Women of Devil's Island

This film is ostensibly about women who were sent as prisoners to the infamous Devil's Island in French Guiana. However, this mostly seems like an excuse to assemble a large group of comely women (often with breasts bulging from their dresses) and have them punished or raped by the men running the prison. Considering this French-Italian picture was made in the early 60s, this means that most of this is done off camera and it's not nearly as sleazy as the genre became in the late 60s and early 70s where they were essentially soft-core skin flicks with strong hints of lesbianism. Here, it's quite subdued by comparison...but still rather sleazy and exploitational.

While the American actor Guy Madison is listed first in the credits, he doesn't appear until almost 40 minutes into the film. He's the new leader of the prison who is shocked to see how depraved the prison has become. He orders the men to stop beating and molesting the women and to treat them humanely (crazy concepts, I know). However, his reforms are short-lived as it turns out he's got a HUGE secret...and the old ways are soon re-instituted. Is there any hope for these 'ladies'?

Like so many European productions of the era, they brought in a token American actor and dubbed the film into multiple languages in order to increase the marketability abroad. Actors such as Clint Eastwood, Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart, Burt Lancaster and the British actor Dirk Bogarde were lured into these mostly Italian productions. Madison's career by the early 60s was stalled and his making this film was a decent career choice, as some of these films made the actors mega-stars (Eastwood)...plus it offered a paycheck in spite of little in the way of artistic appeal!

Overall, it's a sleazy but not TOO sleazy film...watchable but not much more. "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" it is NOT!

"Martine Foucher" (Michele Mercier) just happens to belong to an aristocratic family in France which is opposed to the monarchy during the French Revolution. Even though she is innocent of any crime she is sentenced as a political prisoner to hard labor for life on Devil's Island. We then learn that two years earlier her sister "Jeanette" (Federica Ranchi) had also been sent there and once they meet she helps Martine escape with her into the jungle. Unfortunately, things don't go as planned as Jeanette is killed and the other women who escaped with her are tortured. However, a new governor named "Henri Valliere" (Guy Madison) just happens to arrive at this particular time and is revolted by the way the women are treated. It turns out however that things aren't necessarily as they seem. Now, rather than disclose some of the surprises and risk spoiling the movie for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this is a curious "Women in Prison" film that sometimes seemed almost like a matinée. Neither the acting nor the action scenes are that great but it's still entertaining to a degree. There are also some attractive ladies on hand with a beautiful blonde by the name of "Rosy" (Margaret Rose Kiel) as probably the best of the bunch in my opinion. Be that as it may, this is an okay movie and overall I give it an average rating.

Italian costume drama about convicted women in France being sent to the penal colony on Devil's Island where they must wade through alligator-infested waters and find gold. Life on the island is tough for these buxom, beautifully-swept coiffed maidens - virtually none who look like they had even the slightest knowledge of crimes worthy of such a punishment. Here, if the girls want to get a day of rest they must work the night with the guards and/or warden of the island, but some changes come when Guy Madison arrives as the new warden out to change the horrible lives led by these playmate-wannabes. The acting despite the hokey storyline is rather decent and despite the horrible production values, the film is oddly entertaining(or maybe I just have a soft spot in my heart for beautiful, scantily-clad women in peril).

According to the IMDB, this was American star Guy Madison's second European film, after SLAVE OF ROME and before SWORD OF THE CONQUEROR and EXECUTIONER OF VENICE. Madison went on to have a successful and prolific "second career" in Europe throughout the 1960's. This film plays very much like an old pulp men's magazine story come to life. A boatload of scantilly clad and sweaty female convicts from France are on their way to Devil's Island, the infamous French penal colony on the coast of South America. One of them is also looking for her sister. We are treated to various abusive policies by the corrupt prison-camp management and guards, along with sexual exploitation of the women by officials looking to trade favors for attention (don't get excited here--you could show this film to an eight-year-old!). Thirty minutes into the film, handsome, rugged Guy Madison arrives to take over administration of the penal colony, and he's something of a reformer, stopping the abuse and punishing those who do not respect the human rights of the prisoners. That doesn't win him any popularity among the old guard. Madison also falls in love with one of the prisoners, but Madison's character is not exactly what he seems to be, and there's also a question of a cache of hidden gold... Unfortunately, Mr. Madison does not dub his own voice, although the voice assigned to him is not too distracting. He plays the role with class and authority. The rest of the cast, with exaggerated gestures and exaggerated dubbing, along with the period costumes and the low-budget historical settings, give the whole thing a pulp-magazine-illustration feel. Collectors of women-in-prison films may want to seek this out as an early (and tame) example of the genre, and Guy Madison fans should be satisfied (even though he doesn't appear for 30 minutes into the film), but overall I'd rate it only "average" among early 60s Italian costume dramas.

Director Domenico Paolella directed many excellent costume adventures and peplum films, and later the intense Eurowestern HATE FOR HATE, and worked with many American actors in the 60s.

The Plot.

Female prisoners are shipped to Devil's Island penal colony.

They are indoctrinated into the prison life from abusive guards and then a new prison governor arrives with planned reforms.

I suppose this is a precursor to all those women in prison movies that followed. Unfortunately the available prints today are horrible. The color has turned ll red and the film is way dirty.

The print I saw had a bunch of poor splices in it too.

I'm not a huge fan of dubbed movies, but this has a bit of money in it and it's watchable. That's about all.

Rather middling.