Guyana: Crime of the Century (1979)

Director:

René Cardona Jr.

Writers:

René Cardona Jr. (screenplay)
René Cardona Jr. (story)

Release Date:

25 January 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

The Movie That Dares To Tell The Truth Behind The Most Shocking Crime Of The Century!

Plot:

Reverend James Johnson, the priest of an independent church in Guyana in South America, orders his followers to suicide...

Plot Keywords:

Suicide | Guyana | Murder | Tragedy | Religion

Cast

Stuart Whitman	...	Rev. James Johnson
Gene Barry	...	Congressman Lee O'Brien
John Ireland	...	Dave Cole
Joseph Cotten	...	Richard Gable
Bradford Dillman	...	Dr. Gary Shaw
Jennifer Ashley	...	Anna Kazan
Yvonne De Carlo	...	Susan Ames
Nadiuska	...	Leslie Stevens
Tony Young	...	Ron Harvey
Robert DoQui	...	Oliver Ross
Erika Carlsson	...	Marilyn Johnson
Hugo Stiglitz	...	Cliff Robson
Carlos East	...	Mike Sheldon
Ricardo Carrión	...	Bert Powers
Jack Braddock Johnson	...	Alex Dresden

Also Known As:

Guayana, el crimen del siglo (Spain)
Guyana, el crimen del siglo (Mexico) (dubbed version)
Guyana: Cult of the Damned (USA)

Runtime:

Mexico:115 min | USA:90 min | UK:108 min

Country:

Spain | Panama | Mexico

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Norway:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico

Company:

Care

Movie Connections:

Featured in First Transmission (1982) (V)

Not as sleazy as its reputation would suggest

This Mexican co-production which offers a slightly fictionalized account of the Jonestown Massacre, changing only the names to protect the innocent (and also apparently the guilty) was generally reviled when it came out for being exploitative, while the American TV movie that was also rushed into production (but beaten to the punch by this one) used the real names and even some of the audiotape of the actual massacre, was ironically regarded as a paragon of good taste. Actually, neither are very good, but this one is shorter and doesn't waste as much time getting to the good stuff.

It is nowhere near as tasteless and shocking as it's reputation suggests--the only questionable scene is where a white couple is caught making love "without permission" and are brought naked before the congregation (full-frontal nudity and all) and Jones (played by Stuart Whitman) orders the girl to have sex with a great big black guy while her boyfriend watches. This is either kind of racist or racist-baiting (I'm not sure), but the director cuts away before anything really happens and doesn't revel in the spectacle like a lot of "liberal" directors of the era would have. The movie certainly is incompetent--did I mention it was directed by legendary Mexican hackmeister Rene Cardona Jr.?--but sometimes an incompetent bad movie is a lot more fun than a competent bad one.

If you want to see a TRULY exploitative version of this, check out "Divine Emmanuele" where the Jim Jones character is played by Laura "Black Emanuelle" Gemser and all the gratuitous rape scenes and interracial softcore sex scenes are played to the hilt. So there you have it--you can choose between the faux respectability and "realism" of the TV movie, the unabashed trashiness of the Gemser movie, or this one which falls somewhere in between.