This actually seems more like an episode of "Scooby Doo" than a movie made long before that animated series took Saturday children's programming to a new level. The opening shot (a peg-legged man walking along the docks) gives the impression that this is going to be a throw-back to the Gothic horror films of the early 30's but for the first half, all you get is the set-up with some comic relief long before the group of actors here get to the actual island home, abandoned they say for centuries and now filled with pigeons whom the guests initially assume are bats.Walter Catlett and Leo Carrillo provide the bulk of comedy relief, with Dick Foran and Peggy Moran the typical romantic interests, the young lady of course involved in some antics straight out of the original "Cat and the Canary". Universal always managed to hide the low budgets of these programmers with some fast-moving photography and sets that, even if recycled, make the movie appear better than it actually is.

Fast-talking promoter takes motley group of people to haunted island in search of hidden treasure. Shot, edited, and released, all in 25 days, and frankly it shows. Must be some kind of record, even for a B-movie quickie. In my book, it's the screenplay that suffers most. Looks like they took 90 minutes of material and crammed it into 60 minutes of film. If you can make sense of the castle goings-on, there should be a place for you in the space program. Also looks like the writers took every dark-house gimmick and shoe-horned it in somewhere, anywhere. Note how many puzzles (crossbow killing of the phantom; George's killing) are given abruptly awkward and hurried explanations. Apparently, there was no time for anything else. All of which would be okay if the scary parts were really scary or the funny parts, funny. But unfortunately they're not.What the movie does have are expensive leftover sets, Woody Bredell's first-rate photography, and two really likable leads (Moran and Foran). Foran makes an engaging fast- talking promoter, while Susan Hayward look-alike Moran is both cute and lively. There were a number of these haunted mansion films during this period. My favorite is Bob Hope's Cat and Canary (1939), which really shows how the premise should be done. Too bad that Universal didn't give the production more time to develop, especially to better organize the screenplay.

Horror Island was obviously made on a shoestring budget to accompany some bigger Universal film. I wasn't surprised it took only twelve days to shoot. In spite of this, however, Horror Island is an entertaining little flick that never really has time to get boring. The first half of the film is the best; and this is mostly thanks to Dick Foran. He plays a 'wheeling and dealing' businessman who has a lot of creditors on his back. This leads him to begin offering trips to a haunted island where his punters can look for buried treasure. After getting together a party of people through various means, they set off to the island...and the film goes downhill from there. There's some subplot about a mysterious phantom wanting the treasure for himself; but it seems like the writer didn't really know what to do once we get to the main bulk of the film and a lot of the early momentum is lost. Still, the film is always at least amusing and at only sixty minutes, there's not enough time for it to outstay its welcome. The whole thing is rather jokey and silly and I'm not surprised it hasn't endured as one of Universal's classics. Still, it's worth a look if you have an hour to spare.

I had first known about this through a still in the Halliwell Film Guide, though the noted late critic usually dismissed similar programmers: it turned out to be a fun horror comedy (from a story by Curt Siodmak) whose 60-minute length zips by – providing plenty of characters (even if the gangster-on-the-lam and his moll don't really work here), action, old-fashioned thrills (a caped maniac after hidden loot is loose in a remote castle), chuckles – and a surprise villain; the film is a shade overbalanced by the comedy, but the typical Universal atmosphere (and a few of its more notable sets!) are certainly present throughout. It also features a good second-tier cast: likable Dick Foran and cute Peggy Moran – re-united after the superior THE MUMMY'S HAND (1940) – are the leads and they're ably supported by the likes of Leo Carrillo, Fuzzy Knight, Hobart Cavanaugh and Walter Catlett; however, it's Lewis Howard who steals the film as Moran's chronically tired companion – even though he's absent through most of the second half! Michael Elliott had rated this a *** and I almost did myself – but, in the long run, I don't think the film has quite the same draw as even some of the lesser titles in the Universal monster cycle; still, for an 'old dark house' type of film – of which the studio did their fair share – it's well up to par. Incidentally, I had acquired another copy of this on DVD-R last year, but the disc froze several times during playback and I had to give up after a while; I'm glad I caught up with it eventually, as the film deserves to have a legitimate DVD release along with some of the other rare/lesser-known Universal horrors, like MAN-MADE MONSTER (1941) – which I've never watched! – and NIGHT MONSTER (1942).