Terminal Island

This movie was fine, great, if you're a Tom Selleck fan. Personally, I like Phyllis Davis (who starred later in "Vegas" with the late Robert Urich). The "DVD" version; which is available from Canada, produced by Legacy Entertainment, is a "ripoff" (if you'll pardon an old slang word). It is cut for language, and other material, featuring Ms. Davis, and another actress (separate scenes, not together), involving nudity. I know, because a) I have a book called "The Bare Facts" by Craig Hosada, which reviews these scenes. b.) I have a tape called Famous T & A, I'm not making it up, which features an uncut/uncensored excerpt from the movie which shows what was cut. I am getting a VHS, used, from another place, from a different manufacturer, and hoping it hasn't been "cut". Although rated "R" originally, and even though it says it's been edited (which I didn't look to see, until after I viewed the movie; which if I had done, I'd have returned it) I feel I was cheated. So, this is a warning to any potential buyers. If editing doesn't bother you, then, by all means, buy it. In fact, I'm trying to resell my copy, as it was played once.

After the Supreme Court outlaws the death penalty, California circumvents the ruling by sending murderers to a secluded island, where they are declared 'legally dead' and expected to kill each other off. Four intrepid ladies spend some miserable time in the hierarchical sexist work camp on one side of the island, then run off to join the liberated comrades on the other side. There's some pretty big statements waiting to happen in there, and they come through loud 'n' brassy, but they are made in the firm confines of a rockin' 70s drive-in action movie. This is a co-ed prison flick on a cheaper set, with a great bunch of weirdo characters floating around and future Magnum P. I. cast members sweetening the pot. Smart and well made too.

For an exploitation flick that seems to make itself up as it goes, TERMINAL ISLAND begins creatively enough, much like the same years' WESTWORLD with random interviews about the title location...

In this case, based on the actual California death penalty being overturned (making The Manson Family eligible for parole soon after), random people are asked what they think of the prison island alternative, like ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK after while based on the infamous Devil's Island, where murderous convicts are left to their own devices...

Providing a terrifically intense/lovely lead actress in DAN AUGUST black secretary Ena Hartman, with enough blaxploitation/woman-in-prison Pam Grier-esque gusto to completely rule her own feature...

But a real life injury curbed her starring role... plus there are more men on the island, including a monotone, horribly misplaced Tom Selleck as a passive doctor and his future MAGNUM PI chopper pilot Roger E. Mosely, better suited as one of the bullying alpha-males using the women like sexual slaves...

But by the time this urgent plot-line develops, providing Hartman a dilemma she must overcome, quickly, she and other starlets... including spacey brunette Barbara Leigh and intense blondes Phyllis Davis and scene-stealer Marta Kristen (in the Roberta Collins-style tough girl role)... are rescued by black gentleman Don Marshall, leading into what what feels like another movie altogether...

Two actually, within two separate camps: the bad and the good, and neither really connect...

Although former Roger Corman collaborator Stephanie Rothman directs in an intense enough manner so that the survival sequences are partially intriguing...

Making TERMINAL ISLAND several half-decent islands to themselves - despite ultimately becoming atoll on the audience.

... doesn't really do anything interesting with the premiss, IMHO.

Escape From New York took a similar idea and did much more with it; there are also echoes of Lord of the Flies in what they *do* decide to do with the plot but, again, the latter did this better.

Also, despite it being cited as some sort of feminist allegory, the early nominal centre of the film (Carmen) gets rapidly sidelined once the women are freed from the main group, whereupon it's mainly two "guy gangs" - one nominally good, the other unambiguously bad - against each other, with lots of bad acting and cheap effects.

Not recommended.

The early 1970s B picture "Terminal Island" has an effective premise with which to work. In the "future", the Supreme Court has declared the death penalty unconstitutional. In its place, criminals are now dumped on an island 40 miles off the American coast. Here they're (mostly) left to fend for themselves. The latest arrival is a young woman, Carmen (Ena Hartman), who's just in time to witness an uprising. Some of the convicts are tired of the tyranny of their "leaders" Bobby (Sean Kenney, "The Corpse Grinders") and Monk (Roger E. Mosley, "The Mack"). So a small group splits off from the main group, and plots revolution.

Co-written by James Barnett, producer Charles S. Swartz, and director Stephanie Rothman ("The Velvet Vampire"), "Terminal Island" is pretty good for this kind of exploitation fare. It fulfils its requirements - violence, sex, nudity - adequately, and is simply beautifully shot (by Daniel Lacambre, "Humanoids from the Deep") on some pretty locations. While it naturally has its trashy moments, it never really wallows in unpleasantness, and it does have a sense of humour, to boot. (Watch how the horny character, Dylan (Clyde Ventura, "'Gator Bait") is dealt with.) The story is a little thin, but is also provocative on occasion. (Dr. Milford, played by a young Tom Selleck, was convicted of the mercy killing of a patient.)

The cast is full of then-stars, stars-to-be, and familiar character faces. Also appearing are Don Marshall ("The Thing with Two Heads"), Phyllis Davis ("Beyond the Valley of the Dolls"), Marta Kristen ('Lost in Space'), Barbara Leigh ("Junior Bonner"), Geoffrey Deuel ("Chisum"), James Whitworth (Papa Jupe in Wes Cravens' "The Hills Have Eyes"), Richard Stahl ("Nine to Five"), Sandy Ward ("Cujo"), and Albert Cole ("The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant"). The film gained newfound attention when Selleck and Mosley found later fame on 'Magnum P.I.'. Kenney and Mosley are particularly fun as the antagonists of the piece.

Full of solid squib action and some satisfying explosions, "Terminal Island" is worthy of discovery by devotees of the B pictures of decades past.

Seven out of 10.