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from today's times:
The Roger Corman Puerto Rico Trilogy
In 1960, the great drive-in impresario Roger Corman left for the tax haven of Puerto Rico to make two low-budget action movies but characteristically came home with three, having pressed the stars of the grim apocalyptic fantasy "Last Woman on Earth" (Betsy Jones-Moreland, Antony Carbone and Edward Wain, as the film's screenwriter, Robert Towne, styled himself on camera) into service as stars in the shaggy horror spoof "Creature From the Haunted Sea."
This entertaining if shabbily produced double-sided disc produced by Retromedia Entertainment offers a rare color print of "Last Woman," a letterboxed if fuzzy transfer of "Creature" and an out-of-focus, full-frame transfer of the third feature, "Battle of Blood Island." The last, a dull, philosophical tale of two G.I.'s stranded on a tropical island, is the one film in the group produced but not directed by Mr. Corman, though it does have the odd distinction of being based on an early short story by Philip Roth.
A jovial Mr. Corman provides introductions to all three films, while the exploitation filmmaker Fred Olen Ray ("Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers," 1988) plays host to Ms. Jones-Moreland and Mr. Carbone for an amusing commentary track. Mr. Towne, the future author of "Chinatown," was invited to take part but did not respond, leaving himself open for some caustic reminiscences by the other cast members. Eighteen minutes of trailers from other Corman quickies of the period - with titles like "The Beast With a Million Eyes" (1956), "Attack of the Crab Monsters" (1957) and "The Wasp Woman" (1960) - round out the double-sided disc, which makes up in generosity what it lacks in quality control. Image Entertainment, $19.95, not rated.
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