Filming of Island of Lost Souls was set up to start on October 1, 1932, with a 28-day production schedule. Some actors, such as Tetsu Komai as M'ling the "Dog Man" who—as the September-30 shooting script stated, the role was as of yet uncast—were last-minute additions to the cast. Laughton, Arlen, Hyams, and Hohl went to Catalina Island for one week of location work. Some footage was filmed on SS Catalina which, according to Struss, had encountered real fog as called for in the script. During a scene, one of the extras who was dressed as a beast-man reportedly got too close to the bars of a tiger's cage, leading to the tiger nearly tearing his arm from its socket. The fate of the man is unknown but Laughton's wife Elsa Lanchester confirmed this story, recalling the incident shocked Laughton and others on the set.
