isle of the dead be set on a greek isle during the first balkan war in 1912 1913. when general nikolas the watchdog pherides ( boris karloff ) and american war correspondent oliver davis ( marc cramer ) visit the isle and they find that pherides wife tomb have be desecrate and the body go . upon hear the sweet singing of a female they be lead to a household consisting of the aubin and st and mary ( alan napier and katherine emery ) and mary nursemaid thea ( ellen drew ) and archaeologist albrecht ( jason robards ) and his housekeeper kyra ( helene thimig ) and and salesman andrew robbins ( skelton knaggs ) . a the talk turn to a mysterious greek vampire call a vorvolaka be responsible for bad deed on the isle and a septicaemic plague break out . pherides send for dr drossos ( ernst dorian ) and promptly quarantine all on the isle . but a the group wait and hope for the wind to come and blow the plague away and death and madness start to take a hold . we open with a scene in pherides shadowy tent command point . dark unflinching eye stare out at the soldier in front of him and pherides doesn not utter a word and he merely push a pistol forward and hold his gaze . the soldier take up the pistol and leave the tent and the outcome we know from pherides manner be obvious . the moody marker have be set and this be a val lewton { producer } and mark robson { director } picture . work from a script from ardel wray that be inspire by arnold böcklin painting of the same name and this be the fourth of five picture robson direct for lewton and and the first of three picture that karloff make with the talented producer . originally title camilla and the production be not without problem . karloff suffer a back problem that require surgery and thus delay the film for a while and a central female character call catharine be jettison from the original script . so not without problem it seem and but it doesn not show because isle of the dead end up a an atmospheric pot boiler drip with the sense of unease so synonymous with the lewton or robson partnership . no doubt about it and this be a very talky piece and with the maker choose fright suggestion and moot superstition over actual action for the most part while with robson deliberately keep the pace claustrophobic ally sedate . it all then come alive with horror relish a a premature burial { the audience be aware of this fact } bring about an upturn in pace . which simultaneously give the horror genre one of it best and most unsettling sequence from the 1940s . we then blend seamlessly into the last quarter of the piece where the mystery and horror unfolds amid shock and hypnotic like fulfilment . positive .