Devil's Island

Devil's Island (1939)

*** (out of 4)

Gritty prison drama from Warner Bros. features Boris Karloff as a brain surgeon who is sent to Devil's Island, although he's innocent. Once there he sees the torture brought on by the warden and plans on doing something about it. I was really surprised by how good this one was. The film would have benefited by a longer running time and some deeper scenes but it's still highly entertaining. Karloff was the best of the horror actors in my opinion but he could sleepwalk through roles every once in a while. Here he gives one of the best performances of his career outside the role of the monster. He had a burning energy throughout the film that was a lot of fun to watch. The ending doesn't work but this would be a good selection for Vol. 2 of the Controversial Collection since this film was originally banned in France and had the French government put a ban on all Warner films for a couple years (so I read).