Very best movie i ever watch

I wanted to but couldn't!

A Major Disappointment

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Okay so this is NOT "Island of Lost Souls" or "The Big House" but I do think that fans of Peter Lorre would enjoy it. No need to hash out the plot here, and yes of course this is nothing more than a 1940s B-Movie. Nonetheless, if you grew up decades ago and have fond memories of staying up late and watching the old horror movies and science fiction monster movies on TV over the weekends, then watching this movie might be an enjoyable way to spend a late Friday or Saturday night, even though it's more of a "semi-noir" movie instead of a horror film.

Despite the low rating, this is a must for fans of low-rent cinema of the 1940s. It stars Peter Lorre seemingly doing a spoof of himself. This is the period just before he started to bloat — I imagine just after the Mr. Moto franchise left him without a steady gig. It also features — wait for it — Charles Middleton, aka Ming the Merciless, in a grubby career-ending part as the island's whip master. This is a bigger part than you might imagine, since the only activity on the island seems to be whipping, the object of which is to get a bunch of extras to rat on other extras who may be talking to the Department of Justice about the evil activities taking place on the island — basically, a lot of whipping. Filmed on a shoe-string budget that makes Monogram's most dismal releases look like Cecil B. Demille productions, this corker of a film may be best viewed under the influence of your favorite intoxicant. Without that spiritual aid, you probably won't be able to suffer past the opening, where a secret agent applies for a job in the Department of Justice, which seems to be located in a set originally created for an SRO hotel. Good luck, movie fans!

If I have one problem with Island of Doomed Men, it's the complete lack of logic on display. Here's the storyline from the movie's main page on IMDb: "Sadistic Stephen Danel owns a penal island, and when he is not humiliating and mistreating his wife, he is torturing his convict prisoners and using them for slave labor. Government agent Mark Sheldon is sent to infiltrate the island and bring Danel to justice." There are a couple of glaring inaccuracies in this quote that go to my argument about a lack of logic.First, Stephen Danel is not torturing "convict prisoners". Instead, he is torturing parolees. Parolees would undoubtedly be missed. How Danel gets away with his operation without someone becoming wise to what he's doing defies all logic. Like I said, these are parolees. Some would presumably have families that would be outraged if their loved ones just disappeared after being paroled. Also, I'd think the U.S. prison system would do a better job of monitoring parolees. Sure, a few might fall through the cracks, but not the dozens Danel has gone through over the years.Second, Sheldon's plan to bring down Danel is so convoluted and illogical that it will make your head hurt if you think about it long enough. The quote makes it sound as if the Justice Department (or some other government agency) sent him to the island on a mission. Not true. Instead, to get to the island, Sheldon allowed himself to be convicted of a murder he didn't commit, serve a whole year in jail, and have himself conveniently paroled into Danel's custody. What a ridiculous plan! Sheldon's predecessor appeared to have enough information on Danel to justify a search warrant. When Sheldon was arrested, why not come forward with that information instead of going through the ridiculous steps he took to get to Danel? Utterly illogical.If it weren't for Peter Lorre's performance, some decent tension in the film's finale, and Rochelle Hudson, I'd easily rate this one much lower.

The basic story of Island of Doomed Men seems to be based on the true story of Narvassa Island. The main difference was in real life, the men were mining guano, not diamonds and they were black contract workers from the Balitmore area, not paroled convicts. Like in the movie, the men were treated brutally like slaves. This eventually led to an uprising with several of the overseers murdered. Some of the black workers were then put on trial for murder but when the true story of what was allowed to occur was publicized, they were pardoned by President Harrison. Narvassa Island, located between Cuba and Haiti, was designated a wildlife refuge in the 1990s.