Mysterious Island of Beautiful Women (aka Island of Sister Theresa)

Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray of Mysterious Island of Beautiful Women includes a disclaimer at the beginning of this 1979 made for TV movie. It states that some of the elements used are less than perfect but they used the best sources available to them.I debated whether to give this release 5 stars but ultimately the video is quite good overall in spite of the disclaimer.As for the movie itself it just as easily could have been called Mysterious Island of Makeshift Bikinis, and indeed the pretty actresses are the main attraction here.It’s fun & silly and really not terrible although you can just picture the actresses cringing after reciting some of the goofy dialogue.I saw this when it was first broadcast and am glad I now own it. It is entertaining enough that I can state with confidence that I will watch it again.If you don’t share the same level of nostalgia for it you may want to seek it out on YouTube or elsewhere and leave it at that.

Love the concept and story . Great scenery and believable storyline with decent performances . Loved it when was a kid on tv and long awaited on dvd

LOVED IT

seen it on tv when i was a kid it,s okay movie

I had never seen of nor heard of The Mysterious Island of Beautiful Women when I came across the Kino Lorber announcement for the Blu-ray. Because I was looking up Rosalind Chao and discovered her role in the Movie, I decided to order it on whim based on her involvement and what I suspected would be a decent commentary track by Kino Lorber. I also thought it might be a fun time capsule of late ‘70s, early ‘80s television and it did turn out to be just that.MIoBW is a simple, TV movie, with bog standard acting by a mostly aging male cast and b movie performances by the younger women. It’s nominally an island adventures show, but it is more of a mashup of different genres. The setup is that a planeload of orphans and one nun fly out of, what I suspect, is North Vietnam towards the end of the First Indo-China war and crash-land, during a storm, on an island somewhere in the pacific. Years later, an oil executive and his employees have to make a forced landing on the same island and discover the orphans, now grown women, living in their own tribal culture.This all sounds like a male, exploitation fantasy film, but it really isn’t other than the gals running around in skimpy outfits. MIoBW is hard to classify; it’s part lord of the flies, part men’s adventure, part survival, part amazon, part island exploration, and bunch of other stuff. I’d say there is even a nod to the post apocalyptic genre with the isolated culture that the woman create. This almost comes off as tv pilot about a team that has adventures while sky-hoping around the pacific with their new, nearly feral, girlfriends.I could go on about the plot and characters but what makes MIoBW interesting is that it is a snapshot of TV production from very late 1970s (December 1979 to be exact). Programming was changing and this show reflects the new era that was just on the horizon while still capturing past tv trends. MIoBW was shot in Hawaii which helps with the look of the film and adds much needed production value. If you want to get a feel for shows from this time period without watching a ton of other programs this isn’t a bad place to start. I suppose it’s also sort of kitsch cool as well, which is the reason Svengoolie hosted it.Hands down, the best thing about this Blu-ray is the commentary. Kino Lorber usually does a good job with this of type of extra feature, but, holy hell is this a fire hose of information. The commentators have a vast knowledge of past media and television. They compare and contrast MIoBW to other shows like Magnum PI, Fantasy Island, Wonder Woman, Gilligan’s island, and lots of others. They discuss the Nielsen ratings the show received and it’s competition on other networks the week it aired! They talk about trends for tv films at the time this was made and plot points and story choices made by the creators. The commentators also run down the careers of all the actors involved and the crew as well. I wasn’t expecting to learn so much but the commentary was very informative.If you feel like going retro and especially if you remember ‘70s and ‘80s TV, Mysterious Island of Beautiful Women is a fun diversion into the past. It’s by no means perfect and it’s silly in parts but it is an interesting snapshot of storytelling at dawn of the ‘80s. The commentary boosts my review to 4 stars.

I HAD TO BUY THIS!! Jamie lyn is my niece.

I bought this movie because I'm a Clint Walker fan. I thought it was a enjoyable movie. I like Clint in the westerns,but this was 1 I will watch again & again.The rest of the cast were great to, I thought.

This movie is a classic, if you like the 1970's made for tv movies.Clint Walker did a fine job and the girls were beautiful.great movie to watch late night.