The Fiend of Dope Island

If you're expecting something akin to "Dr. Moreau" here, then think again. It's not that kind of fiend. It's actually co-writer and star Bruce Bennett whose whip-wielding "Charlie" rules his remote tropical island like a dictator. He has designs on visiting dancer "Glory La Verne" (Tania Velia) but she's not remotely interested, and when his attentions become a little more persistent she decides to ally with his henchman "David" (Robert Bray) to put a stop to his ruthless behaviour. At times Bennett delivers his maniacal character quite effectively at the start - a sort of depraved lunatic with an autocratic bent, but once that is truly established the rest of the cast really can't quite match his larger-than-life personality and the story just falls into a rather drab, no-budget, soap opera with little to redeem it or make it stand out for an overlong seventy five minutes. There's some lovely photography of their idyllic location (aka the Florida Keys) but otherwise this is a really only a chance for Bennett to have his moment in the sun before it all just fizzles out.

I see that THE FIEND OF DOPE ISLAND is pretty poorly rated on here, but I thought it was pretty good for a B-picture of its era, and certainly better than it had any right to be. A lot of the film's entertainment value comes from the presence of Bruce Bennett as the film's antihero, a sadistic, whip-cracking nightclub owner who spends the entire production tormenting the rest of the cast. The film's love triangle plot works pretty well and gives plenty of opportunity for Bennett to gnash his teeth as a delightful villain in the Tod Slaughter guise. Elsewhere, expect low rent heroics and some surprising titillation for the era.

Awesome awful poverty row Carribbean coconut extravaganza uses TV level production values to showcase the boozy brutish behavior of Bruce Bennett's power crazed island dictator. He actually seems to be drunk on screen to even be passably able to cope with the shoddy goings on and the loutish behavior. Like a 70 minute condensing of the worst Columbia Trader Tom serial ever made and mixed with loony bar room antics....and spiced up a bit with some Eurotrash floozy who does a hootchie kootchie dance in reel 3. It all ends like a Flaming Moe when the locals and weak white loafers set fire to all the dried leaves piled about. Even illegal immigrants would be hard pressed to find this interesting. It is like everyone on screen is retarded, as if GILLIGANS ISLAND and ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOOS NEST had the reels mixed up. The blonde dame in the high heels and fishnet stockings is actually billed as The Yugslavian Bombshell. Wasn't she off the beaten track! The film seems to be made in some Mexican picnic ground.

Wow! What a bad and yet at the same time awesome film experience. The acting is so-over-the-top, the storyline so twisted, and the mood, tone, and pace so depraved, that I honestly can say that I have never seen anything quite like this. For many, that will be good news if they can say the same! Don't get me wrong, Fiend of Dope Island is an atrocious film. It has awful acting, no special effects, and has a story with little merit or any redeeming qualities. It is; however; a fun bad film to watch and has perhaps one of the most outrageous performances I have seen in some time. Dope island dictator Bruce Bennett runs his island whipping natives and friends alike any time they don't move fast enough for him or displease him in some way - which it seems is all the time as he is always drunk. Bennett lies to a beautiful blonde entertainer(we'll get to her in a minute) to come to the island for $500 and then has plans on seducing/raping her and making her his own. In the meantime, he is also running a drug operation and plans governmental overthrows in the Caribbean(?). I remember Bruce Bennett from Treasure of the Sierra Madre as a pretty restrained actor and an actor of some ability, but watching him in this film as given me a whole different perspective on him. This guy is one crazy, funny, weird and depraved guy to make a film like this. As bad and hammy as he is, he makes this film immensely entertaining barking out commands and cracking a whip or just laughing maniacally. The rest of the cast or story is nothing special except for the Yugoslavian bombshell Tania Velia as the entertainer. She is an okay actress, but what she does to a black swimsuit is just amazing. This movie has a beautiful blonde, a man-eating shark, an island dictator, and so many other bizarre things - what else could you want in a bad film?

The Fiend of Dope Island (1961)

** (out of 4)

Charlie Davis (Bruce Bennett) is a psychotic man who owns an island in the Carabean where he whips and treats everyone there like slaves. One day a boat comes by and a beautiful dancer is on board and Charlie sets his attention to her, which causes a mutiny.

THE FIEND OF DOPE ISLAND is a pretty bad movie if you want to be a snob and look at it as something it's not. If you're wanting a good looking, Oscar-winning film then this here certainly isn't going to be for you. The movie is actually very fast-paced and I'd argue that it's got a good bit of entertainment to be had from it.

The highlight is without question the insane and over-the-top performance of Bennett. I'm going to say he probably watched several Bela Lugosi movies when he was younger and perhaps he realized that everything about the movie was bad so he hammed it up for some entertainment. It's his nutty performance that makes the film worth watching and it was really fun seeing and hearing his insane laughing and non-stop rants. Tania Velia does a nice job in her role of the eye candy dancer.

The film has many campy moments throughout but there's no question that it's one of the more outrageous and over-the-top adventure movies out there. The "dope" connection isn't played up as much as one would have hoped but this is still a fun little movie as long as you don't take it too serious.