Does anyone else think it’s funny that a man named Just Jaeckin (say it out loud) had a career in sexploitation films? It’s true! Not only did he direct Gwendoline, but the guy also made Lady Chatterly’s Lover but he also did The Story Of O and the original Emmanuelle to boot. The irony is rich… so rich… At any rate, what’s the deal with Gwendoline, also known as The Perils Of Gwendoline In The Land Of The Yik Yak (which is how it was released stateside on VHS by Warner Home Video in a version trimmed of over ten minutes!)? 

Gwendoline (Tawny Kitaen of Witchboard and a few Whitesnake videos) has hidden herself inside a crate that sits inside a ship bound for somewhere in Asia. She hopes to make it to the ‘Land of the Yik Yak’ where she’ll start looking for her father, who hasn’t been seen by anyone since he took off that way in search of a rare butterfly. In the port city where she lands after being released from her crate by the burly Chinese guys who were running the ship, she heads out into the streets. There she soon meet up with an American named Willard (Brent Huff who starred opposite Sho Kosugi in 9 Deaths Of The Ninja and then opposite Coolio in Submerged!) and runs into her old pal, Beth (Zobou of One Woman Or Two). Beth and Gwendoline want to get on with Gwendoline’s quest, Willard isn’t so keen on the idea, but the girls have ways of convincing him to think things over a little more before coming to such rash conclusions. 

The three of them head off in a few different directions, the women undress a lot, they run around in the jungle some and then in the desert, and finally some strange tribal types capture them and bring them back to their base of operations which just so happens to be in the Land of Yik Yak. There they find that the land is ruled over by a nasty Queen (Bernadette Lafont was shows up in To Catch A Spy) who controls and army of Amazon women who do whatever they’re told and run around in bondage outfits. They’re also very black widowish, in that they mate with their men only one time before making short work of them once and for all. With Willard obviously a man, it doesn’t take the warrior women long before they’ve got him hanging upside down from the ceiling and they’re trying to get Gwendoline to join them. 

The plot in this one is nuts – it’s all over the place. At times the movie is kinky and slick like so much of Jaeckin’s other, better known films, and then at other times it’s (intentionally?) campy and goofier than a Troma film. There’s no shortage of flesh on display, women disrobe for the simplest reasons, and the movie is full of ‘beautiful people’ in that there are no unattractive ladies in the cast. As crazy as this sex-adventure hybrid sounds, it turns out to be a whole lot of fun. There’s no shortage of style here, from the set design to the wardrobe, even the hairstyles of the Amazon warrior women – it’s all highly polished and very intentionally over the top and it isn’t surprising in the least to find out that the movie was based on a comic book. It just has that vibe to it. 

Tawny Kitaen, who gets most of the screen time here, is definitely in her physical prime. She looks really, really good here and the camera loves her as much as she loves the camera. While the script doesn’t prove to be too challenging she handles things well as she’s got enough obvious confidence and some decent screen presence. Brent Huff makes for a macho enough hero that you can understand why Gwendoline falls for him and it’s interesting to see the twists that their relationship takes as the movie plays out. If you go into this one expecting some fine, sexy pop art and some neat adventure you’ll probably really enjoy it as it’s a fun, slick movie that doesn’t spend a lot of time sweating the details. Style over substance? Maybe, but it’s still a good time.