Battle of Blood Island

Battle of Blood Island (1960)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

American GI's Moe (Richard Devon) and Ken (Ron Gans) are the only survivors of their platoon and they wash up on an island held by the Japanese. Ken has been left crippled so it's up to Moe to do everything from finding food and shelter to making sure the bad guys don't hear them. As the two stay on the island long their anger towards each other grows.

BATTLE OF BLOOD ISLAND had Roger Corman as Executive Producer so that should tell you what to expect. The film was obviously working on a very low-budget and it was meant to be the second of a double feature with of course the first movie being of a bigger budget. With all of that in mind, I found the film to be entertaining for what it was but there are no questions that it did feature some flaws.

I think the best thing for the film was the story by Joel M. Rapp, which he adapted from a short story by Philip Roth. I thought Rapp was very smart with the screenplay since he was working with very little money. This meant you couldn't stage large action scenes but instead everything had to be done on a small scale. I liked the way the story developed and I'd argue that the character development was good as well. Both Devon and Gans were good in their role and this added to the entertainment value as well.

This here was one of a number of films that Corman shot in Puerto Rico and the locations certainly helped the film. With the low-budget that means there aren't any large action scenes or anything like that so one shouldn't go into this expecting anything like that. The film ran a short 63-minutes and even at that there were some moments that dragged. With that said, BATTLE OF BLOOD ISLAND was a decent little picture.

(1960) Battle of Blood Island WAR

Super low budget war film adapted from the story by "Expect the Vandals", co-written and directed by Joel M. Rapp) centering on two stranded soldiers of Moe (Richard Devon) and Ken (Ron Gans) left on an island during WWII, with emotions running high as a result of looking after one another. It looks better on a novel, but to see this act out on screen with mediocre acting and some unconvincing fights and poor set ups, although well intended- one can get better stories told on books than to waste time watching this.

Footnote: I had no idea this was a Roger Cormon feature (whose credited as executive producer, besides playing a small part in it) until I read another persons review as Cormon is synonymously known as the king of low budget movies.

I definitely liked this film more than the other reviewers. Yeah, the battle at the beginning was badly staged and kind of goofy. If the marines fought anything like those guys we would have never won any war period. Afterwards though I really enjoyed what essentially became a tale of survival on a deserted island. Think Castaway here. One of the soldiers is badly injured and depends on the other for almost every single thing he needs. This puts a lot of stress on Moe who is pretty darn high strung anyhow. Basically you have one physically incomplete person and one mentally incomplete person somehow struggling through all their issues while wondering if they're ever gonna see civilization again or simply die in the middle of nowhere.

This is more of a psychological film as opposed to the typical war film. Yeah, there is lots of fighting and killing but what happens internally to the two stranded GIs is what the movie is all about. I found that it kept my interest very well indeed and wish I could have given it a 7 and a half. The actor playing Moe was really good and his face is pretty recognizable. He played lots of heavies and gangsters back in the sixties.

Hello. - MOE! - I thought I would review this film, I don't usually, but I feel inspred. - MOE! - The film is quite simple. Two men are the only survivors of a disastrous attack on a Japanese island in WWII. - MOE! -The two men are incompatible yet, they must stick together because they only have each other.

The more I think about it, the more is just wrong about the film. - MOE! - One, 10,000 men were sent to the island and only two survive? It looks like there is about twenty Japanese soldiers fighting them off. And anyways, isn't 10,000 men too many for an island so small and insignificant? - MOE - - MOE! - Most of it is just talking, and while the soundtrack makes it sound like a B-horror movie by Ed Wood, and the war suit will neither make it appealing to fans of war movies or talkie dramas, the atmosphere is intense (or mind numbing, you decide). - MOE! - Bottom line is that you will either hate this film or love it.

P.S. Could Ken have said MOE! any more than he did in this film? :)