Saw this last night as part of a Jim Brown triple feature at QT's New Beverly Cinema in L. A., and all I can say is: Viva Roger Corman. "I Escaped from Devil's Island" isn't the best Corman movie, but it's fun and worth a look.
In 1973 Allied Artists was set to release "Papillon," so Corman rushed "I Escaped from Devil's Island" into production and apparently beat it into theaters by a couple of weeks.
Same basic story and locations as "Papillon" but Cormanized, with more exploitation elements. (Same prison yard, same guillotine bit at the beginning, same leper and leper colony, same pink-and-white striped uniforms, and one character even has the same little round eyeglasses Hoffman wears in the Franklin Schaffner film.)
The best part is that it has the two biggest-weirdest gaffe-mistakes I've ever encountered in any movie: I hope this isn't spoiling it too much, but a credit at the beginning tells us it's set in "French Guyana, 1918." But sixty-two minutes into the movie, when Jim Brown, Christopher George, and Richard Ely have escaped, and they arrive on the mainland, the movie inexplicably seems to jump fifty-five years into the future, because suddenly the actors and background actors are wearing contemporary 1973 clothing, and they're running through a 1973 carnival, complete with metal rides and lots of '70s buildings, décor, fireworks, guns, furnishings, etc. Maybe Corman thought nobody would notice? I guess nobody did, since I can't find anything about it on the 'net.
Just as great: The "mainland" Brown and his fellow inmates escape to is clearly Mexico - the film is a U. S./Mexico production - which begs the question: How did they float 3,500 miles from French Guyana to Mexico on a tiny raft (in the hot sun)?
Roger Corman hired William Witney to direct this. I wasn't familiar with Witney, but he directed dozens of B-westerns in the 1930s and '40s, so clearly he was retired and Corman probably secured his services cheaply. (Good production values in spite of the gaffes and the plethora of too-dark-to-see day-for-night shots; good enough, in fact, so that the film was released by United Artists.)
I'd give it a 7 out of 10. Worth a look if you want to see a fun bizarro-world/alternate "Papillon."
In 1973 Allied Artists was set to release "Papillon," so Corman rushed "I Escaped from Devil's Island" into production and apparently beat it into theaters by a couple of weeks.
Same basic story and locations as "Papillon" but Cormanized, with more exploitation elements. (Same prison yard, same guillotine bit at the beginning, same leper and leper colony, same pink-and-white striped uniforms, and one character even has the same little round eyeglasses Hoffman wears in the Franklin Schaffner film.)
The best part is that it has the two biggest-weirdest gaffe-mistakes I've ever encountered in any movie: I hope this isn't spoiling it too much, but a credit at the beginning tells us it's set in "French Guyana, 1918." But sixty-two minutes into the movie, when Jim Brown, Christopher George, and Richard Ely have escaped, and they arrive on the mainland, the movie inexplicably seems to jump fifty-five years into the future, because suddenly the actors and background actors are wearing contemporary 1973 clothing, and they're running through a 1973 carnival, complete with metal rides and lots of '70s buildings, décor, fireworks, guns, furnishings, etc. Maybe Corman thought nobody would notice? I guess nobody did, since I can't find anything about it on the 'net.
Just as great: The "mainland" Brown and his fellow inmates escape to is clearly Mexico - the film is a U. S./Mexico production - which begs the question: How did they float 3,500 miles from French Guyana to Mexico on a tiny raft (in the hot sun)?
Roger Corman hired William Witney to direct this. I wasn't familiar with Witney, but he directed dozens of B-westerns in the 1930s and '40s, so clearly he was retired and Corman probably secured his services cheaply. (Good production values in spite of the gaffes and the plethora of too-dark-to-see day-for-night shots; good enough, in fact, so that the film was released by United Artists.)
I'd give it a 7 out of 10. Worth a look if you want to see a fun bizarro-world/alternate "Papillon."