I ESCAPED FROM DEVIL'S ISLAND

US, 1973, 89 minutes, Colour.
Jim Brown, Christopher George, Richard Ely, Richard Rust.
Directed by William Witney.

I Escaped from Devil’s Island was made at the same time as the big-budget Papillon with Steve Mc Queen and Dustin Hoffman. This is a small-budget story of a group of convicts in 1916 on Devil’s Island who plan an escape – and do so. Some of the episodes in this film are reminiscent of those in Papillon, the picture of the penal colony, the treatment of the prisoners by the guards, a visit to a leper village, Indian uprisings.

The film is a star vehicle for former footballer Jim Brown who was popular at this time, the Slaughter series amongst others. The film was directed by William Witney, a prolific director of B-budget action features since the 1930s, serials, much television.

1. Interest of the film, appeal, convicts and Devil's Island? For what audience was the film made? popular audience, drive-in audience? Sophisticated audiences?

2. The film was released in 1974, an exploitation of the Papillon story? How good a film was it in itself? Derivative from the classic original? B grade style and treatment?

3. A small budget film, tough, exploitive of violence, cruelty, sexuality? The importance of having black actor Jim Brown at the centre?

4. Audience interest in and response to Devil's Island, as a place in itself, prison, remote, cruel? The need for escape? The way it was shown in this film? The sea scapes and the beach, the atmosphere of prison, the nature of the criminals, the prisoners and their way of life, the guards and their cruelty? The detailed sequences of torture, e.g. the scraping of the man's head and exposing his head to the sun? Audience response to this kind of violence? The need for escape?

5. The focus on the escape; how well drawn were the motivations, the build up to the escape, the details of preparation, the negotiations with the various men? The atmosphere of daring, the dangers and the immediate effect of these? The alternatives of staying or escaping, which was best?

6. Le Bras as the central character? The personality and the physical presence of Jim Brown, as a convict on Devil's Island, his character, criminal motivation? His exploits in preparing the escapes? Contact with Dazzas and Jo Jo? The preparation with Davert? A big, tough hero for this kind of film? Anything more?

7. Dazzas and Jo Jo as characters, their relationship, the effect of Devil's Island on them? Collaboration with Le Bras? The building of the raft, the build up to their leaving and immediate death and the effect on them?

8. Davert as a balance to Le Bras? The physical and the intellectual? Davert as a political prisoner, his pacifist background, the effect of Devil's Island on him, his adapting his philosophy? His going with the group? The affect on him, the change? A well delineated character?

9. The atmosphere of the escape and the adventure conventions; the shark, the dangerous amazons, the leper, the killing of the native and the consequences and sexual ritual? How Interesting, exciting? Revelation of the atmosphere, the escape, characters?

10. The growing bonds between the group as they escape? The contrast with the character of the major, his pursuit, his difficulties, his getting ever closer?

11. The character of Jo Jo, stealing, arrest, the pathos of his hanging?

12. The religious irony with the sequence of the convent, the nuns, the arrest of Le Bras? Comment on the noble attitude in order to let Davert to escape? Credible? Would Le Bras escape again?

13. The quality of the plot, dialogue? Comic book style? The basic values that it presupposed in audiences and stood by?