Check out this wacky yet loveable little scamp named Gwendoline (or for its US release The Perils Of Gwendoline In The Land Of The Yik Yak)...wacky indeed! Our (tit)ular character is played with mucho gusto by Tawny Kitaen (and from what I can tell, her first starring role). Unless you're a fan of Whitesnake, Witchboard or Bachelor Party, you may not even know who Tawny Kitaen is. Although to be fair, she has been thrust back into the limelight of late courtesy of VH1's The Surreal Life. And I'm not counting on the fact that you've seen that either. So back to our story...

Within moments (the first 10 minutes of the film actually), Gwendoline is let lose from a crate in Singapore and subsequently kidnapped, sexually assaulted, rescued and reunited with her impish travelling companion. It's fast, it's furious and it's hella confusing. It's at this point that the viewer realizes that he/she has absolutely no idea as to what's actually going on. Get used to it. Really this setup serves as an overextended introduction to the films' 3 main characters (minus any type of true investment in the story mind you). Gwendoline herself, Willard (I'm a man's man Brent Huff) and the aforementioned impish female travelling companion named Beth (Zobou). What follows are a series of wacky (once again) misadventures that take our fearless threesome through all kinds of bizarre scenarios. Most too bizarre to even mention here, so I'll spare you most of the insanity. Ultimately though, they are taken captive by a group of amazons and led to an odd city where some semblance of a plot structure begins to evolve.

It's in this 'city' that robotic, animalistic women are used to peddle machines that operate strange tubes with smoke running out of them. All the while parading around in bizarrely erotic gladiator gear like the good little worker robots they are. And this is where things REALLY start to get comical (dare I even say 'wacky?'). Impish Beth goes missing so Gwendoline and Willard have to somehow infiltrate the system and rescue her (and of course, not get captured themselves - oops!, in addition to finding a safe way home. Hilarity ensues. And wouldn't you just guess it, these weird repressed animalistic women need a man, and bad! I'll bet you can guess what happens next. Mmmm hmmm.

Even if you don't know anything about erotic cinema, surely you've heard of Lady Chatterly's Lover, Emmanuelle (review here) and The Story of O (review here). All three of which were directed by French born Just Jaeckin. Late night cable staples aside, these are films that defined the genre of soft core films. While it's safe to say you should expect to find some familiar themes o' love and sensuality in Gwendoline from good ole' Jaeckin, you should also expect an uneven mix of gore, action and slapstick comedy as well. It's a strange brew for sure, there's no denying it, but the whole affair is just off the wall enough to work, on a strictly b-grade level of course. It's a stew of exploitation, silly dialogue, chariot races(!) and a really poorly constructed fake alligator. Brilliant.

There's really no reason to believe that any of these situations / relationships could, should or even would happen. Look no further than the moment in which Gwendoline and Willard dirty talk each other while being held captive. And let's talk about Willard for a second, a real man's man for sure. Not only does he know his way around a group of pirates(?) but he exudes a strange kind of confidence. Not the confidence of a man who knows he can get the job done because he's bad ass (like Rambo or Charles Bronson for example) but the confidence of a man who knows he can get the job done because the script tells him so. In other words, more like a caricature than a character. But that doesn't mean that the film isn't enjoyable, because it is, immensely so. Sometimes it gets so weird (wacky even?), you'd believe it was weird just for the sake of being weird, which I'm pretty sure it is. The film (no matter how off-the-wall) is a pure delight.

While I've never really been much of a Tawny Kitaen fan myself, I have to admit having found myself to be a bit smitten with her in this film. She easily provides the perfect balance of doe eyed innocence and assured sexuality that makes this role work. I guess now, I'm a believer.

Severin Films has done a fantastic job in bringing Gwendoline to DVD. The scope transfer is really clean and crisp and colors pop. Audio options include both English and French Dolby 5.1 Dolby 2.0 with English Subtitles over the French track. I couldn't figure out a way to turn the subs on or off manually. They just seem to appear when you choose the French language option. Extras include a brief but luscious Tawny Kitaen Gallery, an interview with the director entitled The Last Temptation of Just (25 min) lots of broken English and no subs, so be warned, an audio interview entitled Dr Kinsey Interview with Sweet Gwendoline John Wilie (audio interview w/ artist John Willie creator of The Adventures of Sweet Gwendoline) a moderated feature length audio commentary with director Just Jaeckin and two trailers; US Theatrical Trailer and an International Theatrical Trailer (note that the film doesn't seem so silly w/out words as viewed in the International Theatrical Trailer).