Island of the Doomed (1967)

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Best movie ever!

A Brilliant Conflict

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

n upbeat, typically sixties animated credits sequence leads us into this strange but not totally successful flesh-eating plant film. If you're going to deliver a weird plant film – give us more weird plants and less inter-personal drama!A group of rubes are talked into taking a short cruise an a botanical tour of an almost deserted island. Amongst those travelling are a drunken slutty wife and her boring husband, a lady who loves talking pictures of everything, a young girl (Elisa Montes – a regular Western actress), a young guy, and a botanist, who is the only person who would realistically want to go on a tour like this. Things take a turn for the worst almost right away when an old man covered in weird wounds stumbles in front of the car and dies. Cameron Mitchell shows up as the Baron who own the usual big scary mansion and tells everyone not to worry about the dead guy as he was insane and sick anyway (the old woman takes a picture of the corpse for good measure). Cameron, who is dubbed by someone else, explains that he's got all sorts of weird plants everyone can have a look at (and I admit I drifted away from his botanical jibber jabber – and I have an allotment!). He's still gibbering on about nitrogen in the soil or what not during dinner, but at least he dishes up a cucumber that tastes like beef! This leads to more jibber jabber, plus there's the twin brother of the dead guy that frightens the crap out of people, and apart from the strange porcupine plants he shows them, the film settles in for people bickering for a while when we should have more footage of whatever strange plant is sucking people's blood out.I guess people go on about the ending as it's the only really interesting part of the film. Turns out there's this huge tree that attacks people and Cameron wanted to feed it the tourist, plus the thing spews blood everywhere when you hit it with an axe. It's very possibly that I would have liked this film more if the print wasn't full screen, jerky and twitchy, but then again the film did say 'Starring Cameron Mitchell' so what was I expecting?Killer plants will return to Euro-cinema in Contamination .7!Cameron Mitchell will return to crappy films as a mad doctor in Nightmare In Wax, a crappy overacting criminal in Greek giallo Medusa, a member of the KKK in the Klansman, as whatever he was in the slasher film Haunts, a terrible psychic in shitty South African slasher film The Demon, a cop versus Satan in The Nightmare Never Ends, a mumbling cult leader in Martial Arse film Low Blow, a grizzled bar owner in great eighties action film Codename: Vengeance, and also as a crooked country park owner in Memorial Valley Massacre – and those are just the Cameron Mitchell films I own!

I agree with several of the posters here. I'm hugely attached to European horror films (especially Italian ones, which this isn't, though I always thought it was), but even considering that, I think it's really enjoyable. It's a shame (as one poster says) that Cameron Mitchell didn't do his own character's voice, but that's about the only hitch. One accidentally comical thing is that "Mrs. Callahan" (who's played by an actress with a Spanish name) has dubbing that makes her sound for all the world like a comical "yenta" character! This film also has one line that isn't hurt AT ALL by the dubbing. After the baron kills "Professor Demarest," he calls in his servant to get rid of him. Then he says, "Use discretion. He was a nice man." To me, this is one of the great "ironic" lines used by a horror movie villain!

I hadn't watched this film for about 15 years, but after watching it again I must say that it works quite well. There is an excellent sense of atmosphere created, and Cameron Mitchell underplays his part more in the manner of a Karloff than of a Lugosi (as this is really an update of the old "mad doctor" films of the 30s and 40s). We take six diverse people--an unhappy married couple with a younger wife, a scientist, an older eccentric lady who is voiced in a Fran Drescher manner, a heroic young man (George Martin), and a desirable young woman for him to be interested in--who choose to vacation at the estate of a Count who is engaged in odd scientific research, and watch them deal with the gradual sense of doom...and the gradually more aggressive killer plants developed by Cameron Mitchell. The film is well-paced, and it leads to an exciting climax. MANEATER OF HYDRA/ISLAND OF THE DOOMED must have looked great on a massive drive-in screen back in 1967--it's still worth seeing today for the fan of 60's Euro-horror and for fans of the great Cameron Mitchell (although Mitchell does not dub his own voice).

Back in seventies a lot of obscure European movies mostly from the sixties used turn up lot on late night television and then seemed to vanish, going back under the rocks they seemingly came out from under. However, recently many of these films have recently surfaced on small video labels. Often these film starred either European casts unknown in the U.S.A. with anglicized names in the credits and/or as in this case, American stars who had fallen on hard times. In this film Cameron Mitchell, whose voice appears to have been dubbed by another actor, plays Baron Van Wiser, an evil scientist who has been creating monstrous plant mutations. He invites an assorted group of characters to visit his island estate, where one by one the guests become meals for his creations.The film was shown on American television as MAN EATER OF HYDRA, although the plants really don't eat anyone, they suck their victims blood like a vampire. The murderous plant, which we really never get a good look at (perhaps we can be thankful) resembles a yew tree with weeping willow like branches. At the end of the branches are flowers whose stamens do the blood sucking. The killer trees are apparently able to walk, but we never see them walking. It's unclear why the baron invited the visitors, but apparently he wanted them as food for his creations. The baron tells a botanist visitor the he wants to keep his discoveries secret. The baron seems to think having a group of visitors to his island all end up dead isn't going arouse any suspicion, even though the island would be crawling with police once word got out the hapless visitors were reported missing. Why is it these mad scientists/crazed maniacs never lure people who go un-missed like tramps, cheap hookers, homeless bums for their evil purposes? MAN EATER OF HYDRA (or ISLAND OF THE DOOMED) is one of dozens of cheaply made 1960's shockers from Europe. This film is slightly more entertaining then most these films. The film tries to drum up some atmosphere, throws in a little sex, and provides a few good shocks, but like most of these cheap sixties European shockers, there is an air "lets get this thing over with" attitude prevailing over the film.