One of a bunch of movies John Ashley made in the Philippines with Eddie Romero - he would act in them and produce them as well. It's a decent mash up of The Most Dangerous Game and The Island of Dr Moreau - Ashley is scuba diving when he's kidnapped and brought to a mad doctor's lair. The doctor is Charles Macauley; he has a sidekick Jan Merlin who seems to have a crush on Ashley.
The acting is pretty good - Merlin is excellent. Pat Woodell is also good as the mad doctor's daughter who gets a thing for Ashley. Ashley is fine - an okay-ish leading man with the appropriate looks.
The plot is basically Ashley being shown the gallery of horrors in the mad doctor's lair (all the half-human half-beasts) - he sneaks out at night a lot to look at it (as in, a lot). Then with Woodell's help he escapes - only they split up for safety. Which presumably meant it was easier for Ashley to act as producer because a lot of screen time is taken up with Woodell leading creatures to safety, so she gets to be heroic. Good for her!
There's some okay action, and fair make up effects. Pam Grier pops up as a Panther Woman - I wish her part had been bigger. I felt more of a comeuppance was required for Merlin and Macauley - their deaths felt relatively undercooked. Decent production values.
No comments:
Post a Comment