The Fiend of Dope Island

Mild mannered, responsible and respectful character and supporting actor (lawyer, doctor, teacher, major, etc). Bruce Bennett picks up a pen and writes a script with him in the lead in which he completely goes bonkers as an island despot. Lacking an ounce of decency he attacks his role with an unbridled rage as well all those around him.

On a sleepy island in the Carribean, Charlie Davis (Bennet) rules with an iron fist. He brooks no debate and our initial introduction to him is a scene with him administering blistering beating to an islander with a bullwhip. Charlie really enjoys being a sadist but he is quickly distracted when Glory La Verne (played by "Yugoslavian bombshell," Tonia Velia) brings her act to the island and unquenchable lust to Chuck's heart.

Driven mostly by its bongo accompaniment, Fiend is grade z entertainment but Bennet's over the top sadistic martinet displays a lot of energy to allow matters to be comically entertaining in spots. The former Olympian (who lived to a hundred) gives and takes quite a beating over the course of the pic as he does a complete 180 with a "no more mister sensible guy," that he has made a career out. If you are familiar with his droll grounded, career the concept alone will hold its own intrigue. The "Yugoslavian Bombshell," however fails to detonate.

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?

Saw this movie today and found it pretty strange. More because it was filmed in Puerto Rico and your information says it was filmed in the Cays. Can you check on this?

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.