I Escaped from Devil's Island

Superstar athlete Jim Brown plays Le Bras, one of many inmates at the notorious prison fortress Devil's Island in French Guiana in the early 20th century. He butts heads with pacifistic convict Davert (Christopher George) while also trying to deal with nasty and sadistic guards. When he gets the chance to make a break for it, he takes it, along with fellow prisoners Jo-Jo (Richard Ely), Dazzas (James Luisi), and a reluctant Davert. The four men make it to the mainland, with prison personnel, led by Major Marteau (Paul Richards), in hot pursuit.

From then on, things get rather episodic as Le Bras and his comrades encounter lepers and Indians (not to mention a shark), and when they make it to a colourful community, Le Bras decides that he rather likes it there.

Directed by veteran filmmaker William Witney for the Corman brothers, Roger and Gene, and filmed in Mexico, "I Escaped from Devil's Island" is passable entertainment. It's not strong on story; in fact, this story starts to get more incoherent as the movie goes on, but in terms of delivering exploitation, it does its job. There's gore aplenty as well as the requisite female nudity. There's some socio-political subtext, but it never gets in the way of the admittedly lurid thrills. The photography, by Rosalio Solano, is just gorgeous, and Les Baxter composes a flavourful and fun music score. The acting is decent from our principals; Brown is commanding as usual, he and George act well together, and Richards and especially Richard Rust make for a very effective pair of thoroughly disagreeable villains.

Overall this is pretty easy to forget but it kills time in an entertaining enough manner.

Six out of 10.

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!

There are many stories arising from the infamous and nightmarish prison on French Guiana. This film, " I escaped From Devil's Island " is one of them. If one is not too critical, which is easy, then the movie is good entertainment as it's got several ingredients of a plausible and brutal prison scenario. It has harsh treatment, unconscionable deaths and the social turmoil of a savage structure gone wild. Still, it endeavors to please. The star of the film is acclaimed athlete Jim Brown who plays Labras, which is strange as he is listed on the IMDb board as a minor player. He and Christopher George, Richard Ely and James Luisi execute an escape which is desperate and clumsy at best. With Major Marteau (Paul Richards) chasing them from the island to the mainland, makes for exciting pursuit. In addition the pretty sexy local distractions they meet along the way, proves that brief nudity might make up for a lackluster script. As a result and despite the convoluted story which lacks necessary elements, the movie ends up becoming a poor-man's Papillon. Nevertheless, I think it tries hard to entertain and I would give it an 'A' for effort. ***

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.

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 .