When you watch Raiders of the Lost Ark one thing is clearly missing, and that would be gratuitous nudity and bondage, which was an oversight that director Just Jaeckin sought to correct with his film Gwendoline (later retitled The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik-Yak), and by using a character created by John Willie, an artist, fetish photographer, editor, and publisher of the soft-porn cult magazine Bizarre, he was able to bring new levels of sex and fetishism to the adventure genre. Gwendoline was your standard damsel in distress, but in these comics, the damsel was often nude when tied to the train tracks; she would be captured and tied up, rescued by the hero, then captured and tied up again. Repeat as often as needed. This was an ideal character for Just Jaeckin, the man who adapted classic bondage tale, The Story O, to the big screen.

The main thrust of the story has to do with Gwendoline (Tawny Kitaen), a naïve girl who has escaped from a convent to hunt for her missing father, and along with her on this adventure is her maid and faithful companion Beth (Zabou Breitman). The movie opens with Gwendoline being abducted by a group of cargo thieves who, presuming a crate from Paris holds valuables, break into it only to find it holds a beautiful woman instead. These Chinese thieves take Gwendoline to a local casino-brothel owner to sell her, but before the brothel owner even has a chance to sample the merchandise a grappling hook embeds itself in his neck, and mercenary adventurer Willard (Brent Huff) swings into the room. He easily dispatches the thugs, unties Gwendoline, yet he never gives her a second thought, because this wasn’t a rescue mission, it turns out the brothel owner simply owed Willard money.

Our hero.

Lucky for Gwendoline the ever faithful Beth shows up, but as the film progresses, and we spend more time with Willard, I kept hoping that Beth and Gwendoline would hook up, because Willard is a total asshat, and not worthy of either of these women. With his switchblade operated grappling hook, standing in for a bullwhip, it’s clear he’s this movie’s version of Indiana Jones, but where Indy was a likable rogue this guy is a total jerk. Gwendoline and Beth spend the first half of the movie trying to enlist this guy’s help, and he constantly turns them down, and this includes repeatedly tossing them off his boat into crocodile-infested waters, and yet we know these two are going to hook up at some point.

The screen just oozes with sexual tension.

There is a difference between two characters at odds with each other, constantly bickering and fighting, but who will eventually fall in love, and these two who have no screen chemistry at all. Gwendoline is at first portrayed as a totally innocent, yet while being forcibly kissed by Willard, during one particular escape attempt, she practically orgasms, then later she is calling him a coward and wants nothing to do with him. On the other hand we have Willard, an egocentric asshole who only does things for money, and so when these two people fall in love it’s almost as if the screenwriter just flipped a switch, there is no set-up to this relationship, all of sudden Willard admits he is in love with her, with no explanation to this sudden change of mind, other than that she is super hot. I know this is supposed to be a campy-erotic adventure movie, but Willard is so unlikable I was praying he’d be eaten by a snake. How much big of a jerk is he? Well at one point they are traveling through a tropical rain forest, when a torrential downpour starts, he tells Gwendoline and Beth to, “Take off your clothes quick, or would you rather die of thirst?”

Yeah, he’s smooth all right.

That is just one of many WTF moments this film delivers, but that’s enough talk of this film’s apparent love story, let’s get to the good stuff, and by that I mean more WTF stuff. Gwendoline is able to get Willard to help her and Beth find her father, who went missing looking for a rare butterfly, but when we learn that he is dead it looks like the adventure has come to an end, even before it got a chance to get going. Then Gwendoline suddenly decides that she is going to find that butterfly, and name it after her dead father, to honor him for god knows what reason. Willard wants nothing to do with this plan, as it involves going through an incredibly dangerous country. This is when the apparently naïve and innocent Gwendoline offers to pay him $2,000 dollars, and we are left wondering, where did she get that kind of money? Well, apparently she secretly stole and sold Willard’s cargo, to one of Willard’s less than honest friends, which makes us question what exactly are the nuns teaching girls in those convents?

Then they run into some cannibals.

Gwendoline, Beth, and Willard run into numerous dangers throughout the film, the butterfly they seek is in the legendary Land of the Yik Yaks, and no one has ever returned from there, but I guess $2,000 dollars is enough for Willard to overlook certain death. So they end up being captured by a group of cannibals, Gwendoline and Willard partake in some oral sex (no not the way you think, they are tied up so he is forced to just describe how he would make love to her), and then they escape the cannibals by running around like the Scooby Gang being pursued by the villain of the week. Things really get interesting when Gwendoline discovers the crevice that leads to the land of the Yik Yaks, by interesting I mean not at all, but when they lower Beth down to snag one of those elusive butterflies, she is captured. So Gwendoline and Willard must infiltrate the underground city of Pikaho, an all-woman tribe ruled by a cruel and sadistic queen (Bernadette Lafont), to hopefully rescue Beth. Sneaking around a city solely populated by women is pretty tricky business, especially when one of your party is a dude, so they grab some disguises, and Willard dresses up as one of the Amazons.

Words fail me.

We learn that the city of Pikaho was once diamond mining centre, but was swallowed up by a volcanic eruption sometime in the 12th Century, and shortly afterward some kind of plague killed off all the men. Now, this society survives by occasionally stealing men from the outside world, for breeding purposes, and Willard seems to be in luck when he finds out that Amazons will be fighting for the right to fuck him. His luck turns bad when he is told that he will be killed right after the dirty deed is done, but his luck turns good again when a disguised Gwendoline wins against three other warriors.

Seriously, what do these convents teach young women?

The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik-Yak is not a subtle film, it knows exactly what it’s intended audience wants; action, nudity, thrills, more nudity, adventure, and a little more nudity in case anyone out getting popcorn missed the last four or five shots of naked breasts. Now the first half of this film comes across as your standard Raiders of the Lost Ark rip-off, only with the occasional nipple shot to spice things up, but the last half of the film, when our heroes enter the city of Pikaho, things just go off the wall crazy, for over the next 45 minutes we get…

The machinery room of fuck if I know.

Gwendoline wandering through the hall of bondage.

Gwendoline and Beth sharing a bondage moment.

The evil Queen and her mirrors of breastage.

Gwendoline battling with Bat Shields.

The Evil Queen of Upholstery.

A Ponygirl chariot race.

Willard getting a turn in bondage.

Gwendoline’s “O” face as she loses her virginity.

With a movie based on a bondage centric comic, this part of the movie shouldn’t really surprise anyone, yet the complete goofiness in the way it handles such things does catch one off guard, and that makes The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik-Yak a film that is certainly not for everyone. It’s a bad movie made for bad movie lovers. There is plenty of cheesecake, for those who came to see that, but it did kind of make them wait quite some time to finally get to “good stuff,” and though the acting is pretty bad, as one would expect in this kind of film, I was quite surprised at the high level of production value on display for many of the scenes.

Fake crocodile notwithstanding.

As I said, this is certainly not a film for everyone and not one I can easily recommend, but if you go into it with the right frame of mind -meaning a little bent – you could find yourself having a good time, and it does make one miss the sexploitation films of the 80s, as they were definitely unique.

Note: This alternate poster kind of gives off a different vibe than Drew Struzan-inspired one does.

The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik-Yak (1984) 5.5/10 Movie Rank - 5.5/10 5.5/10 Summary Director/writer Just Jaeckin provides the world a wacky sexploitation adventure film, one loaded with bondage and bad writing, which pretty much delivers everything one could expect from such a thing.