Il mostro dell’isola (The Monster of the Island) brought Boris Karloff to Cinecitta Studios to play Don Gaetano, who may speak softly but is also the leader of a gang of black market thieves and drug dealers who have kidnapped Fiorella (Patrizia Remiddi), the daughter of Detective Mario Andreani (Renato Vicario), who has come from America to Ischia, a small island off the Italian coast. Yes, that same undercover man’s wife, Giulia (Jole Fierro), has come along as well, jealous over her man and putting everyone in danger.

If his wife had stayed home, Mario would be romancing Gloria D’Auro (Franca Marzi), a member of the gang who sings at a nightclub. Don Gaetano may seem like a kindly man who runs a home for sick children, but he has no worries about straight-up kidnapping the little girl, even if she’s dubbed by an adult and it sounds like she’s related to Bob from The House by the Cemetery. For some reason—a lack of synced sound—Karloff is also dubbed, and it’s the most low-level impression of him ever.

Director Roberto Bianchi Montero would go on to make Una donna per 7 bastardi and The Slasher…Is the Sex Maniac!, as well as Caligula’s Hot Nights, Savana: Violenza carnale and Le notti segrete di Lucrezia Borgia. He wrote it with Carlo Lombardo and Alberto Vecchietti. There’s no monster, but you already figured that out.

You can watch this on Tubi.