Howard Carlton (Owen Cunningham) is a wealthy entrepreneur and the owner of a chain of hotels and resorts. His latest venture is to put a resort on an exotic island, in the South Pacific, that he owns. To that end he sends a team of four to survey the island. Only one of the men, Mitchell (Glenn Dixon), makes it out alive and he was found in a catatonic state. Rumors abound that Mitchell is the subject of Voodoo.
Carlton hires the famous mythbuster Phillip Knight (Boris Karloff) to prove that his island is not cursed and that Voodoo is a hoax. Knight decides he wants to check out the island for himself. Knight takes with him his assistant Sarah Adams (Beverly Tyler), the comatose Mitchell, his doctor, Dr. Wilding (Herbert Patterson), and two of Carlton’s employees, Claire Winter (Jean Engstrom), Carlton’s chief designer and Barney Finch (Murvyn Vye).
The group plans on first taking a plane to an island with a trading post owned by Martin Schuyler (Elisha Cook Jr.) From there they plan on taking a boat over to the island Carlton is looking to establish as his resort. As soon as they leave they have radio trouble in the plane. They manage to land and spend the night at the trading post. That night Mitchell wanders away and dies, facing the island that killed him.
The next day Knight, Sarah, Claire and Barney along with Schuyler board a small boat piloted by Schuyler’s employee Matthew Gunn (Rhodes Reason). The boat quits before they reach the island, and everyone must wait until the tide takes them in. The first day on the island is rather uneventful but the next day proves to be a nightmare full of man-eating plants and a strange tribe of natives that have powers Knight cannot ignore.
“Voodoo Island” was released in 1957 and was directed by Reginald Le Borg. It is an American horror film.
This was the film debut of Adam West. He plays a radio operator at a weather station near the island. The boat captain, Matthew Gunn is played by Rex Reason’s brother, Rhodes Reason. Jean Engstrom plays the lesbian, Claire Winters. Friedrich von Ledebur, who I remember from “Man Who Turned to Stone” 1957 and “The 27th Day”, plays a very white native chief.
The movie had a lot of things going for it, some name stars, music by Les Baxter a seasoned writer to name a few. Unfortunately, it wasn’t all that interesting. The best part of the movie was Boris Karloff and the silly plastic man eating plants. The acting was solid, but the actors had little to work with. The buildup to the killer plants and the natives took so long that by the time they showed up the movie was almost over.
Even the title is a bit off since Voodoo is found predominately in West Africa and the Caribbean Islands and not in the South Pacific.