VOODOO ISLAND-1957-Amazlingly between 1957 and 1962 Boris Karloff made only 4 movies (he was a busy TV and stage actor though)! Some people feel he shouldn’t have bothered with this one. Although I’m a huge fan of “King Karloff” I would tend to agree. However it is the only chance you’ll ever get to see him in a baseball cap!

Boris plays a world renowned “skeptic” Phillip Knight who refuses to believe voodoo had anything to do with the disappearance of a millionaire and his party while planning to build a resort on “a mysterious island”. Even when one guy is found in a wide-eyed trance he still scoffs. It’s decided Boris and his secretary and a few others (one of the female characters seems to be a lesbian) should go to the island and debunk the rumors themselves. He merely smiles when a flower in the room dies and blood comes out of it.

Many weird things happen before the group gets to their destination. One of the strangest is an un-billed appearance by Adam West (9 years before “Bat-Man” TV stardom) in a remote landing station.

It’s pretty boring stuff although Les Baxter’s creepy soundtrack is a plus. And the pint size voodoo dolls that resemble some of the victims are kind of cool. The characters talk a lot, debate the pros & cons of Voodoo and Boris is suitably grumpy. He may not have been acting. He probably wasn’t thrilled with this very cheap production.

When they land at the trading post of a guy named Schuyler (Elisha Cook Jr. in his typical ‘50’s role as a nervous toady; he was in Kubrick’s THE KILLING the year before) Rhodes Reason shows up as boat skipper (with a past) who eventually takes them to the title place and falls in love with Knight’s emotionless assistant (Beverly Tyler) who everyone calls by her last name. They shouldn’t have bothered going, as it is the home to some of the worst looking man (and woman) eating plants ever seen. At times it seems the victims are holding the rubbery vines to their bodies! (Shades of THE CREEPING TERROR!!!)

And despite all the killer plants the group sleeps outdoors on the ground with no protection at all!

It turns out an unusual native tribe dwells on the island. So unusual that there leader has a German accent! He’s played by Friedrich von Ledebur who was Queequeg in John Huston’s MOBY DICK the year before. He was later in another Huston film THE ROOTS OF HEAVEN. The same year as he appeared in VI he was also in the much more interesting THE 27TH DAY.

Actor Rhodes Reason was later in KING KONG ESCAPES.

Reginald Le Borg, a former stage director who began his film career in 1936, directed VOODOO ISLAND. He started making shorts then worked at Universal directing Lon Chaney in several “Inner Sanctum” movies and THE MUMMY’S GHOST. He also worked on the JOE PALOOKA series. He later became a prolific TV director but occasionally returned to work on low budget horror films like VI and THE BLACK SLEEP.

Karloff also made FRANKENSTEIN 1970 for the same producers in 1958.