King of the Damned

Revolt on a prison island is a parable of workers revolution. A cruel and repressive penal colony is the setting for a prison revolt with a special twist...the prisoners want to stay on and govern themselves in a humane and productive working community. Well that's the theory anyway but circumstances make their venture a lot more complicated than that.

Conrad Veilt plays an erudite man imprisoned on the penal colony of Santa Maria (a bit like Devil's Island) where he serves a fairly austere military regime as an orderly. He is fortunate, the remainder of the inmates are little better treated than vermin. They have no rights and the doctrine is straightforward - obey or perish. None has a name, merely a number and so "83" decides to mobilise the restless prisoners and overthrow this hellish system that enthrals them. Even when he receives news that he has been pardoned, and is to be released, he determines to see his task through. It's about as subtle as an air raid - we are all rooting for the prisoners (regardless of the crimes committed to put them there) and no effort is made by director Walter Forde to temper that one-sidedness. That robs it of much intellectual potency and so it just becomes a cunning plot to escape film and though not bad, is a tad on the earnest side at times. Still, Veidt is decent enough as is Noah Beery ("Mooche"), and though nothing at all new (even then) occurs, it's still just about worth 80 minutes.