Amazon.com Customer Reviews
 Rated 1 out of 5
Bad Beyond Belief
Don’’t even think about buying this movie. Awarded 1 star only because ZERO was not given as an option. I received it as a gift ( a GAG gift, as it turns out...) so I felt obligated to watch at least some of it. Bad acting, terrible script, non-existant special effects and a cheesey music score. The only thing worse than the movie itself is the DVD transfer, which features a bleached out, grainy print and miserable sound to go with it. You can’’t do any worse than this. Spend your [money] on beer or cigarettes. Rated 4 out of 5
Oscar-winning screenwriter in post-apocalyptic love triangle
Shot in near proximity to the strange post-colonial gem "Creature from the Haunted Sea", and with the same three stars, this Roger Corman take on the sexual tension inherent in any doomsday scenario that results in one woman and two very possessive men being left alone on a desert island is not above critique, but it accomplishes a lot given the restrictions of the material. Future Academy Award-winner Robert Towne (listed here and in "Creature" as Edward Wain) plays the personal lawyer for a gambling-addicted cretin (Antony Carbone, again doing the "Humphrey Bogart thing"), and jealous rival for the affections of his wife (Betsy Jones-Moreland). While the three are scuba diving, a sudden gas attack depletes the air of oxygen, killing off all the other inhabitants. The three surface, struggle to the shore, and as the air returns to normal, attempt to play house in a seaside villa. Not surprisingly, it doesn’’t work out for them.
Along with "Creature", Roger Corman manages to create at least the suggestion of a commentary on the colonial attitude of 1950s America--decadent American types survive the end of the world and have Puerto Rico all to themselves--with the threat of nuclear holocaust here left out in favor of what seems to be a natural occurance (though one wonders how the suddenly absent oxygen is restored in a matter of hours). Did the island reject its native people in favor of these three? Western morality is ultimately put to the test--while Towne’’s character is arguably the hero, Carbone’’s claim to the sanctity of marriage is thus made the evil of the picture--and the finale in a church yields the best dialogue of the movie. While it may only appeal to Cormanites and those intereted in seeing Robert Towne years before he wrote "Chinatown", the low price tag attached to this Alpha Video release makes it more tolerable as a purchase. Sadly, as is generally the case with Alpha Video color DVDs, the color is faded, but few who spend less than $10 on a disc will take that too harshly. Not as good as "Creature from the Haunted Sea", but still worth seeing.
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