L'isola dei piaceri proibiti

Robinson und seine wilden Sklavinnen (1972)

*** (out of 4)

Druggist Robinson Smith (Yejuda Barkan) is pretty much bored his with job, tired of his mother-in-law and also can't stand his wife not getting him any so he imagines a beautiful island with beautiful women who will give him what he wants. The only problem is that once he's really on this island with beautiful women, he never expected to run into wild savages. As with many of director Jess Franco's works, I had to view this without the benefit of subtitles so as much as I did enjoy the film, I probably would have enjoyed it twice as much had I been able to follow everything going on. This is obviously your typical sex comedy that you'd expect to see during this part of the decade and Robinson Crusoe is the target. I was really shocked to see how funny and well-made this picture was and it just goes to show you that Franco was more than capable of doing more than just porn or sleazy trash. For starters, the film actually looks extremely professional and this includes some very good cinematography and even the editing was a lot more impressive than what we normally see. The comic timing by the director is probably the best I've seen from him. Most people point to CELESTINE AN ALL AROUND MAID as his best comedy but I found this one to be so much better. The performance by Barkan was extremely good and his laid-back nature really helped sell the film. His comic timing was also terrific and just look at a scene where he's trying to mess around with the wife in bed and she has face cream on. The supporting cast includes some very beautiful women as well as Franco regulars like Paul Muller and Howard Vernon. At just 80-minutes the film does start to lose some of its steam towards the end but there's no question that fans of the director's work will want to check this one out.

Poor old Robinson who is boring at home with a terrible mother-in-law and an annoying housewife, and at work too. One day, he decides to retire from urban life with 3 very nice girls on an island. But beware of the awful cannibals !!!!

This is one of my favorite Franco flicks, very interesting to watch, with some smooth moments and little almost hardcore ones (in the party when people are watching a film where some people having sex, with a superb organ music, an highlight to this movie).

French starlet Anne Libert is playing one of the nude girl on the Robinson Island (she was in a lot of Franco movies at this time), and Howard Vernon is playing a not so very frightening cannibal, saying word like "Agagagag" & "hououou".

A very pleasant moment.