1943's "Isle of Forgotten Sins," more familiar by its rerelease title "Monsoon," may have been bottom of the bill program fodder, but had 'A' budget aspirations, by PRC standards. One year before collaborating on "Bluebeard," director Edgar G. Ulmer and star John Carradine do the honors in a most unlikely setting, the South Seas, where heroes fight over women, and villains fight over sunken treasure. Casting the lanky, cadaverous Carradine as a two fisted action hero is akin to casting Bela Lugosi in the title role of 1934's "The Return of Chandu," no doubt both actors had a grand time getting the girl. In this case, 'the girl' is played by Gale Sondergaard, madam for a kind of South Seas brothel (the 'isle of forgotten sins'), with the sluts on hire including such luscious lovelies as Tala Birell and Veda Ann Borg (who also played Carradine wives in Monogram's 1943 "Revenge of the Zombies," and the 1958 episode of THE RESTLESS GUN, "More Than Kin"). As the villain with the sickly smile, Sidney Toler was in between Chan studios, finishing at Fox in Oct 1941, not beginning his Monogram series until Sept 1943. Only a viewer partial to the cast would really enjoy the overlong, high camp shenanigans, fatally shot on a shoestring budget. The climactic monsoon naturally can't compare with Carradine's own in "The Hurricane."
Review of Isle of Forgotten Sins
