Movie review – “Terminal Island” (1973) **

A great idea for an exploitation film, of special interest for Australian audiences – in the future, when the death penalty is abolished, prisoners are just dumped on an island from which it is impossible to escape. A black woman arrives to find the male prisoners run a thuggish regime, exploiting women as slaves. But fortunately there is another group of prisoners elsewhere on the island where men and women live in relative harmony.

Like Student Nurses, the action focuses around four women: Phyllis Davis, Ena Hartman, Marta Kristen (from Beach Blanket Bingo), and Barbara Leigh (who was in Nurses). The politics are fascinating but the film needed to be a bit trashier.

The action scenes are okay, the sex/nudity scenes are pretty average, and there is none of the creepiness of, say, Escape from New York. The best bit is a mock showdown which turns unexpectedly real. But then the goodies have shockingly bad strategy at the end – they keep charging at a guy with a machine gun who has excellent cover. To make this mistake once or twice is forgivable but they keep doing it. And do you really believe Tom Selleck wouldn’t go back to the mainland at the end? Come on… Also there isn’t much difference between the characters – there’s the black henchman, the girl who can’t talk, the crazy head baddie, the guy who is Tom Selleck… that was about it for distinctive people.