I Escaped from Devil's Island | |
---|---|
Directed by | William Witney |
Written by | Richard DeLong Adams |
Produced by | Gene Corman |
Starring | Jim Brown Christopher George Richard Ely |
Cinematography | Rosalío Solano |
Edited by | Barbara Pokras Tom Walls |
Music by | Les Baxter |
Production company | The Corman Company |
Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
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Running time | 89 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
I Escaped from Devil's Island is a 1973 exploitation film about an escape attempt from Devil's Island. [1] Roger Corman and Gene Corman produced this grim adventure saga which was made to cash in on the release of Papillon . [2]
This article needs an improved plot summary.(January 2019) |
Prison life on Devil's Island is no picnic so fellow prisoners Le Bras (Jim Brown) and Davert (Christopher George) escape. Along their escape route, they encounter submissive native women and a colony of lepers. [3]
Jim Brown was signed to make the film in December 1972. [4]
Martin Scorsese says that Roger Corman offered him the chance to direct the film following Boxcar Bertha . [5] "The idea was if you shoot it fast enough, you could release the film before Papillon," he said. "I was still very keen on genre films." However Scorsese decided to make Mean Streets instead. [6] He says he had been talked out of doing exploitation films by his friend and colleague John Cassavetes who urged Scorsese to make something more personal. (Corman also offered Scorsese The Arena and the director turned that down as well. [7] )
William Witney directed instead. Filming started in April 1973 in Acapulco. [8] During filming, Witney's wife died of throat cancer. [9]
The producers of the similar film Papillon (1973) sued for copyright infringement but were unsuccessful. [1]
Quentin Tarantino was an admirer of the film with a script that is "both entertaining and rather complex" and lead characters that "are refreshingly complicated and three dimensional" and a fresh "exploration of the societal dynamics of the community that the island prisoners exist in" in particular The Fancy Boys who "aren’t presented the way the queer population is usually depicted in novels about Alcatraz or other prison-set seventies adventures... [they] hold their own respected status inside of the island convict community without degradation. They’re respected both as individuals and as the group they represent. And are coveted objects of desire among the convict population." [10]
Shout Factory released I Escaped from Devil's Island on DVD and Blu-ray on July 15, 2014.
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and author. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue including a pervasive use of profanity, and references to popular culture.
Papillon is a 1973 epic historical drama prison film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. The screenplay by Dalton Trumbo and Lorenzo Semple Jr. was based on the 1969 autobiography by the French convict Henri Charrière. The film stars Steve McQueen as Charrière ("Papillon") and Dustin Hoffman as Louis Dega. Because it was filmed at remote locations, the film was quite expensive for the time, but it earned more than twice that in its first year of release. The film's title is French for "Butterfly," referring to Charrière's tattoo and nickname.
Boxcar Bertha is a 1972 American romantic crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and produced by Roger Corman, from a screenplay by Joyce H. Corrington and John William Corrington. Made on a low budget, the film is loose adaptation of Sister of the Road, a pseudo-autobiographical account of the fictional character Bertha Thompson. It was Scorsese's second feature film.
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William Nuelsen Witney was an American film and television director. He is best remembered for the action films he made for Republic Pictures, particularly serials: Dick Tracy Returns, G-Men vs. the Black Dragon, Daredevils of the Red Circle, Zorro's Fighting Legion, and Drums of Fu Manchu. Prolific and pugnacious, Witney began directing while still in his 20s, and continued working until 1982.
The Lady in Red is a 1979 American crime drama film directed by Lewis Teague and starring Pamela Sue Martin and Robert Conrad. It is an early writing effort of John Sayles who became better known as a director in the 1980s and 1990s.
Toussaint was the chief of a leper colony in South America, known for his appearance in the book Papillon. The book recounted the escapes of Henri Charrière from the French penal colony of Devil's Island in French Guiana. In 1934, Charriere, with his fellow prisoners Clusiot and Maturette, escaped from the penal colony. During their escape, they went to Toussaint's leper colony to obtain money and a boat.
André Maturette was a prisoner in the French Guiana prison colony of Devil's Island who attempted to escape with Henri Charrière and Joanes Clousiot.
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Night Call Nurses is a 1972 American sex comedy film directed by Jonathan Kaplan. It is the third in Roger Corman's "nurses" cycle of films, starting with The Student Nurses (1970).
Jared Moshe is an American-born director, screenwriter and producer of independent films He wrote and directed the feature Westerns Dead Man's Burden (2012) and The Ballad of Lefty Brown (2017). He has also produced the features Destricted (2006), Kurt Cobain: About a Son (2006), Low and Behold (2007), Beautiful Losers (2008), Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011), and Silver Tongues (2011).
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Eugene Harold "Gene" Corman was an American film producer and agent. He and his older brother, Roger, co-founded New World Pictures.
Darktown Strutters is a 1975 blaxploitation musical comedy film from New World Pictures. Despite having mixed reviews at the time it has gained cult status over the years with praise from film director Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino called it "a ridiculous satire".
Woman They Almost Lynched is a 1953 American Western film directed by Allan Dwan and written by Steve Fisher. The film stars John Lund, Brian Donlevy, Audrey Totter, Joan Leslie, Ben Cooper, James Brown, and Nina Varela. The film was released on March 20, 1953, by Republic Pictures.
Valley of the Redwoods is a 1960 American Western film directed by William Witney, written by Leo Gordon and Daniel Madison, and starring John Hudson, Lynette Bernay, Ed Nelson, Michael Forest, Robert Shayne and John Brinkley. It was released on May 8, 1960, by 20th Century Fox.
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Papillon is a 2017 drama film directed by Michael Noer and also the last film by Red Granite Pictures. It tells the story of French convict Henri Charrière, nicknamed Papillon ("butterfly"), who was falsely imprisoned in 1933 in the notorious Devil's Island penal colony and escaped in 1941 with the help of another convict, counterfeiter Louis Dega. The film's screenplay is based on Charrière's autobiographies Papillon and Banco, as well as the former's 1973 film adaptation, which was written by Dalton Trumbo and Lorenzo Semple Jr. and starred Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.