Devil's Island

B movie variation on The Prisoner of Shark Island, with Karloff as a French doctor sentenced to ten years on Devil's Island after tending an escaped prisoner convicted of treason. The predictable exposé of barbaric conditions is leavened by some nice touches (a mini-guillotine used for clipping cigars by Stephenson's corrupt governor), but falls apart latterly in a flurry of sentimental contrivance: Karloff performs delicate brain operation on governor's injured child; grateful mother helps him escape with evidence of governor's evildoings; he's recaptured, but saved from guillotine by arrival of deus-ex-machina. Karloff's sobering presence (he's excellent throughout) keeps it watchable.