The first of three screen versions of H. G. Wells's "The Island of Doctor Moreau" (1932 Erle C. Kenton, 1977 Don Taylor, 1996 Frankenheimer-Stanley) may seem the most naive, but on reflection "Island of Lost Souls" is quite a modern horror story, whose ch

The first of three screen versions of H. G. Wells's "The Island of Doctor Moreau" (1932 Erle C. Kenton, 1977 Don Taylor, 1996 Frankenheimer-Stanley) may seem the most naive, but on reflection "Island of Lost Souls" is quite a modern horror story, whose chief terror lies not in monsters with terrible grins but in a plump doctor in a white suit, played by Charles Laughton. The good-natured fat man proves to be evil incarnate: his sinister little beard, admittedly, ought to have been a clue from the very start. Nowadays, of course, this island would already be an entire world, populated by strange creatures that merely resemble people, and as for mad scientists, one would hardly have to look far