I Escaped from Devil's Island (1973) UK Quad Poster
This blaxploitation Roger Corman production outdid Papillon (1973) in every respect – not content with lepers and bad food, this also threw in everything from sharks and cannibals, to torture, nipple tweaking guards and nudity. Exploitation with a capital E. And it beat Papillon to the cinemas by a month.
Corman asked Martin Scorsese if he wanted to direct, but Scorsese went for Mean Streets (1973) instead. Surprisingly for Corman, who generally plumped for his stable of keen youngsters, industry stalwart William Witney was hired. He'd been directing oaters since the mid-thirties, as well as serials such as Mysterious Doctor Satan (1940), Republic features like Drums of Fu Manchu (1943), and apart from a brief foray into dissatisfied youth and criminality, with The Cool and the Crazy, Young and Wild and Juvenile Jungle (all 1958) pretty much stayed with film and TV Westerns his entire career.
Artist: Unknown - but a dramatic design that reads well at a distance
Condition: VERY GOOD / FINE - pinholes at top, 1" tear centre fold left hand edge
Cast: Jim Brown, Christopher George, Richard Ely