Devil's Island (1939) proved to be something of a surprise - a compelling, fast moving account of a doctor (Boris Karloff) being sentenced to the notorious French penal colony - enduring hardship, escape attempts and a chance at a redemptive act.
Boris Karloff was always an evocatively spoken actor and here his melliferous voice is used to tremendous effect as he appeals his innocence to the court, as he conspires for escape and as he convincingly plays a surgeon. His near cadaverous frame is also used to good effect when he is stripped to the waist, showing him to be believably a half-starved prisoner.
The film uses some leftover sets, props and costumes from The Life of Emile Zola made a few years earlier to give added production value. Like a lot of Warner Brothers films of the period the pace is astonishing with very brief scenes, swift cuts and uses of montage to convey swathes of story in a few minutes. The opening five minutes alone features narrative text about the history of Devil's Island, an anarchists attack gone wrong, failed surgery, an arrest and trial all conveyed with minimal exposition and padding.
The film is pretty much defined however by Karloff's performance with most of the other actors coming across a little bland. However, this being the grand era of character actors with great worn faces many look precisely right as prisoners, guards and court officials.
Tension is built effectively over the relatively short running time and the end result is a pleasing tale of imprisonment and survival.
Boris Karloff was always an evocatively spoken actor and here his melliferous voice is used to tremendous effect as he appeals his innocence to the court, as he conspires for escape and as he convincingly plays a surgeon. His near cadaverous frame is also used to good effect when he is stripped to the waist, showing him to be believably a half-starved prisoner.
The film uses some leftover sets, props and costumes from The Life of Emile Zola made a few years earlier to give added production value. Like a lot of Warner Brothers films of the period the pace is astonishing with very brief scenes, swift cuts and uses of montage to convey swathes of story in a few minutes. The opening five minutes alone features narrative text about the history of Devil's Island, an anarchists attack gone wrong, failed surgery, an arrest and trial all conveyed with minimal exposition and padding.
The film is pretty much defined however by Karloff's performance with most of the other actors coming across a little bland. However, this being the grand era of character actors with great worn faces many look precisely right as prisoners, guards and court officials.
Tension is built effectively over the relatively short running time and the end result is a pleasing tale of imprisonment and survival.