Hollywood Strikes Out: The Curse of “The Island of Dr. Moreau”.

Are We Not Men? Well... kinda.

I love Herbert George Wells. He is one of the icons of speculative fiction and a GOAT of GOATS. In 1896, H.G. Wells wrote a novel about a disgraced scientist who retreats to a tropical island to conduct forbidden medical experiments, namely, turning animals into man-like sentient creatures. “The Island of Dr. Moreau” is a great read that asks the question: what is ‘human’ and are humans really humane? What separates a man from a beast? And where is the balance between scientific progress and scientific horrors?

With such great source material, it’s a foregone conclusion that Hollywood would come a-knockin’ to H.G.'s door. Three attempts have been made to bring Well’s masterpiece to the silver screen: 1932’s “The Island of Lost Souls” with Charles Laughton, 1978’s “The Island of Dr. Moreau” with Michael York and Burt Lancaster, and the Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer version done on the 100-year anniversary of the story’s publication.

All three of these adaptations failed to capture the essence of Wells’ thought-provoking novel. Why can't Hollywood make a decent film version of “The Island of Dr. Moreau"? The story is fantatic yet the movies have been dreadful. Let's pull out the the good doctor's scalpel and slice into Hollywood's failed attempts as we sail away to "The Island of Dr. Moreau".

Strike 1: “The Island of Lost Souls” (1932) starring the laudable Charles Laughton.

This is the earliest adaptation of “Dr. Moreau” and only Hollywood knows why they changed the title. Hey, there are a lot of people who love this book so let’s make a movie, but first, let’s change the name!

“The Island of Lost Souls” is often hailed as the best version of Dr. Moreau on film. I’m not sure why because I thought it was a superficial attempt at best, and outside of Charles Laughton as Moreau, the acting has all the tasteful nuance of mayo on white bread. The makeup effects don’t make the human-animal hybrids look believable at all, and there’s a whiff of that old Hollywood racism in its paper-thin plot — the natives get restless while white men feel threatened as brown men lust after their women.

Along with the restless natives, there's the ‘insert strong-jawed, man's man, hero here’ who has all the emotional depth of a thin sheet of cardboard. Film making had just stepped out of the silent era so the soundtrack is sparse and adds nothing to the film.

Charles Laughton plays Dr. Moreau effectively as a moustache twirling villain — he’s a polished actor doing what he can with a lousy script — but the rest of the cast are cookie-cutter bland. It’s just kinda bad all around, but don’t take my word for it, let’s hear from the author himself, Mr. H. G. Wells, from an interview in the Jun-Oct edition of Screenland Magazine(1935).

(For this exchange, I like to imagine a 1930’s, fedora wearing reporter sidling up to Wells at a premiere and speed-talking, “Ladies and gentlemen, here’s the author of that fabulous new film ‘The Island of Lost Souls’! Mr. Wells, what do you think of this fantastic new Paramount production of your beloved novel?”)

“If you want to know, I think ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’ as a film was terrible — terrible! You can print that, if you want to. My story of the mad scientist who tried to convert wild animals into creatures that walk and talk like human beings — my story was handled miserably. With all respect to Charles Laughton, who is a splendid actor, and to the others concerned in the making of this moving picture, which I believe you Americans re-titled ‘The Island of Lost Souls,’ I must say that it was handled with a complete lack of imagination. The translation from the book to the film was so free that it might almost have been another story. The characters were not true. The horror element, for which I have never particularly aimed, prevailed throughout. No subtlety was used in the creation of the dreadful atmosphere. The whole thing was so ridiculously obvious that I must repeat — it was miserable.”

Mic drop by H.G. Wells. Now, let’s jump to the late 1970s where the groove was less than groovy…

Strike 2: “The Island of Dr. Moreau” (1978).

The ’78 adaptation of Wells’ novel, featuring Burt Lancaster and Michael York, makes more of an effort to be faithful to the source material than “The Island of Lost Souls” did, but despite its good intentions, it’s another swing and a miss. While it does attempt to explore the conflict between scientific progress and ethics, it fails to capture the subtleties that make the original story so profound.

The emotional depth of the novel is sacrificed for a surface-level portrayal of events, which leaves the story rather perfunctory and dull. Once again, the special effects limit the believability of the human-animal hybrids, and once again, the producers attempt to shoehorn a love interest into the plot that wasn’t in the novel and doesn’t work at all.

There’s a section of the book I love where Pendrick (the protagonist) spends time in the ‘Village of Botched Experiments’ (my name for the village of Moreau’s experimental failures). Pendrick interacts with the human-animals and learns about the religion Dr. Moreau has forced on them to keep them in their place. As Pendrick lives among Moreau’s discards, you begin to feel sympathy for these strange and tortured beings. The interaction between the humans and their distorted counterparts is captivating and speaks to the heart of the novel. The films, however, place far more emphasis on Moreau, and his accomplice, Montgomery, instead of on the unfortunate creatures they create and cast off. And this goes against the golden rule of monster movies — the monsters are always more interesting than the people who make them. Humans we know, but pigmen, dogmen, panthermen, and slothmen — these are new and exciting for both the reader and the film viewer. It's the beasts, not the beast's master, that people want to see.

And finally, the worst adaptation of them all and one that's so bad it's become a legend.

Strike Three: “The Island of Dr. Moreau” (1996)

The ’96 adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “The Island of Dr. Moreau” starring hambone Marlon Brando and badboy Val Kilmer is the most infamous of the three adaptations. Here was the perfect opportunity to honour the 100th year anniversary of Wells’ novel but it was squandered in a film that has become one of Hollywood’s legendary fiascos. There is no tribute here for H.G. Wells' novel, only travesty.

Nothing went right with this adaptation: it was initially helmed by director Richard Stanley who couldn’t keep it from spiralling out of control, and wound up literally fleeing into the jungle after being fired. He later called upon a warlock relative in England to cast a curse upon the production. True story. Look it up. Warlocks. Curses. Brando. Cocaine. Kilmer. Insanity.

Marlon Brando flatly refused to learn his lines and did everything he could to derail the production. Val Kilmer brought both anger and hostility to the set creating a ‘Battle of the Toxic Divas’ with Brando. After Richard Stanley's removal, veteran director John 'Just Shut Your Hole and Do As You're Told' Frankenheimer was brought in to salvage what he could by any means neccessary. The producer’s investment was on the line at this point, and the money-men needed something - anything - that resembled a releasable movie to recoup some of their losses. If Frankenheimer had to beat it out of the cast and crew, that was fine by the Producers - just get the film in the can and end this thing.

The script had been so frequently rewritten that it wasn't an adaptation of anything; the film was just a compilation of Marlon Brando's bad behavior masquerading as acting.

One of the most glaring flaws with the ’96 version is that it focuses so much on Marlon Brando’s piss-take portrayal of Dr. Moreau, such as plastering his face with sunscreen and wearing an ice bucket on his head to beat the tropical heat. His ‘unique’ performance brings no entertainment value to the film and takes away any connection to the intelligence of Wells’ novel. Critic Roger Ebert cited this movie as the worst performance of Brando’s career. There is also zero chemistry between the actors here — everybody is looking for the door or to punch the actor next to them in the throat. The special effects, although better than previous adaptations, are hardly impressive. To commemorate the novel’s 100th anniversary, Hollywood served up a steaming plate of petulant failure and did poor H. G. Wells dirty once again.

“The Island of Dr. Moreau” is a masterpiece of speculative fiction but all three of its film adaptations failed to do it justice. I’ll keep hoping for a faithful adaptation of this classic novel, but until that film arrives, the Law will have to do.

What is the Law?

Not to go on all-fours; that is the Law.

Not to suck up Drink; that is the Law.

Not to eat Fish or Flesh; that is the Law.

Not to claw the Bark of Trees; that is the Law.

Not to chase other Men; that is the Law.

And not to make yet another half-assed craptacular version of “The Island of Dr. Moreau”.

That is the Law!

©AnthonyRoberts,2025