The Women Of Inferno Island — The Women Of Inferno Island(DVD)
The Women Of Inferno Island (aka Gefangene Frauen, Caged Women, Prisoners of War (?!)) was directed by infamous Swedish exploitation producer Erwin C. Dietrich(as Michael Thomas), who was involved in a fair few Jess Franco films. The film's plot tells of a group of sex workers who get shipped off to island prison- to cover up depravity in a country as the UN are about to inspect. The prison is run by black leather wearing & peroxide blonde warden Carla played by Karine Gambie-who appeared in both Franco's Voodoo Passion & Women In Cell Block Eight, as well as a host of other euro-sleaze. Helping the warden out on the island is a brutish & square jaw chief guard- played by another Franco/ euro-sleaze regular Eric Falk, who appeared in the likes of Barbwire Dolls, Sexy Sisters, and Dietrich’s own sleazed & depraved Nazi biker film Mad Foxs(also recently reissued on Full Moon).
As for the female prisons leading these up is Rita, played by another recognizable euro-sleaze face Brigitte Lahaie- who will be known to most for her nude scythe carrying performance in Jean Rollins Fascination. The other ten or so prisoners are less well known, though a few faces do seem recognizable. Sadly neither Lahaie, or any of the other prisoners really portray any real acting skill, which is a pity. Sure it’s a just a WIP film, but the genre is known for a few more (semi) believable & emotional performances.
From the outset, you know exactly what you’re going to get from The Women Of Inferno Island, as under the opening credits we get a group of topless women in a ‘best breast’ competition- which has seeming nothing to do with the rest of the film. From here onwards we move a fair pace from one soft-core account to another- first in the whorehouse, then on the island. The storyline, as is, just about stays in place throughout, and we get the fairly well-trodden WIP path/ facets of a perverse prison doctor, prison guards sleeping with prisons, plans for escape, and a kinky warden
The setting for the prison its self is distinctive enough- it’s a fairly rundown concrete amphitheatre & connected blocky buildings- it looks like it possibly could have been a bullring, or similar. This is surrounded by your typical WIP jungle and rocky coastline.
For this new reissue we get an English dubbed version of this original German-language film- and to be honest the dub is pretty bad, which adds more humour/oddness to the proceedings. For example, at one point it sounds like the track was recorded in a cardboard at the side of a road when it’s meant to be two people talking on a barren island. Apparently, this DVD has a new digital remastering from the original 35mm film- so picture wise it’s not bad at all. Sadly there are no extras here, aside from a selection of trailers to four other Dietrich films.
As WIP movies go, The Women Of Inferno Island, is fairly run-of-the-mill really, so you need to be either a fan of the genre , or wider euro-sleaze to get something from this. I personally found it a fairly breezy & amusing sleaze ride, though I could have done with maybe a touch of confrontation/ grim-ness added into the mix.