King of the Damned ** (1935, Conrad Veidt, Helen Vinson, Noah Beery Sr) – Classic Movie Review 12,266

Director Walter Forde’s 1935 British black and white prison film King of the Damned stars Conrad Veidt, Helen Vinson and Noah Beery Sr.

King of the Damned is a downbeat tale of Caribbean rebellion on a South Seas island used as a convict-settlement home for unwanted British criminals. The Commandant exploits the jailed criminals for his own purposes, sadistically making them toil on the road being built through the malaria-ridden jungles. The prisoners mutiny, but to no avail, but Convict Number 83 (Veidt) provokes a public inquiry.

Tough performances give this melodramatic but robust story the smack of reality, though the dark-hued tale is kept very light with a surface-only gloss.

King of the Damned is an interesting but odd project for comedy director Forde, based on the play by John Chancellor. It is written by Charles Bennett, Sidney Gilliat, A R Rawlinson and Noel Langley.

They gave all locations Spanish names and set the film in the Caribbean to avoid French protests about films depicting Devil’s Island, 

The cast are Conrad Veidt as Convict 83, Helen Vinson as Anna Fernandez, Noah Beery as Convict 98, Cecil Ramage as Major Montez, Edmund Willard as The Greek, Percy Parsons as Lumberjack, Peter Croft as boy convict, Raymond Lovell as Captain Torres, C M Hallard as Commandant, Allan Jeayes as Doctor Prada, Percy Walsh as Captain Perez, and Gibson Gowland as Priest, and Martita Hunt.

 © Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,266

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com