"Stolen Paradise" is a creepy film brought to us by the same guy who directed "Reefer Madness", Louis Gasnier. Considering that "Reefer Madness" is among the most horrible films ever made AND "Stolen Paradise" has an IMDb score of 2.8, then I think you can guess what I thought about the film! The story begins at a residential school run by the Catholic Church. A young knuckle-head (Leon Janney) has lived there most of his life. Now, nearing 18, he's sent home to attend his father's wedding. It seems that the boy's mother passed away some time ago and the father left him in the care of the Church. Now, with a new mother, he's home to stay. However, and here's where the creepy exploitation angle occurs, he soon falls in love with his new step-sister—a lady a decade older than him. Since he cannot have her, he spends much of the film running amok—going from a nice young man who wants to become a priest to a nasty playboy who is simply out for a good time at anyone's expense. Late in the film, however, he kisses his step-sister—I mean REALLY kisses her. And, instead of working out his feelings, he runs off and joins the RAF to fight in WWII. Now this leads to one of the worst pieces of film work in movie history. He volunteers for a suicide mission and in the following scene, footage of various unrelated aircraft are literally randomly spliced on the screen. The plane changes from a fighter to a bomber and also changes nationalities repeatedly (going from British to American to even German!). But the worst was when the planes became WWI biplanes! I have never seen any air footage so random in all my life—and it would be like showing a NASCAR race and having the vehicles change to VWs, pickup trucks, convertibles and even tanks! I also liked it when the plane dove STRAIGHT down--several thousand feet and went nose-first into the earth...and he survived!!!
So is the movie worth seeing? Well, if you are a bad movie buff, yes. However, for a Gasnier film this one is practically a work of art. It's very bad and the acting is quite bad---but not nearly as bad as you might expect from this master of dreck. Dopey but not so dopey that you'll enjoy the ineptitude of the film—like you would many of Gasnier's other 'works of art'. I'd give this one a 2 maybe even a 2.5! Ultra-creepy but entertaining in a sick sort of way (at least at times).
So is the movie worth seeing? Well, if you are a bad movie buff, yes. However, for a Gasnier film this one is practically a work of art. It's very bad and the acting is quite bad---but not nearly as bad as you might expect from this master of dreck. Dopey but not so dopey that you'll enjoy the ineptitude of the film—like you would many of Gasnier's other 'works of art'. I'd give this one a 2 maybe even a 2.5! Ultra-creepy but entertaining in a sick sort of way (at least at times).