I Escaped from Devil's Island (1973)

You won't be disappointed!

That was an excellent one.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

I remember in that multi flashback film Passage To Marseilles, Humphrey Bogart led a group of Devil's Island convicts with the clear purpose of escaping to fight for France even after the Nazis have taken it over. No such unity of purpose exists among four convicts who escape in 1916 to the mainland of French Guiana in I Escaped From Devil's Island. No talk here about going home to fight for France among the four who make it out. Perhaps they'd gotten word about Verdun.The four in this film are Jim Brown, Christopher George, Rick Ely, and James Luisi. Other than Devil's Island isn't exactly a tropical paradise they all have different reasons for wanting to leave. George in fact is a political prisoner, an anti-war pacifist and he wants to continue to do his political thing. In a place as brutal as Devil's Island he learns that pacifism sometimes just doesn't cut it.Ely's character is an interesting one, he's a gay man and in the all male Devil's Island he and his fellow gay prisoners are quite a premium, they're known as 'fancy boys' and command a lot for their services to relieve sexual tension among the prisoners. Still all that demand all that service leave Ely a bit on edge.The brothers Corman did this film and befitting the locale and the subject there's a lot of erotic sadism. I Escaped From Devil's Island is trashy and exploitive, but still somewhat fun to watch.

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 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?!?!