During the French Revolution, young women are shipped to Devil's Island where they are forced to pan for gold among the gators and occasionally perform some comfort services for special privileges. Then when a new warden shows up, things change.These are English speaking women who sing in French. The film I saw was on a 50 DVD set and not restored, although I don't think watching a restored version would have made a prison girl film without a shower scene, medical exam, or change of clothes any better.

The Plot.Female prisoners are shipped to Devil's Island penal colony. They are indoctrinated into the prison life from abusive guards and then a new prison governor arrives with planned reforms.I suppose this is a precursor to all those women in prison movies that followed. Unfortunately the available prints today are horrible. The color has turned ll red and the film is way dirty.The print I saw had a bunch of poor splices in it too.I'm not a huge fan of dubbed movies, but this has a bit of money in it and it's watchable. That's about all.Rather middling.

Italian costume drama about convicted women in France being sent to the penal colony on Devil's Island where they must wade through alligator-infested waters and find gold. Life on the island is tough for these buxom, beautifully-swept coiffed maidens - virtually none who look like they had even the slightest knowledge of crimes worthy of such a punishment. Here, if the girls want to get a day of rest they must work the night with the guards and/or warden of the island, but some changes come when Guy Madison arrives as the new warden out to change the horrible lives led by these playmate-wannabes. The acting despite the hokey storyline is rather decent and despite the horrible production values, the film is oddly entertaining(or maybe I just have a soft spot in my heart for beautiful, scantily-clad women in peril).

According to the IMDB, this was American star Guy Madison's second European film, after SLAVE OF ROME and before SWORD OF THE CONQUEROR and EXECUTIONER OF VENICE. Madison went on to have a successful and prolific "second career" in Europe throughout the 1960's. This film plays very much like an old pulp men's magazine story come to life. A boatload of scantilly clad and sweaty female convicts from France are on their way to Devil's Island, the infamous French penal colony on the coast of South America. One of them is also looking for her sister. We are treated to various abusive policies by the corrupt prison-camp management and guards, along with sexual exploitation of the women by officials looking to trade favors for attention (don't get excited here--you could show this film to an eight-year-old!). Thirty minutes into the film, handsome, rugged Guy Madison arrives to take over administration of the penal colony, and he's something of a reformer, stopping the abuse and punishing those who do not respect the human rights of the prisoners. That doesn't win him any popularity among the old guard. Madison also falls in love with one of the prisoners, but Madison's character is not exactly what he seems to be, and there's also a question of a cache of hidden gold... Unfortunately, Mr. Madison does not dub his own voice, although the voice assigned to him is not too distracting. He plays the role with class and authority. The rest of the cast, with exaggerated gestures and exaggerated dubbing, along with the period costumes and the low-budget historical settings, give the whole thing a pulp-magazine-illustration feel. Collectors of women-in-prison films may want to seek this out as an early (and tame) example of the genre, and Guy Madison fans should be satisfied (even though he doesn't appear for 30 minutes into the film), but overall I'd rate it only "average" among early 60s Italian costume dramas.Director Domenico Paolella directed many excellent costume adventures and peplum films, and later the intense Eurowestern HATE FOR HATE, and worked with many American actors in the 60s.