THE SECRET OF BLOOD ISLAND

 

I finally caught up with this film recently--it was one of the very few post-1956 movies made by Hammer Films that I had not seen. THE SECRET OF BLOOD ISLAND (1965) is a follow-up to Hammer's notorious WWII POW tale THE CAMP ON BLOOD ISLAND (1958). THE SECRET OF BLOOD ISLAND also has more absurdities than any Hammer movie featuring a supernatural creature--it makes THE CAMP ON BLOOD ISLAND seem like a documentary in comparison. 

The story's lead character is a British woman named Elaine (Barbara Shelley), who, in September of 1944, is flying over Japanese occupied territory in Southeast Asia on a secret mission. Her plane is shot down, and she conveniently bails out near a POW camp somewhere in Malaysia. She's found by one of the prisoners (Jack Hedley), and she's taken back to the camp and hidden. Her appearance puts the commanding officer of the POWs (Charles Tingwell) in a quandary--Elaine has vital information that she must deliver in Kuala Lumpur, but the Japanese officers running the camp have been alerted that she was shot down nearby. The POWs are told that if they do not give any information about Elaine, many of them will be tortured and executed. The prisoners try to come up with a plan to get Elaine safely out, while wondering if she is really worth the risk. 

Needless to say, THE SECRET OF BLOOD ISLAND isn't the most historically accurate movie in the world. The idea of a woman, all by herself, flying over hundreds of miles of occupied enemy territory is one thing....but to take that woman, place her in a POW camp where the prisoners and guards have been used to each other for some time, and expect her not to stick out?? The POWs do give Elaine a haircut, and an old uniform to wear--but she still looks like Barbara Shelley. And no Japanese guard is going to notice her red hair?? I realize this is just a movie, and a Hammer movie at that...but even I have my limits. THE SECRET OF BLOOD ISLAND is so unbelievable that it is something of a precursor to the RAMBO and MISSING IN ACTION series of films. 

It doesn't help that most of the film was shot at Hammer's favorite outdoor location, the forest in good old Black Park. You don't think for one second that the story is taking place in Malaysia...as a matter of fact you keep expecting a horse-driven carriage to rumble by at any moment. 

Upping the unbelievable factor is the casting of Michael Ripper and Patrick Wymark as Japanese officers. Ripper had actually played a Japanese soldier in THE CAMP ON BLOOD ISLAND, and here he gets a promotion (although not much of one when you consider the results onscreen). Wymark plays the camp commandant. Both actors look and sound ridiculous--although to be fair to the two men, it has to be pointed out that they were put in an extremely difficult situation. I don't think any Caucasian actor could have been able to play their roles and pull it off (Marne Maitland must have been busy elsewhere when this film was being made). Wymark's facial makeup in particular makes him look more like an alien from outer space than Japanese--it isn't one of FX artist Roy Ashton's best moments. An actor named David Saire shows up for one scene as a Kempeitai agent, and he's even more outlandish than Ripper or Wymark. 

I do have to say that Barbara Shelley, Jack Hedley, and Charles Tingwell play their roles in a totally sincere manner. (Shelley and Tingwell, along with fellow cast member Phillip Latham, would soon be reunited on Hammer's DRACULA PRINCE OF DARKNESS, where they would all spend even more time in Black Park.) James Bernard provides a music score that is more exciting than what is on the screen, and the color cinematography is by Jack Asher, although this type of film wasn't worthy of his talents. (This was actually the last Hammer film Asher would work on.) 

THE SECRET OF BLOOD ISLAND was written by John Gilling, but he surprisingly didn't direct it--that job went to Quentin Lawrence, who had helmed Hammer's CASH ON DEMAND. Gilling, or Don Sharp, might have been a much better choice as director--Lawrence was mostly a TV veteran, and despite all the supposed brutality and exploitation elements, THE SECRET OF BLOOD ISLAND has a lot of talky scenes. 

THE SECRET OF BLOOD ISLAND, as far as I know, has never been given a major home video release. I'm sure that has to do with all of the politically incorrect elements included in it. It was Hammer's last war film, which is just as well (one can only imagine how a POW tale made by the company could have turned out in the more lenient 1970s). THE SECRET OF BLOOD ISLAND is one of the lesser Hammer efforts. It's not nearly as brutal as one would expect (Barbara Shelley's "questioning" by the Japanese thankfully happens off-screen), and the casting of the lead Japanese characters is a major distraction. Considering all the traditional Hammer names involved in the project, it still would be interesting to see a restored decent-looking print of the film, or at least have one available on home video.