Yes, there is an island in “The Island Monster”.
The military police are investigating a smuggling racket. It appears that the drugs are coming through an island where the smugglers have set up their headquarters. An Italian government agent, Lt. Mario Andreani is sent in to investigate. He must make nice with a local moll named Gloria D’Auro (Franca Marzi). They know she has something to do with the smuggling that has been going on.
Don Gaetano (Boris Karloff) is a local man who runs a free clinic and helps the poor. Unbeknownst to everyone except certain members of his gang Gaetano runs the smuggling operation and is head of the cartel. Although outwardly he appears grandfatherly he is really a bastard and a murderer. It appears the gang is aware that a treasury man is in town. They want to keep him out of their way so they kidnap his small daughter. They take her to a cave and hide her. Her dog somehow follows the girl and manages to find her. With Mario busy trying to find his daughter, the gang thinks they can go on with their business.
At one point Mario manages to infiltrate the gang. He learns of a plot to lure the military and treasury people away from a big smuggle thing going on. The bad guys want to lure the good guys to the nightclub that Gloria works at. In the meantime the main gang will movie the drugs they have stashed to their next point. Mario means to foil their plans and enlists Gloria to help get his daughter back.
At least that’s what I think is going on. The plot is confusing at best. I had to watch it a couple times to get that much out of it. The movie itself is quite tedious. Ok, it’s down right boring. The story is slow and bland. The dubbing is horrible. The little girl’s voice was done by an adult woman who seems to think that children sound like bad cartoon characters on helium. It’s really annoying. Even Karloff’s voice is dubbed. Whoever they got for that seems to be trying to do an impersonation of Karloff. I don’t know why they did that. Why not just have Karloff do it himself?
“The Island Monster” was released in 1954, 1957 in the US and was directed by Roberto Bianchi Montero. It is an Italian film. First off there is no monster in “The Island Monster”. Second, it’s not even a horror movie. It is an espionage movie. The island monster in “The Island Monster” is Karloff himself. Someone suggested that it is the drugs that are the monster. Either way, I am not spoiling the movie by telling you this. I am actually saving you from having to watch it. Unless you like espionage movies.
As for the acting Karloff is good, but he isn’t a main character so there is only so much he can do to elevate the movie. When he is on screen he is amazing. He plays a dual role. Bad gangster and good benefactor. And sometimes he switches from one to the other in seconds. Also Franca Marzi is not bad. The only other actor that was of interest was the dog. I think he has as much screen time as Karloff.