Gwendoline

Plot synopsis:
Captured by a trio of thieves at a Chinese port, Gwendoline (Kitaen), a courageous but naïve girl, is sold to a local casino-brothel owner, but, rescued by Willard (Huff), a mercenary adventurer, she is reunited with her maid, Beth (Zabou), after the latter's abduction by the same thieves who had earlier kidnapped Gwendoline. Hired to transport an illegal cargo, Willard reluctantly agrees to take both women with him after Beth, withholding information vital to his livelihood, promises to divulge it only if he becomes their guide. Gwendoline, who has come to China to capture the butterfly that eluded her father, who'd staked his professional reputation as a scientist on obtaining the insect, offers Willard $2000 to take her and Beth with him to the land of the Yik-Yak, in which the butterfly may be found. After escaping from the cannibal tribe of Kiops, the trio find the butterfly, but, as she is about to capture it, Beth is captured and Gwendoline and Willard must enter an all-women tribe's underground lair to rescue the maid. The tribe is the vestige of the city of Pikaho, a primary diamond mining centre, which was swallowed by a volcanic eruption in the 12th century. Afterwards, the entire male population perished due to a disease spread by the eruption and Pikaho turned into an all-women society while it fell into oblivion as nothing more than a legend. To ensure the survival of Pikaho, its Queen (Bernadette Lafont) allows a victor among them to mate with any man who visits or is captured by the tribe. Aided by Beth and the Queen's henchman D'Arcy (Jean Rougerie), Gwendoline, disguised as a Pikaho warrior, wins this right. As she has sex with Willard, D'Arcy activates the volcano and he, the Queen, and citizens of Pikaho are killed as Gwendoline, Beth, and Willard escape. In the process, Willard is able to capture the elusive butterfly.

Tags: cult

Review:
Directed by the same twisted mind that created Emmanuelle and The Story of O, he now makes a movie which is pure camp.
From my opinion it was the perfect sendup of Raiders of the Lost Ark - only this time Indiana is woman and all the villans are large breasted women that romp around naked..
In the 1940s, John Willie, (aka John Coutts), created an obscure fetish magazine called Bizarre and produced four cartoon serials, of which "The Adventures of Sweet Gwendoline" was best known.
A beautiful woman hires an intrepid adventurer to help find her father, who has disappeared in the jungle while searching for a rare and priceless butterfly.
That's pretty much all you have to know of the plot, which is mainly an excuse to show off scads of beautiful naked women, gorgeous Filipino scenery, some almost competent action scenes, and Tawny Kitaen.
Director Just Jaeckin apparently put a fair chunk of the tons of money he made off his "Emanuelle" movies into this one, and it shows; the film doesn't look cheap, at least, and Jaeckin's photography shows off the film's best assets--including Tawny Kitaen's--to their best advantage.
A ridiculously dumb movie that attempts to rip off Indiana Jones, but is good for laughs and a good amount of nudity (especially a pre-implant Tawny Kitaen).
You probably wont see this many naked and topless babes this side of 1980 and not in a porn film.Amazingly, if you are a butt man, the version that played on TV is even better than the theatrical version..
THE PERILS OF GWENDOLINE IN THE LAND OF THE YIK YAK (phew!) is a real guilty pleasure of mine.
In fact, I'll tell you the things I don't like first: the "upbeat" music is annoying (the one that they use during action scenes).
And the acting, as bad as it is, is perfect for this kind of movie.
Its definitely one of the best french movies but not so recognized..
What a pity that after that we did not see Tawny Kitaen in movies of the same standard!
The plot is pedestrian (Think "Wizard of Oz" meets "Story of O"), the acting no better than High School and the dubbing flat, but the visuals on this are very artistic.
Half action/adventure; Half Comedy; Half Porno.....But even if you can say this or that about the film, there´s TWO things that are outstanding with this film.a) The Girl - Gwendoline, played by Tawny Kitaen.
Perhaps the best movie ever to be made (starring Brent Huff)...What can I say?
Sure the first half is pretty slow but it leads into the strangest and most mind-blowing balm-pottery ever to hit celluloid, as Gwendoline and her pals go on a mission to find a rare butterfly, her missing father and a lost civilisation.
This movie is based on a comic strip I've never seen.
It sure isn't as much fun as "Raiders of the Lost Ark" or the other Indiana Jones films.
And while there is some nudity and bondage (including Tawny) for the most part there really isn't much to the film.
Bondage types might enjoy the dungeon scenes (which look more like a European art house than a Gothic-style dungeon) but they're played for erotic-art rather than bawdy sex, and it's always fun seeing Tawny wearing almost nothing for most of the film.
Costumes are better than the rest of the film, except for a) the scene where Tawny and Willard find the wreckage of some crates and have a spat, b) the scene where Tawny tries to rescue her friend who has been captured and thrown in the dungeon where a single thread held in her teeth is keeping a bow from skewering her with an arrow, and c) the scene  where a female prisoner has been placed, topless, on a wheel and is slowly revolving around and around.
Gwendoline, from 'Emmanuelle' director Just Jaeckin, is an erotic comic-book action adventure (think Indiana Jones crossed with Barbarella, only with more nudity) wherein a gorgeous but innocent young woman (played by 80s rock-babe Tawny Kitaen) teams up with a roguish riverboat captain (Brent Huff) to locate her father, a scientist who went missing while looking for a rare butterfly in the hostile land of Yik-Yak.A one-time fashion photographer, Jaeckin is more than capable of capturing a striking image, whether it be a beautiful vista, the sensuous curves of a woman, or the surreal sight of a bald, naked Amazonian chick being sucked up an down an industrial pipe, but he fails dismally at telling a story, either as writer or director.
His terrible script is hampered by dreadful dialogue (not helped by a wooden cast) and his handling of many scenes, most notably the action, leaves much be desired, being unimaginatively executed and ultimately rather lifeless.Despite all of this, however, the film still manages to be a reasonably entertaining experience—partly due to the silliness of the whole thing, partly because of the often excellent production design (much of which would not look out of place in a major Hollywood film) and some surprising violence, but mostly thanks to all of the S&M-laced nudity, especially from the lovely Kitaen, who can't act, but who has a great bod and isn't afraid to show it..
Just jackelin is one of the best directors of all time...it's a shame he doesn't make movies anymore.the soft core erotic movies on late night cable are garbage(1 room sets.no story,and huge fake breast)the guys like just and zalman king know how to make truly erotic movies.They just don't make em like this anymore.Great stuff can't wait for some genius to release this on DVD,the sooner the better!.
His adaptation of John Willie's Sweet Gwendoline adult comic lacks any real erotic content and ends up little more than a cheesy pulp adventure with a little skin.
The acting is as awful as any school play and not helped by casual Euro dubbing.The story sees Gwen and gal-pal Beth arriving in China to search for Gwen's butterfly-collecting father.
Together, they traipse thru jungle and desert to the fabled Amazonian land of Yik Yak.The location work is pretty admirable, but the studio sets at the end are the cheesiest you'll ever see.
There is only one love scene in the film, and Kitaen wears a cloak the whole time!
The rest of the film contains nothing more than a few random breasts, and the last act features many strangely industrial bondage setups that aren't really used to any advantage (except, perhaps, the pony girl chariot race).
From the director of Emmanuelle (who has the best name a softcore pornographer could possibly have) comes this bizarre, nonsensical fantasy/adventure/comedy starring a nubile Tawny Kitaen.
Accompanied by partner Zabou and hunky adventurer Brent Huff, they journey through a bunch of cheap-looking locations until they arrive at the lost city of Cheops, which is populated by an Amazonian tribe of women known as the Yik Yak. This is the mentally disabled descendant of Barbarella.
Gwendoline, or the Perils of Gwendoline, is loosely (and I mean loosely) based on the bondage-themed comics of John Willie.
They are pretty tame compared what passes for erotica today (no sex, just fetish), but this movie was pretty tame for Willie.This film tries to blend the Willie kink with some Indiana Jones adventure; but, there isn't much adventure or kink.
The costumes and the absurd nature of the combat add a Barbarella flair to the scene.The budget is too small for any major stunts and doesn't have the creativity to make better use of the Terry and the Pirates meets Indiana Jones flavor at the beginning.
Just Jaekin's film based on John Willie's bondage comic The Adventures of Sweet Gwendoline.
In in the Orient in the 1920's or 30's Gwendoline and her best friend ship themselves over seas in order to find her missing father.
Rescued by accident by a handsome hunk of a guy Gwen, her friend and the guy end up wandering off into the jungle/desert/lost city in order to find her father.As you can tell from the lack of names this really isn't good enough to pay attention to.
Sure it has lots of beautiful women (almost all of the naked or semi-naked variety) and some decent action, but the over all direction (a bit too slack)and much too whimsical script under cuts its ability to send up films of the Indiana Jones variety.Yes its amusing for 20 minutes or so but then you realize that there are 80 more to go and you end up groaning loudly.The selling point of the film is the look.
it looks great and to be honest its the sort of thing thats gonna play oh so much better with the sound off.I'm still pondering how the heck I ended up with a copy of the film on DVD since even though I've read some recent vintage articles on the film which argued its better than its reputation, I never really liked the film much when I saw it all those years ago when I managed a video store.
Moronic sex-adventure-comedy with a disconnected script that takes you from one place to another following no logic or pattern, and a certain undeniably trashy imagination (a four-way fighting match between women wearing heavy-yet-revealing armors).
Tawny Kitaen is beautiful, but she can't act worth a damn.
Kitaen plays the titular role of Gwendoline who, with some help, is trying to find her father and a rare butterfly.
While the first half of this film is so bad, it's good in a campy culty way, humorously enough the second half, when they actually find the girl tribe of the Yik Yak is when it takes a nosedive and becomes tedious.
And as bad as the second part of this film got (and trust me it gets pretty awful).
Tawny's next film, Bachelor Party, however, was and still is a bonifide classic no matter how you slice it (not really because of her, mind you) My Grade: D+ DVD Extras: Commentary by Director Just Jaeckin; Interview with Jaeckin; Audio interview with comic creator John Willie; Tawny Kitean photo-spread for Lui Magazine; and both US & international theatrical trailers.
Seems this movie is out of print and copies are rare.
(Amazon.com had one for $54.00 in their auction area several months ago.) At one time you could view and download still pictures and 20 second movie clips at the website : (There was also stills of the Bondage comic strip : "The Adventures of Sweet Gwendoline" by John Willie also in this website.) I would like to see a movie based on this "Sweet Gwendoline" comic strip....but I know they would screw it all up so maybe not.
Someone should re-release "Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak" on DVD.
It's an example of the schlock-action-boobs niche that actresses like Sybil Danning and Shannon Tweed were well known for in the 80's.The basic plot is an adventure that riffs heavily on the Indiana Jones motif, but it serves mainly to get the women to take their clothes off.
This also helps explain the casting choices, as the female roles are filled with actresses who are lovely to see, but otherwise awful at acting.The single best part of this film is a sexy young Tawny Kitaen, prior to her days as the resident "babe" in Whitesnake music videos..
What an absolute delight this movie is, and another masterpiece by director Just Jaeckin (Emmanuelle, Story of O).
The story chugs along at a cracking pace with charming performances by the cute female leads (Tawny Kitaen & Zabou), and delightfully over-the-top turns by Brent Huff as the hunky can't-be-arsed hero, and the delicious Bernadette Lafont as the deranged Queen.More female breasts on show here than you can shake a stick at, great sets and locations, superb fight scenes, some comic violence, and a great soundtrack which shifts effortlessly between dreamy romantic music and 1980's disco, all add up to make this an enjoyable watch.
This film has grown into a real cult classic and one of the reasons is the difficulty finding a copy to view.
Story is about a young and beautiful damsel in distress named Gwendoline (Tawny Kitaen) who along with her maid Beth (Zabou) ships herself in a crate to China in search of her Professor father who has disappeared.
She gets into trouble with the local Chinese mafia but is saved by the sweaty sailor named Willard (Brent Huff) and she convinces him with $2,000 to help her find her father who was last scene going to the legendary land of "Yik-Yak" chasing after a rare black butterfly.*****SPOILER ALERT*****Gwendoline learns that her father was killed but she is determined to find the butterfly which she wants to name after him.
They get caught and the Queen (Bernadette Lafont) has plans for them which will result in their deaths so they must figure out how they can escape.This film was written and directed by Just Jaeckin who was also responsible for the first "Emmanuelle" film and "The Story of O" and here he creates one of the cheesiest adventure films ever and it's loaded with images of B&D.
This is based on the illustrated stories by John Willie in the 1940's and that also had Gwendoline frequently being tied up.
This film presents the worst job of dubbing since those "Godzilla" movies came out in the 50's and 60's.
There isn't much acting going on and Huff sweats continuously from his appearance until the very end.
In fact, all the actors sweat through this film and I'm sure they could all tell stories about the horrid working conditions.
As much as I love Kitaen (And I do) she isn't given much to do here except find herself in various states of being topless (Thank you God!) but from an exploitation level this is part of the charm of this low budget and sleazy film.
At one point in the film it starts to rain and Huff yells "It's raining, take your clothes off".
If loving this is wrong I don't want to be right."'Barbarella' Meets 'Indiana Jones'" boasts the posters.
NOT A SINGLE element of either film exists in 'Gwendoline'!!!
The trailer is very accurate as to what you'll be experiencing, eye candy with an S&M storyline.If not for the visual masterpiece 'Gwendoline' would easily be relegated to just another sexploitation film.First off, I watched this film only in French without English subtitles.
The visual actions and emotions of the characters are so compelling we know them heart and soul even without knowing their names.It reminds me a lot of 'Land of the Deaf' and 'Quest for Fire.' Bold films which intentionally created the challenge of having no dialogue what so ever.
And if the kids could describe the plot and characters correctly they knew the anime film or series was worthy of an English language adaptation.I'd accuse the story of being a plagiarized from an Anne Rice novel but her books like the 'Sleeping Beauty' trilogy were written after 'Gwendoline.' The plot is not complex beyond Westerners getting into bar fights in Chinese nightclubs, journeying into the Gobi Desert and discovering to lost S&M fantasy kingdom of Yik Yak. Not too complex but very compelling and exciting.
And I'm not talking about just talking about sexual excitement.'Gwendoline' isn't just another sexploitation film.
In fact there's far to little sex or graphic nudity to really even be considered a sexploitation film.This film also stars American Tawny Kitaen, the girl who "shook her ass on the head of White Snake's car." SPOILER WARNING!!!
I was expecting the story to climax literally with a threesome between Gwendoline, Willard, and Beth.There ending in the Gobi Desert could have at least been better with some implications that Yik Yak had entirely been a dream.
In MST3K terms, it is a very "boobular" movie, as might be expected of the man behind the 'Emanuelle' films.
What great fun it was to see this one.The beginning of the movie is a bit romancing the stone/ Indiana Jones.
They team up with a tough guy and go on a dangerous adventure involving natives, pirates and a deadly poisoned storm.But the real fun starts when Gwendoline finds the butterfly she is looking for.The movie becomes kind of a "barbarella", which happens to be one of my all time favorite's!
An almost naked woman is being sucked op and down a big tube, another naked woman is spinning around on a big wheel and more great viewing pleasure's.But the biggest fun is yet to start, when Gwendoline and Beth are trying to escape on some kind of chariot, pulled not by horses but by ( Yes, you've guessed it) more almost naked women!Go see it, it really is fun, fun, fun!.
The overview of this film is the tired plot of feisty heroine and loyal friend finding a manly man to lead them through the jungle, across the desert and over the mountains to find her missing father.
Now I knew I was in for artsy, futuristic nonsense like "The Fifth Element."Par for the course, we now have leather outfits, women in bondage scenes, and various forms of female nudity.
What did I miss?" Bless his heart, he assured me I didn't miss anything, because the movie didn't make sense from one scene to the next.I have to admit that I am not turned on by female nudity, so by the end of this travesty my eyes were crossed and tearing, and my chin had drooped to my chest.
By the end of this movie I was brain-dead..
Naïve and virginal young lass Gwendoline (luscious redhead knockout Tawny Kitaen) hires roguish soldier of fortune Willard (hunky Brent Huff) to take her and loyal gal pal Beth (a delightfully bubbly portrayal by fetching brunette Zabou) into a dangerous jungle in order to find Gwendoline's missing father and capture a rare butterfly.