AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Michael_Elliott 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.

kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** It wasn't much of a battle as the attacking US military were caught flat footed by the defending Japanese Marines who wiped them out almost to the last man. With Moe Malumuth, Richard Devon, playing dead he managed to get to a cave on the island where he found the badly injured fellow GI Ken Kennedy, Ron Gans, paralyzed from a blast of mortar fire. With Moe going to case out in the island looking for food and medical supplies from the occupying Japanese troops he manages to kill one of them who tried to do him in, neglecting his rifle and handgun, karate style and failed. Moe later goes into a deep depression in having killed a man, the Japanese Marine, even in self defense in that it being against his both moral and religious teachings.Still after killing once Moe doesn't have any problems in killing some half dozen more Japanese troops until it's heard on the Tokyo Japan radio that the Emperor has ordered the total surrender of the Japanese military to the allied forces! That had the remaining and heartbroken Japs end up committing Harri Kari, with rifles not swords, in order to save face and humiliation in that Japan lost the war! It now turns out to be a fight between the crippled Ken and healthy Moe in them not being able to live together, with Moe forced to look after him day and night, as well as Ken's uncalled for remarks, when he really got angry and pi**d off, about Moe's religious affiliations.***SPOILERS*** Finally kissing and making up both Moe & Ken wait to be rescued that, in being stuck on an uncharted island in the Pacific, takes more then a year for the US Navy and Marines to finally locate them. It's Moe while beach-combing on the far side of the island who spots an entire US Naval armada heading straight for it. With goats and other animals debarked together with a company of US Marines they finally rescue Moe, and later Ken, and it couldn't have been soon enough! The island that both Moe & Ken were stuck on was designated to be plastered off the map in an atomic test explosion called Operation Barnyard, or really Crossrords, the very next day where the two if they stayed there would have been blown to atoms!

MartinHafer This film and "Shell Shock" have been packaged together by Something Weird Video. Both are ultra-low budget WWII films that were made during the post-war period. However, unlike the wretched and extremely boring "Shell Shock", "Battle of Blood Island" manages to be entertaining despite its many shortcomings.The biggest problem with the film is probably the title. There really isn't any battle--at least not that you'll see in this action-less action picture. When the story begins, a small group of US Marines have already been killed as they were trying to take this small Pacific island (though the film was actually made in Puerto Rico). Two manage to survive...but one just barely. The healthy guy saves the wounded one and they hide from the tiny occupying Japanese force through the first half of the film. Then, a very odd thing happens. When the two soldiers have mustered up the nerve to attack the dozen or so occupants, just before they do so, the Japanese soldiers obligingly kill themselves--apparently they just found out they lost the war and decided to commit mass suicide. Now the two men realize that although they will indeed survive, perhaps no one will ever come to rescue them--after all, the island is small and the Americans probably assumed the entire unit was wiped out in the earlier attack. This is a pretty novel idea and without a working radio, I am sure there must been a few cases like this at the end of the war.The relationship between the two men makes up an interesting second half of the film. I especially was intrigued by what I thought was a gay subtext late in the film when the one healthy guy did NOT try to communicate with the American ships passing by--making you wonder if he really liked the idea of spending the rest of his life with the other man! But, sadly, the film didn't really follow up on this....making you wonder WHY the healthy guy didn't try to signal the ship. A gay love interest seems to be the only answer. But, despite this, the film still is different and pretty well acted.By the way, the ending was only okay. I predicted that the island would be Bikiki or some other island used for nuclear testing because goats and other livestock were released on the islands to see the effects of the bomb on them (that's kind of sad, huh?). But, I think they missed their chance for a great twist ending. When the healthy guy was finally discovered by the soldiers who were rounding up the goats and pigs, wouldn't have been wild if at that point it turned out there really WAS only one survivor on the island and the sick guy had died long before and was only now a figment of the other man's imagination? This "Twilight Zone" ending would have improved the film considerably--especially since the ending otherwise didn't make complete sense. Still, it's well worth a look.By the way, the film really blew it with the toucan. This bird lives ONLY around the Caribbean as well as Central and South America--not the Pacific. And, for that matter, they cannot talk like a parrot of mynha bird. Oops.

dbborroughs Two soldiers are stranded on a pacific island with the Japanese all around them.Talky war film will either strike you as great drama or bore you to tears. I kind of like it but I also can find it s a chore to get through. I have this as a double feature tape from Sinister Cinema where its paired with Ski Troop Attack. Depending on my mood after the first film the lack of activity in this film has been known to put me to sleep. Other times I'm fine. I know that's not a sterling recommendation but it's the best I can do.Your mileage will probably vary as well.