Fury in the Tropics (1986)
** (out of 4)
Director Jess Franco once again turns to the WIP genre but this one here has a "been there, done that" feel to it. In the film Lina Romay plays a prostitute who is living a good life until one day she and another woman are thrown into a prison ran by a sadistic warden (Veronica Seeton). Once there the warden puts both of them through sadistic pain but also expects them to fulfill her sexual needs. FURY IN THE TROPICS isn't really a bad movie but at the same time you can't help but compare it to other WIP films made by the Spanish director and when you do that there's just no denying that this isn't in the same league as BARBED WIRE DOLLS, ILSA: THE WICKED WARDEN or even SADOMANIA. I will say that Franco does a very good job with the actual look of the film as it comes across very professional even though it appears to have a very small budget. The small budget will probably account for the lack of any real story because for the most part we get a few sadistic scenes and a few sexual scenes that are usually drawn out for no reason other than the fact that they probably didn't have the money to do anything else. For the most part the sex scenes are nicely shot and performed with the highlight coming towards the end with a rather wicked threesome. I'm going going to spoil the ending but it's certainly a very good one. Romay is certainly good in her role but the real stand out is Seeton as the warden. She certainly seems to be getting a kick out of playing evil and she does a good job with it. FURY IN THE TROPICS will appeal to those Franco fans like myself who want to see everything he's done but the others should start with some of his better films.
