L'évadé de l'Île du Diable

I saw this at 1 am Saturday on this TV out of Indianapolis and couldn't tape, tiVO or DVD it, so I stayed up to watch.

I liked the rough, LOW budget Corman style of this movie without the "composition and mannered shots" of the big budget Papillon with McQueen and Hoffman.

You could feel the roughness, smell, and atmosphere of being in prison in the middle of nowhere. The pig skinning was very realistic as was the language and full nudity.

This is not Camp Granada.

James Luisi goes on to become the constipated Lt. Doug Chapman in Rockford Files and Christopher George becomes an action cop on Hawaii five-O.

James Brown is the lead, but absent in the top of credits on IMDb, and Corman utilizes this low budget action star who was in many low budget films to interesting effect.

The guards, the brutality, the hopelessness... are all there in the French prison.

It almost feels like a documentary through the kinetic energy and cutting of the movie.

I really like Corman's attitude of "get 'er done" way before it became a catch phrase.

Enjoy.

This film beat 'Papillon' to the box office by a month: A typical Corman attempt to get a jump on the bigger competition. As for the film, it's a pile of swill stirred by hack William Witney and featuring ever-wooden Jim Brown as one of the four escapees. Lots of beatings and sniggering over homosexuals while in the penal colony, then, after the escape, a required pit stop at the leper village (also featured in 'Papillon') followed by Indian native assaults, some breast baring (even full-frontal) local gals, and a lame finale involving fireworks. Funniest aspect is having Brown stubbornly refusing to continue running because he keeps falling for the first local gal he latches onto. Still, a cheesy, sleazy piece of junk only for the easily entertained.

Not a totally wretched film, as I had expected, but pretty boring nonetheless. Should actually be "We escaped..." since its Jim Brown, Christopher George, and a couple others that do escape [no spoiler, it happens, without incident in the first 30 minutes]. And what I really mean by that is that its difficult to tell [until the bitter end] who the focal character was. Has some interesting Marxist/Communist subplot, that gets buried under the rug after they escape. Let's see...you also get a really disappointing Shark attack, a leper colony cameo, Jim Brown falls in love[!] and an exotica Les Baxter score! Looks like it was filmed in Mexico by the Cormans.

So basically, the title gives it all away. Interestingly enough, check out director William Witney's career! Geez! and Darktown Stutters!!! Well, why couldnt he have made this that fun?? I escaped from Colonel Sander's Chicken Fryer?!?!

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.

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 .