The Fiend of Dope Island (1961)
** (out of 4)
Charlie Davis (Bruce Bennett) is a psychotic man who owns an island in the Carabean where he whips and treats everyone there like slaves. One day a boat comes by and a beautiful dancer is on board and Charlie sets his attention to her, which causes a mutiny.
THE FIEND OF DOPE ISLAND is a pretty bad movie if you want to be a snob and look at it as something it's not. If you're wanting a good looking, Oscar-winning film then this here certainly isn't going to be for you. The movie is actually very fast-paced and I'd argue that it's got a good bit of entertainment to be had from it.
The highlight is without question the insane and over-the-top performance of Bennett. I'm going to say he probably watched several Bela Lugosi movies when he was younger and perhaps he realized that everything about the movie was bad so he hammed it up for some entertainment. It's his nutty performance that makes the film worth watching and it was really fun seeing and hearing his insane laughing and non-stop rants. Tania Velia does a nice job in her role of the eye candy dancer.
The film has many campy moments throughout but there's no question that it's one of the more outrageous and over-the-top adventure movies out there. The "dope" connection isn't played up as much as one would have hoped but this is still a fun little movie as long as you don't take it too serious.
