Directed Erle C. Kenton
This nearly 100 year old film is primitive yet effective. As is often the case with older films that lack the visual sophistication of modern movies, the screenplay is everything. The most important elements are related through dialogue, not in action. The story is mesmerizing, beginning with shipwrecked man adrift at sea and ending the revolt of pack of wild human-animal hybrids as the extract horrifying revenge on their creator.
This movie was banned in England for nearly 30 years either due to the portrayal of animal cruelty during the vivisection scenes or for the explicit blasphemy of Charles Laughton’s Dr. Moreau desire to feel like a god.
Charles Laughton as the deranged Dr. Moreau is captivating. He often directly addresses the camera, leaving the viewer with the uncomfortable feeling that the person right in front of them believes he is god.
What a poor god he is! In his megalomania, he orders one of his creations to ignore one of the sacred laws he uses to control the man-beasts. This act quickly reveals that he is not a god and undoes his magical kingdom.
Bela Lugosi turns in the performance of his early career as the Sayer of the Law. As he recites Dr. Moreau’s laws, each one is acknowledged call and response style by his wailing “Are we not men?” and the tribe eerily groans “We are men!”
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