From Amazon.com
For American bad-movie buffs who wish to remember
The Perils of Gwendoline as they originally saw it, this 88-minute English-dubbed version of Just Jaekin's
Gwendoline will offer a shamelessly entertaining trip down memory lane. Lavishly produced on a miraculously economical budget of $10 million, this tongue-in-cheek adventure plays like a softcore parody of
Raiders of the Lost Ark and
Romancing the Stone, with sex kitten Tawny Kitaen making her dubious debut in the title role of Gwendoline (loosely based on John Willie's pioneering adult comic strip "Sweet Gwendoline"), a slim, sexy, and virginal adventuress on a globetrotting quest to find her missing father, last seen in the remote jungle seeking a rare and beautiful butterfly. As the plot hurdles toward the mysterious land of an all-female slave culture known as the Yik Yak (where cheesy sets and nudity can be found in abundance), Gwendoline recruits hunky mercenary Willard (Brent Huff) and loopy friend Beth (played by French model/actress Zabou) for a series of colorful misadventures including a climactic chariot chase that must be seen to be believed. So bad it's good,
Perils boasts some of the worst acting in movie history, but the constant parade of T&A guarantees that it will be seen and enjoyed long after thousands of "better" movies have faded into obscurity. While Jaekin's unrated director's cut includes a full-length commentary and a few scenes not included here, anyone can enjoy this shorter American version without feeling like they've missed anything essential.
--Jeff Shannon
Review
Famed French master of eroticism Just Jaeckin serves up this highly bizarre hybrid of Indiana Jones rip-off adventure meets surreal European art house in Gwendoline, a mind-numbing picture of epically out-there proportions. Starring '80s video sex symbol Tawny Kitaen, the movie was both a commercial stab as well as an artistic statement that goes well beyond the bar set by similarly themed films of the time. Released in the States in a trimmed-down form as The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik-Yak, the cut seen by foreigners wasn't so much filled with more steam as it was goofy humor, giving the film an extra silly factor that makes it all the more strange when one considers the 180-degree turn it takes at the midway point. Looking like something out of Alejandro Jodorowsky's Holy Mountain, the last half of the picture, set in the fictitious land of the Yik-Yak, is truly something amazing to behold. Half-naked future gladiator women slave over technology right out of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, while others look like new wave samurai if Akira Kurosawa tried his hand at Barbarella with Guy Maddin as his co-director. All the while, Jaeckin films the scenes with an artful elegance that elevates the production from just a hokey romp to a souvenir of French cinema that would not even be attempted in modern times. As far as the amount of skin goes, the nudity isn't exploited for graphic sexual exploits, rather it is played with an abandon dictated by the style, not titillation of the picture. While the flick may indeed be corny, the production values push Gwendoline into a territory all its own, made even more special by the appearance of Kitaen, who's both charming and stunning in her big screen follow-up to playing Tom Hanks' wife in Bachelor Party. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide