The Island Monster (1954)

Italian stinker with a misleading title that tries to make you think it's a horror movie when it's not. The plot's about the kidnapping of a government agent's daughter. Of note only for the appearance of Boris Karloff. Unfortunately he is dubbed by someone else so we don't even get to enjoy that distinctive voice of his. Not that it would have mattered much. Despite the dubbing, using mostly actors with monotone deliveries, the biggest problem is the movie is just unbearably dull. Worth watching for a few laughs at the awful dubbing for the little girl, I guess. Otherwise avoid unless you are a Karloff completist.

This movie I liked "ok" it's really not worth watching except to watch Boris Karloff as the quietly wicked character Don Gaetano. Boris, like always, is good but the story and some of other actors are not all that grand.This film really is for die-hard Karloff fans... but maybe not so much so for fans of the older crime-dramas. If you do decide to watch this one just know the story and most of the actors are lame but Karloff is great! It's really one of those movies to watch if you can't find anything else better to watch or if you are really in the mood for something different to view from Boris Karloff.4/10

Boris Karloff and the title "Island Monster" does not a horror movie make, as is evidenced in this tepid crime-drama concerning a government investigator sent to break a drug ring, until things go awry when his young daughter is kidnapped. Local benefactor (Karloff) seems a kindly old gentleman, whose hospice for ill children paints him as the town's saint, but there's something distinctly unsavoury about the milk he imports.Karloff is wasted as the benevolent Samaritan above suspicion while local mule Franca Marzi has a decent role as a nightclub singer whose drug addiction has brought her into the criminal arena, with a sad past and an opportunity for atonement ahead. Fierro is okay as the frantic mother whose child is abducted, and Vicario, playing essentially the leading man, a debonair, ladies' man loyal to the uniform, is consistently monotone.The Napoli locations are picturesque and there's a hint of the continental lifestyle that's hard to ignore, but the film is otherwise bland and unimaginative, lacking suspense, and hopelessly clichéd - right down to the faithful mutt who does a pretty good substitute for Lassie.

In the mid to late 1950s, many international actors starred in Italian films that were dubbed--so it didn't matter that actors like Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart, Broderick Crawford or Boris Karloff didn't speak the language. However, it is very odd to see these films in English because when they are re-dubbed the original English speaker's voice is usually replaced with some voice actor. Here, despite seeing Boris Karloff, you instead hear a voice coming out of him that just doesn't sound like him--it's close but just doesn't sound like him--probably because often the voice and lips are out of sync. I can get used to this, but really wished they'd just subtitled the movie instead. But what I can't understand is when they use horrible voice actors for many of the other voices--ones that sounded bizarre. In this film, at times, it seemed like random people off the street did the voice-overs--especially since some could barely read their lines and the voice of Mario's child is absolutely horrid!! This child who appears about four has a voice that sounds like it comes from a teenager--talk about weird! Now in the case of the first three actors listed above, they appeared in some amazing Fellini movies. Unfortunately for Mr. Karloff, this was definitely NOT a Fellini movie--not even a Murry Fellini film! Instead, it's a very low-budget movie about cops and the mob--exactly the type of film in which you'd never expect to find Karloff. Sadly, in addition to the extremely lousy voice acting, the film has a rather annoying musical score (though the film is unusual in that there is very little incidental music), cheap sets and a rather thin plot.While old Boris gets top billing, he really isn't the star of this dull suspense film and he is largely wasted. Instead, the main character is Mario--an undercover cop who's trying to infiltrate the mob. Unfortunately, Mario's wife is an idiot and she arrives in time to help spoil her hubby's cover--perhaps she liked the idea of mobsters bumping off her spouse, but I just think she was supposed to be a moron. Regardless if the wife was or wasn't the one to tip them off, the mob seems to know right away who he is and so they dispatch a sweet Italian dish to seduce the fellow. When the wife discovers this "other woman", the marriage is in trouble. And, to make things worse AND to ensure their wicked plans work, they also kidnap Mario's child.The rest is rather uninspired and dull--certainly NOT one of Boris Karloff's brighter moments on film. Despite this being a very poor production and a waste of time, one reviewer actually gave it a score of 10!! Considering all the problems with the film and an IMDb score lower than 3, you should just assume that one really high score was made by a maniac!