Review: I Escaped From Devil’s Island

Set on the notoriously brutal French penal colony of the title in 1918, Jim Brown is prisoner Le Bras who along with the rest of the colony is serving a life sentence of hard labour. Le Bras is determined to escape the inescapable island. Also on the island are pacifist Davert (Christopher George), and gay prisoner Jo-Jo (Richard Ely).

 

You’ve gotta hand it to shrewd producer Roger Corman and his brother Gene, who produced this 1973 William Witney (“Zorro Rides Again”, “Darktown Strutters”) island prison film and managed to get it into theatres a few weeks before the prestigious big-screen adaptation of “Papillon”. I’ll credit ‘The Corman Company’ with that distinction at least. Quentin Tarantino is an admirer of the film, too. I am not particularly admiring of this one. Scripted by Richard DeLong Adams (“The Slams”), it arrives, stays for a bit, and then leaves without making much of an impression either way on me. Like several Jim Brown vehicles it’s been largely forgotten and for pretty solid reason. It just isn’t memorable or terribly interesting, though to be honest I’m not a “Papillon” fan either. In fact the most interesting thing about this film is that Corman originally offered it to Martin Scorsese to direct, after their previous collaboration “Boxcar Bertha”. Scorsese chose to make “Mean Streets” instead and hasn’t looked back since.

 

This isn’t my kind of prison movie, nor was the similarly dour “Papillon”. It’s ever-so slightly livelier and more exploitive/trashy than “Papillon”, including a pretty violent shark attack. Still, for the most part it’s not an overly engaging or interesting experience. Some have championed it for (supposedly) a then-progressive depiction of homosexuality, I must’ve seen an entirely different film. I think it’s pretty homophobic, and no less so than other films of the period I’ve seen.

 

Fairly well-acted and probably someone’s idea of entertainment. Just not mine. In fact, I much prefer the trashier women-in-prison movies Corman produced, usually featuring Pam Grier (especially “Black Mama, White Mama”). The music score by Les Baxter (“The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Comedy of Terrors”, “The Beast Within”) is pretty good, though. I wonder what Marty could’ve done with this.

 

Rating: C+

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