Master of Dragonard Hill (1987) User Reviews (5)

Oh wow

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 25 March 2022]

Oliver Reed is Captain Shanks, a drunken and rambling slave ship captain whois playing the exact role that he's meant for!

Herbert Lom is Le Farge, who has murdered the governor and taken over the Caribbean island of St. Joseph's!

Claudia Udy from Savage Dawn, Joy is Arabella, the sexually obsessive daughter who lusts after the slaves and any man around!

Eartha Kitt is Naomi. Her business partner that runs the brothel on the island and who is starting a revolt.

Annabel Schofield from Bloodtide is Honore Juno, Le Farge's wife who is looking to get into bed with anyone else!

And Patrick Warburton - yes, Puddy - is the Scottish nobleman who sexes everyone up and gets lashed in the public square with the brutal Dragonard whip!

So here's where my confusion comes in. There's 1988's Dragonard with the same cast and this movie, but some people write online that they're the same movie and others write that this is the first film and the 1988 one is the sequel. Still others claim that this is the sequel and the 1988 movie comes first, which makes no sense and then you say, "Well, Cannon did the same thing with Missing In Action and Mission In Action 2: The Beginning."

Based on the series of books by Rupert Gilchrist, this was written by Rick Marx, who wrote the adult series Taboo, as well as Doom Asylum, Warrior Queen, Gor, Outlaw of Gor and Platoon Leader. That's starting to make this a lot more clear, right? It was co-written by the fim's producer, Harry Alan Towers and oh yes, it all makes sense now. I was wondering why this all felt like something Jess Franco should have made.

It was directed by Gérard Kikoïne, who made adult films like Never Enough and The Tale of Tiffany Lust with Radley Metzger, as well as softcore movies like Lady Libertine and Love Circles, which definitely played Cinemax After Dark. He also made the Jekyll and Hyde riff Edge of Sanity which starred Anthony Perkins and the Robert Vaughn and Donald Pleasence-starring Buried Alive.

So yeah - I think that this is the first film in the series, that there are two and that they're so similar that anyone could make that mistake. I kind of love that Towers became part of the Cannon family at this point, making Lightning the White Stallion, Gor, Platoon Leader, Outlaw of Gor and American Ninja 3 with the mainline Cannon continuity, then producing River of Death, Ten Little Indians, Delta Force 3: The Killing Game and The Hitman for the Ovidio G. Assonitis-led Cannon Productions. He also produced Phantom of the Opera and Dance Macabre with Menahem, so he played no favorites in the breakup of Cannon.

Seriously, he should have hired Franco for this one. It would have been so much sleazier. Hell, he should have hired Franco for the Gor movies while he was at it.

Clarification

[ofumalow · 7/10 · 17 January 2021]

I haven't watched this for a long time, and trust me, the 7-star rating is solely for camp value--this movie is awful in a very entertaining way, right up there with "Drum" as far as its genre goes But the only reason I'm posting is to clarify: This is NOT a predecessor to "Dragonard." They are exactly the same movie, just under different titles. It's rare that IMBD makes such a big error, but I guess it's a testament to how badly this film flopped, and how little it's been seen since. Anyway, it's a major tasteless hoot if you are into unintentional comedy of a ripped-bodice, forbidden-plantation-desires-as-slaves-revolt type. With terribly overripe or wooden acting down the line, it's not your run-of-the-mill bad movie, but an underappreciated bad-movie classic, practically the "Showgirls" of "Mandingo" knockoffs.

A Gem for B-Movie Lovers

[rolf_wilms · 7/10 · 3 October 2006]

I saw this movie because its description reminded me of Russ Meyers "Black Snake", which is one of my favorites.

Master of Dragonard Hill can't cope with Black Snake, but its an entertaining B-movie though.

The first half of this movie is full of great antics and perfectly serves the cliché of the bad governor of a Caribbean island. Lots of explicit scenes too.

In particular, I liked the character of the self-appointed whore who seemed to have turned her hobby into a profession.

The second half was a bit flattened, but there was already enough tension built up to keep you enchained.

I were a bit disappointed that the bad governor wasn't lynched in the end. I think he'd deserved it.

My vote 7 out of 10 is for being an entertaining B-Movie and valid only if you give good B-movies extra credit.

Carribean Mandingo and trashy boddice-ripper combo

[jenkinsm · 23 April 2001]

Contains Spoilers

"Master of Dragonard Hill" aka "Dragonard" is a combination of a "Mandingo" rip-off crossed with a boddice-ripper romance aet in a Carribean island during the 1750s. In short, a trashy exploitation flick with great scenery. The plot, what little there is of it, revolves around the plantation holders, their slaves and the salacious revelry at Eartha Kitt's bordello. Patrick Warburton ("The Tick") plays a hunky Scottish nobleman (with a strictly American accent) sold into slavery and lusted after by Claudia Udy the slutty daughter of the island's governor and Annabel Schofield the repressed wife of his new master (she's actually her husband's SISTER, adding some twisted incest shadings to their relationship). Warburton is more interested in Schofield and the soundtrack keeps blasting "Tristan and Isolde" ad nauseum during their scenes together. Hubby finds out and has Warburton whipped in public (this punishment is the "Dragonard" of the title.) Eartha bribes the executioner to spare his life and hides him at the bordello. Claudia blackmails Eartha for his services during a masquerade party where she does a bump and grind kooch dance dressed as Cleopatra! (This really is as silly as it sounds). Eartha's support of an impending slave revolt pays off. Oliver Reed shows up occasionally (for no apparent reason) as the drunken captain of a slave ship to act sauced and get into bar fights.

This film could have been good trashy fun if everyone were chewing the scenery with as much gusto as Reed and Kitt and the direction wasn't so pedestrian. What you get is lots of unintentionally hilarious sleaze, lusty love scenes and a pretty nasty whipping. The climactic slave revolt is staged well enough but seems almost anti-climactic after the amount of build-up it is given. Bad film buffs or fans of Eartha might want to give it a look, otherwise don't waste your money or time. I give it a 3 out of 10 rating.

Sequel provides additional campy trash

[lor_ · 17 May 2023]

My review was written in June 1990 after watching the film on Media Home Entertainment video cassette.

This enjoyably trashy film in the "Mandingo" vein is a followup to Cannon's 1988 "Dragonard", reviewed for the record after its direct-to-video release in 1989. It had previously been screened in 1987 at the Cannes fest market.

South African-lensed effort is set across the globe in St. Kitts, picking up the action after a slave revolt led by white former slave Patrick Warburton. Now he's a happily married (to cute Kimberly Sissons) and everything looks peachy at their inherited plantation Dragonard Hill.

Hell breaks loose when local "easy" girl Arabella (played with wonderfully campy relish by Clauia Udy) is caught by her father making love to black slave Martin Dewee and daddy ends up dead. Dewee is blamed and Warburton's family gets in trouble when they give him refuge on the lam.

Evil Oliver Reed is appointed the new governor and brings back the use of the whip (called a "dragonard") on slaves. There's plenty of mayhem before the good guys revolt and put things right.

Besides Udy's un turn, there's a guest role for Herbert Lom as a friendly smuggler. Both he and Eartha Kitt (cast here as a brothel madam) previously appeared in the 1960s West German film of "Uncle Tom's Cabin".

Helmer Gerard Kikoine, whose output ranges from hardcore porn to Tony Perkins' "Edge of Sanity", pours on the sleaze. Funniest twist is final reel changeover in which nasty Udy suddenly sees the error of her ways and becomes a nice person in time for a rushed happy ending.