Women Of Devil's Island

What happens when you put a bunch of women on an island penal colony to pan for gold? Crocodiles get snacks!

I swear it seems like Women of Devil's Island had something besides crocodiles in it. Oh, now I remember! Annoying singing. I mean it's not a musical, but when these women get to going on a song... well let's just say my speakers got up, punched me in the teeth, and walked out of the room. I had to lure them back into the room with candy (we humans call it “ear candy,” but speakers don't have ears).

What does this movie offer other than crocodiles and bad singing? Nothing worth an hour of your life, that's what.

Life on this island consists of hard labor – panning for gold. The guys that run the place aren't above trading favors, namely rest from the intensive labor, for sex. The story takes us through a few “dramatic”events mostly centered around a new girl whose French sounding name I could never quite get into my head. At first she's looking for her sister who is already on the island. There seems to be some political reason for these girls being sent here, hints are dropped that many of these girls are hookers, but not the two sisters. That angle is never developed to the point that I bothered to pay attention to so who knows? But anyway, the sister claims to not be who she is which stirs up a big pot of mystery – theoretically at least.

Then there's a breakout attempt with some people getting shot down. Then a new commander shows up to take charge. He's determined to run the place as a respectable institution and puts a stop to the sex trading. What are the others to do? Not only does he have the authority, this guy is man enough to wrestle a croc and win!

I suppose the broad strokes of the storyline don't really suck too badly. There's some dramatic potential and intrigue. The problem is that it's never really developed much like the hints at there being political reasons for the sisters being incarcerated that are never explored. Later on the story takes a bit of a political turn that feels out of place.

I guess it doesn't help that the acting is laughable. That's partially because the movie was shot in French and dubbed in English. The English “actors” they used to use for foreign language dubbing projects often suuuuucked, and these are bottom of a bad barrel.

MORALITY:

Despite there being a lot of sexual allusion and talk of prostitution, there is no sex or nudity.

There is also no strong language.

The violence is tame. People get shot and eaten by crocs, but we don't see much of that; it's more the suggestion of it. People do get mistreated, though – whipped and hung up in the sun.

SPIRITUALITY:

Despite “Devil” being in the title he has nothing to do with the island.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Unless you are a fan of black and white era Italian films there is no reason to bother with this one. It offers nothing worth the time.

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