Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Michael_Elliott 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.

djderka I saw this at 1 am Saturday on this TV out of Indianapolis and couldn't tape, tiVO or DVD it, so I stayed up to watch.I liked the rough, LOW budget Corman style of this movie without the "composition and mannered shots" of the big budget Papillon with McQueen and Hoffman.You could feel the roughness, smell, and atmosphere of being in prison in the middle of nowhere. The pig skinning was very realistic as was the language and full nudity.This is not Camp Granada.James Luisi goes on to become the constipated Lt. Doug Chapman in Rockford Files and Christopher George becomes an action cop on Hawaii five-O.James Brown is the lead, but absent in the top of credits on IMDb, and Corman utilizes this low budget action star who was in many low budget films to interesting effect.The guards, the brutality, the hopelessness... are all there in the French prison.It almost feels like a documentary through the kinetic energy and cutting of the movie.I really like Corman's attitude of "get 'er done" way before it became a catch phrase.Enjoy.

thinker1691 There are many stories arising from the infamous and nightmarish prison on French Guiana. This film, " I escaped From Devil's Island " is one of them. If one is not too critical, which is easy, then the movie is good entertainment as it's got several ingredients of a plausible and brutal prison scenario. It has harsh treatment, unconscionable deaths and the social turmoil of a savage structure gone wild. Still, it endeavors to please. The star of the film is acclaimed athlete Jim Brown who plays Labras, which is strange as he is listed on the IMDb board as a minor player. He and Christopher George, Richard Ely and James Luisi execute an escape which is desperate and clumsy at best. With Major Marteau (Paul Richards) chasing them from the island to the mainland, makes for exciting pursuit. In addition the pretty sexy local distractions they meet along the way, proves that brief nudity might make up for a lackluster script. As a result and despite the convoluted story which lacks necessary elements, the movie ends up becoming a poor-man's Papillon. Nevertheless, I think it tries hard to entertain and I would give it an 'A' for effort. ***

kool-j 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?!?!