Escape de la Isla del Diablo

Straying from his usual racially-driven blaxploitation, Jim Brown in I ESCAPED FROM DEVIL'S ISLAND is not only pure exploitation, attempting to bank on the popularity of the novel turned adapted motion picture PAPILLON about a French prisoner who escapes this movie's titular island, but it's practically an outright remake...

Jim Brown has the Steve McQueen part, strong, brave, and escape-minded while the weak-link Dustin Hoffman sidekick part goes to Christopher George, a passive progressive that Brown has to carry (while semi-strong arms Robert Phillips and James Luisi both fill Woodrow Palfrey's middleman shoes), and, starting from the beach-set makeshift prison, where brutal guard Richard Rust (UNDERWORLD USA) reigns, there's even a resilient homosexual escapee...

The budget is excruciatingly low, almost a no-budget indie, resembling more of PAPILLON author Henri Charrière's 1971 heist-flick THE BUTTERFLY AFFAIR, each being nearly impossible to see the actors or their actions at night -- although much of this initial escape's under bright sunlight, lying on familiar makeshift-coconut rafts: which ends the McQueen feature and is the center-piece here (meanwhile a stock footage manipulated shark attack is included)...

Thereafter, much of the rather sluggish adventure takes place in what's intended as the jungles of Venezuela (actually shot in Acapulco, funded by producer Roger Corman) where, like McQueen, Brown's given his own Indian girl for sex and a cozy hut... even better than the criminal life in homeland France, which -- during the 11th hour at a colorful carnival - only Christopher George yearns for, but not without Brown's further assistance, doing his usual action-blasting thing, and even a nostalgic football tackle in what seems more fun to have filmed than to actually watch -- after all, who wouldn't rather work in the tropics than the slums?

This is the story of the unrelenting escape in 1916 , the French prisoners (Jim Brown , Christopher George , both of whom giving the necessary chemical , and Richard Ely) sent to the horrendous and impenetrable prison establishment in French Guiana from which their attempts to getaway lead them with various periods at solitary imprisonment and dark confinement at the impregnable Devil Island . They suffer a great number distresses , tortures and horrible incidents carried out by the heinous wardens , as Christopher George being extremely mistreated , along with his fellow prisoner Jim Brown . Cruelty , brutality and favouritism are rife , prisoners are prepared to rat on each other . As they execute a risked escape , being mercilessly pursued by a villain Major and his underlings , but they never gives up . The hard-rock starring try a series of escapes , but they are always recaptured . The punishments will terrible and developed in graphic realism , including guillotine . And adding a perfunctory and non-sense ending . No man ever escaped this prison... until now ! He's the devil they named the island for! No man ever broke this prison! No prison ever broke this man!

The simple , plain and known script deals with a group of prisoners plot their escape from the notorious jail located on the beach , in Devil's island , French Guiana . Free and indirectly based on Henri Charriere bestselling epic about life imprisonment in a French penal colony . Tiring , rather than uninspired story, being complemented with nasty events , mistreats , harassing and horrendous tortures. As the title suggests the movie is very much on the level of those old Matinee and true adventure tales . However, it might have been a more powerful and provoking document against the wrongful, monstruous ,-and nowadays departed- system of indicts . Life after breakout looks like a rejected draft of the other movie , as the First Part concerns prison life that is painted in sufficient graphic terms , including political agitation and an aura of overinsistent homosexuality ; Second Part adding the following ones : shark attack with bloody gore , an encounter with lepers , a tumble with a native woman and an equally silly finale , full of fireworks . This Roger/Gene Corman production unlike Papillon , at least adopts the right approach , plenty of brutality , unrelieved crudeness , relentless machismo , exploitation , thrills , and violence. The picture is passable , but the yarn's strong doses of exploitation , bad acting and lousy edition are somehow hard to swallow . It is freely based on Henri Charriere's novel , adapted in the classy Papillon 1973 by Franklyn J Schaffner, starred by Steve McQueen , Dustin Hoffman , Victor Jory , Don Gordon , Anthony Zerbe . And a new recent version 2017 with Charlie Hunnam , Rami Malik , York van Wageningen , Christopher Fairfank , Michelle Forbes and brief acting by Tommy Flannagan . The hit of Henri Charrière's bestseller "Papillon" and Franklyn J. Schaffner rendition prompted brothers : Roger Corman and Gene Corman to finance a more exploitative version, this ¨I escaped from Devil's Island¨. Papillon's financers attempted unsuccessfully pursuit and condemn them for copyright infringement ; nevertheless , they were never properly allowed to file the case .

It packs an atmospheric and stirring musical score by Lex Baxter , Corman's ordinary . As well as a colorful cinematography by Rosalio Solano , being shot on location in Mexico . The movie was crudely and regularly directed by William Witney , containing a few vigorous scenes , though with no originally , because being a simple copy of the former film Papillon . Witney was a good craftsman who directed 140 titles from the 30s . Oklahoma-born William began his long screen career as a studio messenger in silent days joining Republic Pictures shortly after . By 1936 , he was already script supervisor on serials and his own directorial career started the following year . Witney graduated to director at 21, he was Hollywood's youngest , and he teamed with director John English on many of the period's best serials . He realized many of the era's best serials , most of them highlighted by kinetic fight and chase scenes that helped change the face of action movie-making and from 1956 , he transferred these stirring energies to TV Westerns with prolific and enjoyable results . The favorite shooting was the 1939 serial ¨Zorro's fighting legion¨ . As his pictures were mainly serials , after WWII service with US Marines , he moved on to Roy Rogers Westerns , inserting into them a new tough backbone that offended some Rogers purists . In 1954 he made one of the best films ¨The outcast¨ with John Derek . William Witney made lots of Westerns, such as : ¨Shadows of Tombstone¨ , ¨Heart of Rockies¨, ¨Border saddlemate¨, ¨Bells of Coronado¨, ¨North of the Great Divide¨, ¨The Trigger trio¨, ¨The painted stallion¨, ¨The lone ranger¨, ¨Home in Oklahoma¨, ¨On the Old Spanish Trail¨, ¨High Time in Nevada¨, ¨Gay ranchero¨, ¨Helldorado¨, ¨Bells of san Angelo¨,¨ Trail of Robin Hood¨, ¨Trigger Jr¨ , ¨Twilight in the sierra¨, ¨The Golden Stallion¨, ¨Roll on Texas moon¨, ¨Red Ryder¨, ¨Down Dakota way¨, ¨Eyes of Texas¨, ¨Grand Canyon trail¨, ¨King of Texas Ranger¨, among others . Besides his television work which includes some quite exciting episodes of such series as ¨High Chaparral¨, ¨Bonanza¨, ¨Laramie¨, ¨Zorro¨, ¨The Virginian¨ and ¨Wagon train¨ and he followed to work for cinema and was capable of making large-scale movies as ¨Santa Fe Passage¨ involving a wagon train against Indians , ¨The Bonnie Parker story¨about the famous gun-moll , and specially ¨Master of the world¨ . Rating : 4.5/10 , average . The flick will appeal to prison genre fans and adventure buffs . However , no exactly recommended , unless you misspent your youth .

I saw this at 1 am Saturday on this TV out of Indianapolis and couldn't tape, tiVO or DVD it, so I stayed up to watch.

I liked the rough, LOW budget Corman style of this movie without the "composition and mannered shots" of the big budget Papillon with McQueen and Hoffman.

You could feel the roughness, smell, and atmosphere of being in prison in the middle of nowhere. The pig skinning was very realistic as was the language and full nudity.

This is not Camp Granada.

James Luisi goes on to become the constipated Lt. Doug Chapman in Rockford Files and Christopher George becomes an action cop on Hawaii five-O.

James Brown is the lead, but absent in the top of credits on IMDb, and Corman utilizes this low budget action star who was in many low budget films to interesting effect.

The guards, the brutality, the hopelessness... are all there in the French prison.

It almost feels like a documentary through the kinetic energy and cutting of the movie.

I really like Corman's attitude of "get 'er done" way before it became a catch phrase.

Enjoy.

I Escaped from Devil's Island (1973)

** (out of 4)

This exploitation film from Roger and Gene Corman beat PAPILLON to theaters by a month and features Jim Brown and Christopher George playing prisoners on Devils Island who plan an escape to get away from the sadistic guards. They duo end up on an island with many beautiful women but soon enough the prison guards come calling. I ESCAPED FROM DEVIL'S ISLAND is somewhat entertaining for the fifty-minutes or so but once we're out of the prison things really slow down and the second half of the film is a major chore to sit through. Veteran director William Witney does a pretty good job at making this low-budget film look like it had higher production values than you know it had. The first portion of the film inside the prison features all sorts of silly violence dealing with the prisoners being beaten, thrown in the hot box and various other items that we've seen in countless prison movies. This remains somewhat fun as both Brown and George are such enjoyable actors that you can get caught up with them and this helps the film move a little bit. Fans of the two actors will probably want to sit through this even though the end result isn't as good as you're going to hope. Brown has no problems playing the tough guy and there's plenty of action built around him. George plays a political prisoner who is against violence and the two actors really work well together and build up some nice chemistry. The problem in the second half of the film is simply the fact that nothing entertaining happens. We see the men fight, argue, fight some more and it just grows tiresome after a while. The exploitation level really needed to be pumped up in the second half as did the energy because the film pretty much just runs out of gas.

If they had released this movie in Britain, it would have likely become one of the infamous video nasties. It has all the elements: low production costs, natives in various stages of undress, animal abuse, shark attacks, cannibalism, torture.

It just didn't really cross the line, however. The torture was not overtly explicit, the cannibals were never shown eating their victims, the undress was not excessive.

If it had come out a month later and starred Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman, instead of Jim Brown and Christopher George, they might have named it Papillon, and given it an Oscar or Golden Globe nomination. But, this is a Roger Corman production, so it is the R rated version of Papillon.

Paul Richards, as Major Marteau, the head of Devil's Island, gave the best line after they tortured a woman to get information on the escaped prisoners: "She doesn't know any more. Anything else would be lies." He knew even then the uselessness of water-boarding.

Great ending!