Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau

Twenty years ago, New Line Cinema released what is now considered one of the worst films ever made, The Island of Dr. Moreau. I had the misfortune of taking a first date to see it back in 1996. Her name was Katy and she was sweet and innocent and said she loved movies. I did too, so I opened up the newspaper (you know, back when that was how you found out what was playing at the theater) and there wasn’t much that looked interesting. But then I saw the ad for The Island of Dr. Moreau starring Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer. Kilmer had just been Batman and given the performance of a lifetime in Tombstone just a couple of years before. Brando was, of course, Marlon Brando – the Godfather, Colonel Kurtz, Terry Malloy, one of the greatest actors of all time. So standing there in my kitchen, looking at the paper with sweet, innocent Katy at my side, I actually uttered the words, “How bad could it be?”

The answer is bad. Extraordinarily bad. 

 The movie is a mess. Based on an H.G. Wells novel, it is the story of a plane crash survivor played by David Thewlis who is rescued and brought to an island inhabited by a scientist who fled there so he could continue his boundary-and-ethics pushing experiments in creating animal/human hybrids. Brando plays Moreau and Kilmer plays his right hand man. While it’s an interesting premise, the film spins out of control quickly. Brando’s performance is the very definition of bizarre, the story is confusing, the dialogue badly written, and the special effects are both silly and unsettling. It was all supposed to be some kind of Garden of Eden metaphor with Moreau as God and the animals as Adam and Eve, but rather than smart and provocative, it came across as offensive, stupid, and gross. When the animal people drop their pretenses at being humans and stage a massive orgy, I knew the date with Katy was pretty much over.

The movie has haunted me for twenty years and whenever the subject of “worst movie ever” comes up, I have a quick and easy answer.

While I knew is it was stone-cold bad, I never knew why it was such a souped-up garbage wagon. Now, thanks to the fun and insightful documentary, Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau, I know more about the fiasco than I ever thought possible.

The documentary retraces the story of Richard Stanley, the original director and screenwriter of the film. Stanley had directed two independent movies that got him some attention in the industry and that gave him just enough leverage to get him a meeting with producers. They basically wanted to say, “Thanks for the idea, sucker” and send him on his way, but as it happened, the star and main attraction of the project, Marlon Brando, took a liking to Stanley and insisted he stay on as director.

Through interviews with Stanley, the actors and crew, as well as several of the executives involved in the picture, Lost Soul documents the he-said-she-said chaos. Stanley seems confident and assured in the interviews, but co-workers from the time paint a picture of an insecure amateur in way over his head. He was fired from the picture and told not to come within 40 kilometers of the production. The whole story of the film’s descent into worst-movie-ever-made territory involves witchcraft, Marlon Brando wearing an ice bucket on his head, Val Kilmer refusing to come out of his trailer until Brando did, and Stanley sneaking back onto set in an extra’s costume and actually making it into the final cut of the film. 

 If you have any affection at all for behind-the-scenes Hollywood stories or for trainwreck movies, you’ll enjoy Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau.