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The Age of Commercialism

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Boring

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Bill Martin (Dick Foran) is a man who is one step ahead of his creditors when he inherits something odd--a castle on a lonely island in the Caribbean. He decides to use this to his advantage and offers to take people on a treasure hunting expedition there...if they can afford the fare on his boat. However, once there it becomes obvious that there's already a treasure hunter there...and they seem willing to kill the boat load of people if necessary. As for the visitors, they are a motley crew...with everyone from a wanted man to a cousin wanting to buy the mansion to another crook! What's to come of all this?This is a slick little B-mystery film from Universal...and the studio was excellent at making these wonderful atmospheric cheap pictures. While never brilliant in any way, it is reasonably well made and entertaining.By the way, Foran's sidekick in the film is Fuzzy Knight...and fortunately Knight does NOT use his stuttering schtick at all in the movie...thank goodness!

I have no idea why "Universal" commissioned this trash - it has nothing worth while about it at all.Dick Foran - a capable leading man - should have been given a worthier film than this!He is THE only reason to bother with a yawn fest like "Horror Island" - I don't recognise anyone else which is just as well.

Dick Foran plays Bill Martin, an unemployed man who lives on the waterfront who inherits an old castle on a remote island. He gets the idea of charging boat rides to the island for a ghost & treasure hunt excursion, helped by his best friend Stuff Oliver(played by Fuzzy Knight) Peggy Moran plays heiress(and love interest) Wendy Creighton who goes to the island along with several others, where they encounter a caped and mysterious figure known as "The Phantom", who has half of a pirate treasure map, while Bill's associate The Captain has the other. Who will find it first, and survive the night, since someone is also a killer? Fun movie is oddly little-known, but amusing to think how this may have influenced "Scooby Doo, Where Are You?" since plot elements and characters are identical! A rushed production though, since this has a big goof: about 26 minutes in, as the group enters the library, a stage hand with portable spotlights can be clearly seen backing out of the scene!

Bill Martin(Dick Foran)has been a failure at almost every small business he has started, his pal, Stuff(Fuzzy Knight), always wondering when the two would find real jobs so that they could get themselves out of debt. Martin has the deed to an island and castle, deciding to try his hand at a new business venture, inspired by a peg-leg "pirate", who discovered a treasure map found in a corked bottle floating in the ocean. The mysterious "The Phantom", a shadowy man in a black top hat and cape, attacks Peg-Leg and takes a part of the map. Martin accidentally crashes into the car of Wendy Creighton(Peggy Moran), owner of a yacht club, sweet-talking her into coming on board his boat, the Skiddoo along with other customers who fork over 50 bucks for the treasure hunt trip to his "ghost castle" for "adventure and thrills". Also along for the ride is Bill's cousin George(John Eldredge), who wants to purchase the island, Professor Jasper Quinley(Hobart Cavanaugh), who authenticates maps(calling the one in Martin's possession a fake)and walks in his sleep, Thurman Coldwater(Lewis Howard), a friend of Wendy's(bored almost immediately, seemingly only on the trip as a favor to Wendy), Sergeant McGoon(Walter Catlett; a policeman who charges Martin of false advertising in regards to ghosts being on his island), Rod Grady(Ralf Harolde; actually a criminal on the lam)and Rod's wife, Arleen(Iris Adrian; with eyes for George). The Phantom(Foy Van Dolsen)immediately attempts to harm members of this expedition using a crossbow and suit of armor, while also speaking across an intercom set up by Martin and Stuff to spook the customers as to frighten them off the island so he could get his hands on actual treasure possibly inside the castle. Like in other Universal features, the castle has secret passages and members of the treasure hunt fall prey to a killer. A terrific cast(Moran and Foran were together in the best Mummy sequel, THE MUMMY'S HAND)works wonders and the treasure hunt, not to mention the whodunit that develops when one among the group starts picking off individuals(after each murder, the killer uses chalk on a wall to decrease the number still remaining), is entertaining. HORROR ISLAND is over before you know it and benefits from the wonderful chemistry between Foran, Moran, and Knight. I consider HORROR ISLAND the kind of enjoyable B-movie fare perfect for a Saturday afternoon when you have some time to kill, but it's more of an adventure than a horror film. I think HORROR ISLAND would team very well with the other Foran vehicle, THE MUMMY'S HAND..I just wish he had made a few more for Universal studios, he is quite charming and has a nice presence on screen, as does the lovely and vivacious Foran. Probably the most pleasant surprise in the Universal Movie Archives set released not long ago.