María de las Islas

MARIE OF THE ISLES is a French costume adventure flick starring the ill-fated Belinda Lee in one of her last roles. She plays an innkeeper's daughter who falls for a charming adventurer, but the path to true love doesn't run smoothly when he ends up jailed and she married to someone else. It's a typical entry of its type with alluring females, swarthy men and a fair bit of political intrigue, backstabbing, and some action. Lee certainly looks fetching here and is no mean actress either, but I found some of the men quite staid and the direction, as with many films made during this era, quite pedestrian.

From the title and the fact that France was the dominant country in this French-Italian co-production, I was expecting a cheescake "nature girl" kind of film. Not at all. This is a historical costume drama, with swashbuckling elements. The lovely Ms. Lee plays an innkeeper's daughter who marries an older French colonial official, but who is desired by a younger, attractive minor official. Maybe it's just this English-dubbed edition, but the editing/continuity is a bit strange here. In the middle of a scene, we jump to an awkwardly spliced-in scene of what is being discussed by the characters, then we cut back to the same place in the dialogue where we were and the dialogue continues! There are a few other awkward jumps in the film also. The main selling point of MARIE OF THE ISLES is Belinda Lee, and she is wonderful. Her premature death robbed the 60s film world of a lady who no doubt would have carved out a significant place in European genre films. If you are a fan, you'll want to see this film. If not, it's no masterpiece. There's more talk than action, and the light-hearted musical score would fit a film with circus clowns better than a historical drama. Somewhat hard to find--not in circulation in the usual genre-film circles.