I saw this movie when I was a teenager and totally dedicated to being scared by most horror films I saw. This movie, I well remember, gave me some great chills which built to the end.
I bought the DVD recently, especially for Halloween--which of course, it arrived 3 days after. Anyway, I was not disappointed with the movie. It moved along nicely from somewhat sinister settings and a mismatch of people who become isolated due to the threat of plague. The man in charge, a Greek general (well played by Boris Karloff) takes over when he suspects the possibility of passing the illness to his troops on the mainland. What interested me most was not that the picture wasn't as well done as I originally thought, but that the characters had so much more depth than I imagined. The general was not an evil tyrant and the housekeeper was not an old witch egging him on out of her envy toward the lovely, young woman. She still seems like an old witch, but this time around I felt her belief in the supernatural and understood her fears which she passed along to the general who had been brought up with the same superstitions. As the first victim succumbs to a mysterious illness and then his wife apparently dies of the same the general's mind becomes affected by the old ways and he falls prey to imagination.
It was not the all-out scary picture I remembered, but it was certainly well done (good old Val Lewton and company). It moved along smoothly and swiftly and built to a very rational and chilling end. I enjoyed it immensely.
I bought the DVD recently, especially for Halloween--which of course, it arrived 3 days after. Anyway, I was not disappointed with the movie. It moved along nicely from somewhat sinister settings and a mismatch of people who become isolated due to the threat of plague. The man in charge, a Greek general (well played by Boris Karloff) takes over when he suspects the possibility of passing the illness to his troops on the mainland. What interested me most was not that the picture wasn't as well done as I originally thought, but that the characters had so much more depth than I imagined. The general was not an evil tyrant and the housekeeper was not an old witch egging him on out of her envy toward the lovely, young woman. She still seems like an old witch, but this time around I felt her belief in the supernatural and understood her fears which she passed along to the general who had been brought up with the same superstitions. As the first victim succumbs to a mysterious illness and then his wife apparently dies of the same the general's mind becomes affected by the old ways and he falls prey to imagination.
It was not the all-out scary picture I remembered, but it was certainly well done (good old Val Lewton and company). It moved along smoothly and swiftly and built to a very rational and chilling end. I enjoyed it immensely.