No, but Michael York does sadly.
shareI think it's the opposite. He was becoming an animal, but as they are in the boat, he is changing back into his original state of human and she is changing into her original state of animal. That is what I got from the end.
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No, but Michael York does sadly.
I first saw the film in 1977, and remember how horrified my date and I were when we saw the final shot of her face, starting to revert, in the boat. I think it is Moreau's final joke: she is beautifully human, a goddess even, on the island. Taken away, she reverts. I think this sheds tremendous light on the overseer's line when York first sees the girl: "She belongs to Moreau." She does, to the extent that when she leaves the island, after Moreau's death, she loses all that he bestowed (however rightly or wrongly) upon her.
shareJust saw it recently and the final shot suggests that she is turning into an animal and that Michael York has completely recovered..........
shareWhere exactly is this seen? At the end when Andrew wakes up and sees he is no longer an animal we see her face for less than a second and I saw no evidence of reversion; her ears, eyes, teeth all seemed the same. Also Moreau told Andrew that all his efforts have failed. What would he get out of lying about Maria?
shareThis was one of the biggest flaws in the movie. We get such a quick look at her face, you might miss that there's something wrong with it, but there is.
There are plenty hints in the movie of her animal origins and the character is certainly a Panther Girl in the original which is far superior.
I watched the film last night and froze the screen on Marias' face; you can see that she is reverting back. her teeth are different and her cheek bones more pronounced. I think that the filmmakers should have made it more obvious as many of the posters are right in that a viewer could miss it. This is probably old age creeping in on me but I seem to remember when I saw the film in the theatre back in 1977 that it WAS more obvious, but I can;t believe that they changed the film since its' original release.
shareI had read somewhere but sadly I forget exactly where that the original ending was to have her reverting back to her natural state. However, the film makers (or someone*the proverbial 'they' perhaps) decided that was too downbeat an ending. So to my knowledge it was originally filmed that she would revert and it would be very obvious and you saw Braddock's reaction to her change as well. When they decided not to change her they didn't reshoot anything they just showed her quickly and figured no one would notice. But they wrong about that, it is still very obvious, although we only get a quick glance at her, that she is changing back to her original state. Not sure where I heard that, might have even been in Michael York's autobiography but I'd have to double check that.
shareWow....well thanks for clearing that up. For a second there i thought i was seeing things...isn't it funny how a quick glimps of something like that can stop someone from sleeping easy at night :) i'm a little sad that it finished in one of those dodgy happy endings, but i still found the film mildly interesting despite the lack of scientific grounding.
share I actually DVRed this one night with the express purpose of looking at the last shot of Barbara as I could have sworn when I saw this as a kid she looked normal. I looked at the quick shot, twice and even paused it the second time. She looks quite normal IMO. Her eyes seemed somewhat catlike, but I didn't really notice anything significant.
Thought it was interesting that York in his "animal" state looks a lot like Basil Exposition.
I just watched this yesterday, and the set up was obvious. With all the clues earlier in the film, and the longer shot where you see her with her back to the camera, you just know that she has reverted.
But you're right, when they finally do show her face, she looks pretty much normal. A wasted chance at a non-Hollywood ending.
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The comic book adaptation that was released to coincide with the film featured her transformation so I guess the change was made after the script had been sent off to the artists.
"Now we are carrying so much hate and jade that we're not much better than you"
Again, if one assumes that Maria is the result of one of Moreau's experiments, then why does Moreau tell Braddock that all his creatures have failed? Unlike the 1932 version (The Island of Lost Souls) Moreau didn't seem to be overly interested in Braddock and her getting it on so what would he get by lying to him?
shareI know this is very old but, she is also a failed creature because without Moreau's injections she reverts back as we see at the end of the film.
shareActually, Moreau more than once emphasizes the world "ALMOST", which would lead us to believe he is referring to MarÃa.
shareIn the dvd that I saw she doesn't show any signs of transformation. Ironically on the cover of the dvd there's a picture of her in the process of transformation with her eyes and teeth changed. I waited to see it happen I even froze the frame at her last shot and she still looked normal. I guess they edited out that bit, but they forgot to take it out of the cover. Weird. That ending would have been creepier and more chilling.
shareIf you freeze-frame the ending, you'll clearly see that her eyes are cat-like and that she is reverting. I guess it all depends on which version you're seeing and if the network clips off the ending. There are several versions of the film floating around out there. I saw this one on A&E about six months ago.
shareI watched it last night on Epix 3, and I had to come here to see what everyone else thought as well about the end. I thought she looked like she was reverting, but I'll admit that the info for the movie on-screen, saying "a shipwrecked man and a feline woman" got me looking a little closer at it.
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I was always pissed at this ending, like it should of been more. She should of been curled up in the boat so you couldn't see her face, MY see's the boat to rescue them, shakes her shoulder, and she turns around with fangs and jumps at him attacking. Real fast, MY's point of view, and then roll credits. Something more on the line of the carrie ending.
shareIn the photo section of this films page you can see a picture of Maria from the end of the movie and she is clearly reverting back to a feline state.
shareyes that is true, but IN THE FILM its on onscreen for a half a second, and most people miss it. Its also not very interesting. its just her curled up in the boat.
wait a minute, that still in the photo section is not in the movie. That would be a perfect shot for the movie.
I like your idea. However, I'd prefer Michael York shaking her shoulder, she turns around slowly with fangs and cat-like features moaning in pain, cut to his horrified and appalled reaction, longshot of the boats, pan out, roll the credits with sad music. A final tragedy.
shareI saw the movie when it came out, and I watched it many times on TV and home video in succeeding years, always curious if Maria was reverting or not. After freeze framing that final shot of her in the lifeboat dozens of times over multiple viewings, I can't say I've ever seen definite, indisputable evidence she was changing. After all, she had been in a lifeboat at sea, completely exposed to the elements, for days if not weeks. She may have just been haggard from the ordeal. In my opinion, there is not enough there to say one way or the other. If the explanation given above that the filmmakers cut the scene short so any change would be less noticeable is true, then I'd have to say it worked.
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I saw this when it was first released, and in the version I saw, Carrera was definitely reverting. Curled up face-down in the boat, then she turns and looks up. Not just slight eye changes; the scene was just a bit longer, and so were her teeth. York's face is shocked and horrified, cut to end credits.
I just caught the last 10 minutes on "THIS" TV, and the scene was split-second, and she looked "normal" and beautiful. A happy Hollywood ending.
(PS--As York is about to fight off the manimal as he's getting into the boat, Miss Carrera shouts "Michael!")
(I also caught myself feeling sorry for all of the panic-stricken animals surrounded by smoke, fire, and heightened human emotion, while everyone tried to "get the shot", take after take after take. There was a scene of a large cat streaking after two escaping horses, and I fear for the slower horse.)
After freeze framing that final shot of her in the lifeboat dozens of times over multiple viewings, I can't say I've ever seen definite, indisputable evidence she was changing. After all, she had been in a lifeboat at sea, completely exposed to the elements, for days if not weeks. She may have just been haggard from the ordeal. In my opinion, there is not enough there to say one way or the other. If the explanation given above that the filmmakers cut the scene short so any change would be less noticeable is true, then I'd have to say it worked.
I've only seen the film once, when it came out in 1977, but there is definitely SOMETHING going on in that final shot. I seem to remember that A.I.P. (as is their wont--hello, "A Matter of Time") decided to tinker with anything remotely approaching a prestige project, and that they "decided to cut" the ending of "The Island of Dr. Moreau."
I would bet that the character does revert, and A.I.P. tried to cut any suggestion of that, but that enough remains to make it ambiguous. Maybe in their haste A.I.P. created a creepier ending then they intended.
After all, here we are years later, on a chat board, talking about it.
It's a good movie. I'd like to see it again--in the MOST CURRENT version available.
Happy Halloween.