason Robards Sr. (father of Jason Robards Jr.). The score is by Leigh Harline. With Katherine Emery and Alan Napier.