"Isle of the Dead" nailed everything RKO requested of Val Lewton's B-horror unit. Production came out costing $246,000 out of the required maximum of $150,000, the most expensive out of all of his films, ran exactly 72 minutes out of the 75, and RKO's supervisors decided on a name that was inspired by Arnold Bocklin's famous painting although the working title was "Carmilla." Bocklin's painting ended up becoming the basis of both the score and set in the creation of the nameless Greek Island that is haunted by both plague and vrykolakas.
The second of the three films of the Lewton-Karloff collaboration, "Isle of the Dead" had to go on hiatus when Karloff required back surgery. This would be one of the three surgeries he had to get done with the damage done to his back while wearing the weighted Frankenstein suit even 14 years earlier. So filming was soon suspended after having just started in July 1944. During the hiatus, Rose Hobart was able to find another film to work on, but her character of Catherine had to be cut from the film completely. With Karloff out of surgery and cast and crew scattered among the movie studios, it would take time to reassemble everyone. So during that time, Lewton and Karloff made "The Body Snatcher" (1945) until shooting began again in December 1944.
"Isle of the Dead" would premiere in New York City on September 7, 1945. Variety considered the film as "moderate b.o."
"Isle of the Dead" will be on TCM October 17, 10:45 PM EST/9:45 PM CST
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