It’s no secret that 1996’s The Island of Dr. Moreau had an incredibly troubled production. The shoot was so infamously hard that a documentary, Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau, was made in 2014, detailing what went wrong. Whether you blame the production or think the script was doomed from the start, most critics agree that the end result is a messy, ridiculous movie that doesn’t hold up under any scrutiny. Although the documentary explains that there was a significant amount of executive meddling, a lot of the bad press surrounding the movie was pinned on the actors – specifically, Val Kilmer and Marlon Brando.
But even between these two, the bulk of the blame was put on Kilmer, who was reportedly a nightmare to work with due to personal problems in his own life. Brando, however, was also experiencing stress in his personal life and, by all accounts, was nearly as difficult as Kilmer. The difference is that while Brando’s performance as the titular Dr. Moreau is bogged down by strange character quirks, Kilmer has a high energy that eventually borders on manic, and he seems to be the only one who knows how ridiculous the movie is, and acts accordingly. He may have been a jerk on set, but his performance is the most entertaining part of the whole mess.
Why Was ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’ Such a Critical Failure?
Even if The Island of Dr. Moreauwasn’t such a mess behind the scenes, it doesn’t exactly hold up as a great film on the screen. The movie, based on H.G. Wells‘ novel of the same name, tells the story of Prendick (Douglas in the film), who stumbles upon an island under the rule of a vivisecting scientist named Dr. Moreau. Moreau is using the island as a retreat away from the rest of Britain’s scientific community – and its laws – to create animal-human hybrids. It’s an absolute classic of science fiction, but the 1996 movie doesn’t do the concept justice. Even with Stan Winston at the helm of the makeup and creature effects, the beastmen weren’t convincing enough to be as horrific as they needed to be. And the structure of the movie is a big problem, too, especially the ending. With tons of explosions and heavy action sequences, it feels at odds with the quieter, more character-driven first two acts.
The film also gets sidetracked too often, such as with the focus on one of Dr. Moreau’s creations, Majai, who is essentially Moreau’s Mini-Me. Majai doesn’t speak, but he does play a piano duet with Moreau for no real reason (apparently at Brando’s request, according to Lost Soul). As for Brando himself, Roger Ebert later called The Island of Dr. Moreau “perhaps his worst film.” And it wasn’t just Brando taking critical blows; Val Kilmer also received criticism for not only his performance as Moreau’s assistant, Montgomery, but for his behavior on set. There’s no way to know if Richard Stanley, the original director who was eventually replaced by John Frankenheimer, had a better vision for the film, but as it is, Frankenheimer’s version was definitely held back by the infamously tense and delayed production.
Val Kilmer and Marlon Brando Brought Personal Troubles to the Set of ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’
There were plenty of setbacks during the production of The Island of Dr. Moreau, but it’s the antics of two of the three leads that get most of the press. Although Val Kilmer has never gone into too much detail about what happened on set, there are plenty of others who have spoken up. Kilmer reportedly wanted his original part of Douglas, the lead eventually played by David Thewlis, to be reduced by 40%. This led to Stanley giving Kilmer the role of Dr. Moreau’s assistant, Montgomery, instead, causing more delays. According to the Lost Souls documentary (which is available to stream on Tubi), Kilmer arrived two days late to filming and was aggressive towards the crew.
Kilmer also supposedly butted heads with Marlon Brando occasionally, who was also very difficult to work with despite so much negative focus being put on Kilmer. Screenwriter Ron Hutchinson called Brando “his idol,” but claims that during production the actor seemed “hell-bent on sabotaging” the film. Brando would allegedly refuse to leave his trailer for long periods of time and at one point, both Brando and Kilmer halted filming for hours because neither wanted to come out of their trailer before the other. Brando also refused to learn his lines, instead using an earpiece through which an assistant could read him his dialogue.
But some of these outbursts may have been caused by struggles in both Kilmer’s and Brando’s personal lives. Just one day before shooting began, Marlon Brando’s daughter, Cheyenne, took her own life; naturally, the tragic loss is said to have contributed to his strange behavior. Kilmer’s behavior may also have been caused by personal issues; not only was he going through a divorce from Joanne Whalley, but he told Elle Magazine in 2006 that had found out about the divorce after catching the news on CNN. Kilmer actually thanked Marlon Brando for his empathy during that time in a 2017 Reddit AMA: “Brando was everything you want the major icon in your world to be, a genius and a gentleman. I was getting divorced at the time, and he was so gracious about offering me time and considered thought.”
Val Kilmer Has the Most Fun With His Role in ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’
Kilmer said in his 2021 memoir I’m Your Huckleberry that Frankenheimer in particular blamed him for how bad the movie was in the end. But, as Kilmer points out, “My character dies halfway through, and the last half of the film sucks as bad as the first.” And he’s not far off the mark; the whole movie feels like a mess from beginning to end. And while Brando certainly makes some bold wardrobe and character choices in the film, his performance is generally low-energy and the choices themselves more baffling than exciting. Kilmer, on the other hand, plays Montgomery’s descent into madness with a maniacal glee that’s actually fun to watch.
Montgomery cheerfully admits to using drugs within moments of meeting David Thewlis’s Douglas, and generally seems more relaxed than any other character – especially when he’s wearing a sarong and putting a flower behind his ear. Then, not long before his death, Montgomery loses his hold on reality and imitates Dr. Moreau, encouraging hedonism and revolt among the human-animal hybrids of the island. Not only is he dressed like Moreau – complete with the heavy white makeup Brando chose for his character – but he’s doing an impression of his voice as well. Or, rather, Kilmer is doing an impression of the stereotypical Marlon Brando accent from films like The Godfather, which sounds nothing like Brando as Moreau. There’s more than a hint of animosity in the impression, but at the same time, it’s so ridiculous that it pushes the scene into campy, “so bad it’s good” territory.
Although they were both going through personal struggles, neither Val Kilmer’s nor Marlon Brando’s supposed behavior during The Island of Dr. Moreau should be condoned. Kilmer seemingly got more pushback than Brando for his part in the production, perhaps because Brando was such an intimidating legend. But of the two, regardless of how they behaved behind the scenes, Kilmer gives a more lively, and thus more entertaining, performance.
The Island of Dr. Moreau is available for streaming on Tubi in the U.S.