Reviews

All the other reviews are based on the bad English dubbing and the fact that it's not Karloff's distinctive voice (as it was the case for "Black Sabbath", the US version of Mario Bava's masterpiece). But, just as "I tre volti della paura", the original title of Bava's movie, is a better film than its US counterpart, despite the Italian dubbing and the absence of Karloff's voice, "Il mostro dell'isola" is better than its poor US version. First, this US version is cut (about 15 minutes missing), but of course the actors's voices are natural (even the guy dubbing Boris is good). In France it was released (only in the Northern province apparently) as "Le monstre de l'île", almost uncut (3 mins missing), and the dubbing was quite professional, as always. The little girl in the movie was dubbed by the late Françoise Dorléac - Catherine Deneuve's sister - who was 12 years old then. In Belgium it was released under another title, "Femme perdue".

Boris Karloff is - as usual - excellent, but the American print - reduced from 73 mins to 62 - is a disaster. The same thing can be said for "Phantom Ship", the cut version of "The Mystery of the Mary Celeste", the British movie with Bela Lugosi... Seriously, how can you judge a movie when the inflicted cuts make it almost unwatchable? Apparently it's an usual practice in America. Too bad. And Mona Goya's performance is maybe slightly "overt-the-top", I agree, but as someone said, her character is over-the-top as well, as Karloff was over-the-top in John Ford's "The Lost Patrol" but he played a religious fanatic, and in real life they are even worse.

Not only this story is "authentic Jules Verne", in fact written years earlier its presentation to a publisher, but if Hetzel first refused this book, then asked Verne's son to rewrite the novel, it's because it was different from the other books Hetzel published from Verne. Excepted maybe for "Le château des Carpathes". Since, the original Jules Verne's manuscript has been discovered in Hetzel's archives and was re-published in this much better version. In fact, Verne wrote several stories more fantastic, or even horrific, than his other best-known books. I totally disagree with the previous review by Gwynplaine McIntyre. First, the TV-movie is so well photographed that it gives the impression of a "real" movie, made for theaters. It was a coproduction with Czechoslovakia and benefits enormemously of the splendid exteriors in Prag. The cast is uniformeously excellent, and the special effects are superb for a 1967 movie.

Sorry but I bought the German DVD some years ago and SPUK UM MITTERNACHT is NOT restored. The vertical scratch remains in the full length or almost (excepted of course for the scenes taken from the US version). And in fact they explain in the bonus that they didn't restore the movie INTENTIONALLY to give us an idea of the current state of the film, "exactly as it was found in the Moscow archive". Well, I can understand the decision. The big problem being that this virtuous decision is immediately counterbalanced by the inclusion of these scenes from the US version, in order to give a coherent continuity ! The best way would have been of course: a) to include the German-language print with the scratch and without the American scenes. b) to add the RESTORED version - without the scratch and without the scenes from the US version and c) a final version (for the time being at least) without the scratch and with the added scenes from the US version.

It was not impossible I suppose, and THIS could be really called a "restoration"