Isle of the Dead (1945)
* * 1/2
Mark Robson's horror films (The Seventh Victim, Ghost Ship) always have a strong psychological pull, enough to be more Noir and less Horror than their titles suggest. This one is less successful, but it's good to see Karloff in a more original story. He gets one of his strongest characters, an overly-rigid general caught up in an outbreak of the plague, a foe he doesn't know how to fight. The disease kills indiscriminately, fanning the flames of supernatural superstition. Unfortunately, the storytelling isn't as clear as it should be, blunting the horror until the final 15 minutes, at which point it manages some solid hair-raising atmosphere.