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A note asking for help and giving the latitude and longitude of the writer's location is found in a bottle at sea. The newspapers dismiss the letter as a hoax but Robert Marston recognizes the writing as that of his fiancée Jane Crawford who disappeared from London years before. Robert is now engaged to Evelyn but feels he should still conduct a search for Jane (He seems mostly worried about what might happen if Jane turns up in London unexpectedly should someone else rescues her). In the company of his friend Ted, an inept physician fleeing a publicity stunt gone awry, Robert boards a submarine (!) and heads for the mysterious location. When Evelyn discovers this she becomes determined to follow.

The location turns out to be a desert island. Robert and Ted discover a compound located in a marsh and there meet the sinister Dr. McClelland who is holding Jane prisoner and conducting strange experiments with animals. The friends free Jane who tells them that she was kidnapped by a gang of Asians in London and doesn't know how she ended up on the island. Their escape is thwarted when McClelland's opium addicted assistant Fung-Lu blows up the submarine. Robert, Ted and Jane then start a Robinson Crusoe sort of life elsewhere on the island. A love triangle develops.

McClelland turns out to be the notorious Dr. Thompson who fled London 5 years previously. He has created monsters who are semi human and a mixture of different animals. They are kept shackled in a hidden room. His masterwork though is an artificial man who is near completion and needs only a human heart to become animate. Just as Evelyn and the rescue party arrive on the island, McClelland has his most successful creation, a monster who acts as his servant, kidnap Jane and bring her to the lab where the doctor instructs Fung-Lu to remove her heart. However, he reckons without the treachery of his envious assistant and the hatred of his monsters for their maker and a fiery climax ensues.

The film is widely regarded as an unofficial-and very free- adaption of H.G. Wells' "The Island of Dr. Moreau" but German reviewers did not make the connection. However, one of them did note the film's resemblance to Maurice Renard's 1908 novel "Dr. Lerne", an acknowledged tribute to Wells and "Moreau." In any case, the film is less reminiscent of "Island of Lost Souls", the classic thirties adaptation of "Moreau", than the screwy Monogram horror films of the forties with an incoherence that borders on the surreal punctuated by some silly comedy. One of the characters is a black man dressed in top hat and tails whose presence on the island is not explained (though I suppose it's possible there's a title card missing in the copy I viewed). His antics are proof that racist humor was not strictly a Hollywood affair.

The effective make-up on the mad doctor's monster assistant is not unlike that of Vincent in TV's "Beauty and the Beast." However, he makes for a rather sorry henchman. He follows his master's instructions to shoot a tranquilizer (via blow gun) into Jane but once she collapses, he fails to pick up her and bring her back to the lab! At one point the doctor threatens him with a whip and demands to know "Who created you?" but instead of the expected response the beast man timidly points to Fung-Lu. The creature is portrayed by wrestler Umberto Guarracino who played the Monster in 1921's "Il mostro de Frankenstein"

The doctor's other creations- which include a hairy walrus hybrid and an ape with the head of a giant bird- are glimpsed only briefly but leave the queasy impression of fake sideshow freaks. It's a bit of a cheat however to have all this build up to the artificial man and then not even get a look at him once he comes to life.

Performances are adequate. Erich Kaiser-Titz bears a resemblance to Irving Pichel but his Dr. McClelland seems more slimy than obsessed. Sets and photography are serviceable but fail to create any sense of dread or isolation. Director Urban Gad's main claim to fame rests with the films he made with his wife, Asta Nielsen. He seems quite out of his element here.

This first feature length film adaptation of Sherlock Holmes' most famous adventure could almost pass as a parody of the Arthur Conan Doyle story.

The scheming Stapleton, who covets the Baskervilles estate and seeks the life of its new heir, Sir Henry, is revealed as the villain right from the first. The hound-a big, friendly spotted mutt-is about as menacing as Scooby-Doo-and is seen ferociously licking the face of his first victim. When Sir Henry writes to Sherlock Holmes to ask his help in solving the mysterious goings on, Stapleton-tall and lanky-tries to hide behind the small mailbox and grab the letter when the loyal butler Barrymore comes to mail it. When that fails, Stapleton blows up the mailbox! However, knowing that Sir Henry is expecting Holmes, Stapleton disguises himself as the famous detective and shows up at Baskerville Hall (The fake Holmes and the real Holmes are sometimes played by the same actor)

Meanwhile the real Holmes reads an article in the newspaper that tells how Sherlock Holmes is investigating the Hound of the Baskervilles legend. After consulting with Watson (who disappears from the picture after his one brief scene), Holmes secretly scouts around the Baskerville estate to see what's going on. Stapleton makes several attempts on Sir Henry's life but Holmes foils them all, depending more on his trusty revolver than any powers of deduction: he shoots the fuse off a bomb planted in a chandelier and later shatters a glass of poisoned wine held in Sir Henry's hand. Ultimately, he plugs the poor old Hound himself after Stapleton traps him in the beast's underground lair. At the end, Holmes disguises himself as Stapleton and confronts the villain (still disguised as Holmes) in a particularly laughable finale which includes some assistance from Barrymore wearing a suit of armor!

The great Karl Freund's careful compositions and camera-work are the film's only saving graces. There's a particularly nice long shot on a hillside, done in silhouette, showing Stapleton letting the Hound loose. Critics at the time decried the film's lack of adherence to the book but it was a big hit and spawned a whole series of semi-sequels in which Stapleton functions as a kind of Professor Moriarty, plotting against Holmes and still trying to do in Sir Henry.

The year is 1950 and tension is growing between the empires of United Europe and the Atlantic States. A bloody border incident puts both sides on high alert. The Peace League, led by saintly Dr. Seymour, opposes what looks like an inevitable march to war. Seymour's daughter Evelyn supports her father but is in love with Michael Deane, commander of the Air Force for Europe. A group of terrorists with ties to munitions manufacturers wants a war and is playing both great powers off against each other. The terrorists sabotage the railway tunnel that runs beneath the English Channel and the Atlantic States are promptly blamed. The President of Europe orders immediate induction into the armed forces of all young men and women. When Deane tells Evelyn he intends to fight she calls him a moral coward and they break up.

The President calls his council together and finds they are evenly divided between war and peace. The President, a scowling Fascist, breaks the deadlock in favor of war and tells the council he will go on television at midnight to announce this to the world.

Worried about Dr. Seymour's influence, the terrorists bomb Peace League headquarters. Seymour survives and tells Evelyn to go the airfield and try to prevent the war planes from taking off. He tells her that he's going to appeal to the President directly. "I'm a man of peace but I go PREPARED!" he says rather ominously. Evelyn leads a demonstration at the airfield and has to confront Deane. Will Dr. Seymour be able to talk the President out of starting World War...ummm.. Two? And can true love surmount different political philosophies?

HIGH TREASON was conceived and filmed as a talkie but a silent version (the one reviewed here) was also made to accommodate those many theaters still not equipped for sound. BFI has both films but, ironically, the sound on the talkie has deteriorated so the film is now mute. As pacifist propaganda the film is unconvincing and has a resolution that-in addition to being very farfetched-would not likely be approved by Gandhi. While the play the movie is based on was no doubt sincere in its pacifism the movie seems to have less lofty goals. A debate between Deane and Dr. Seymour is inter-cut with Evelyn undressing, taking a shower, drying herself with a big blow dryer and getting dressed again. Later the camera ogles all the female draftees taking off their clothes and putting on uniforms.

And most of the sequences of blasts and bombings seem to end with shots of women victims lying about with their clothes in disarray. Still all this cheesecake does distract a bit from the stodgy direction which makes few adjustments to meeting the challenge of doing a sound film in a silent mode (Demonstrators keep breaking into the "Peace Song"; not too effective when there's no sound!) The only reason there's any interest at all in this curio is the science fiction/ futuristic elements but they're inconsistent, implemented on a obviously modest budget and usually very campy. We see one 1950's car (looks like a rocket ship on wheels) and people communicate by a television system instead of phone. In the unconvincing miniature work we see weird flying machines but in the close-ups all the airplanes are of World War I vintage. An Art Deco nightclub has no musicians but a big machine that simulates the music. The patrons do a very funny dance that involves staying absolutely still at one point and when things get slow the management sends out lady fencers to amuse the crowd. And in what may be a prediction of McDonald's hype the Peace League has a giant electronic scoreboard that totes up all the millions who are joining (Over 50 million not serving?).

Ladies' fashions are a real hoot with detachable sleeves for work and shower caps for evening wear. There are a few odd looking hand grenades but most of the artillery consists of old fashioned hand guns. Basil Gill and Benita Hume are adequate as the lovers (I suspect their performances might work better in the talkie). Humberston Wright is stiff enough be posing for a plaster statue while Basil Gill appears to be doing a bad Mussolini impression as the President. If you look quickly you can spot Raymond Massey-maybe gearing up for THINGS TO COME-as a peacenik and Rene Ray- thirties urchin and fifties sci fi writer-as a draftee who says "War is a terrible thing" when she sees the ugly uniform she was to wear.

Fleeing a botched bank robbery, veteran criminal Dakin Barrolles has a chance encounter with drunken banker Sir John Lasher and his beautiful wife Xandra. Barrolles is fascinated by Xandra and steals a locket with the couple's picture. World War I has just broken out and Barrolles and his accomplice Charles Fox decide to escape the police by joining the army. Barrolles is caught in a land mine and his face is blown away. A brilliant plastic surgeon, assuming the locket Barrolles carries shows a portrait of his real face, gives him the face of Sir John who has also joined the army and is missing in action. Barrolles, now believed to be Sir John, goes along with the masquerade in order to avoid further trouble with Scotland Yard which is still on his trail. Xandra, who is not sorry that her dissolute husband has vanished, comes to the hospital to bring "Sir John" home. Back in London, Barrolles is tempted to use his position as Sir John to rob the bank but he and Xandra-charmed by the uncharacteristic tenderness of her spouse-fall in love. Barrolles is caught between his love for Xandra and the urging of his old partner Fox to return to crime.

In spite of the title, Scotland Yard plays only a minor role in this completely unbelievable melodrama that is rife with plot holes and contrivances. A prime example of the latter is the plastic surgeon's willingness to play along with the ruse even after Barrolles has told him who he really is, accepting the criminal's word that he will not take advantage of Xandra and will leave her before they get to London. In the early scenes Edmund Lowe adopts a false nose, a moustache and a low growl to play Barrolles and a silly ass Englishman accent for Sir John. Later in the film Lowe is pretty much his usual movie self; a likeable, slightly shady scamp with a sense of honor. He is more convincing in a dual role he did just a few years later in THE GREAT IMPERSONATION. Joan Bennett looks lovely but has a very dull role and in the supporting cast only Donald Crisp stands out unless you count the unintentionally funny performance of Betty Leonard as a French nurse with a very fake accent. William K. Howard, a veteran of silent movies, still had not found his footing in the sound era and much of the film has that static, stilted quality that frequently mars movies made from 1929-30. Howard's direction picks up a bit in the climatic scenes but he's still a long way from his subsequent TRIAL OF VIVIENNE WARE and THE POWER AND THE GLORY