As this film is almost impossible to get your hands on in it's uncut form I will skip quickly over the plot - beware of spoilers:
Lovely but slightly dim prostitute Suzan, backed into a corner, kills her abusive pimp/boyfriend (who looks like a young Captain Birdseye)and then flees to the island of Mykonos to stay with her ludicrously shifty fashion designer friends and indulge in the boho lifestyle: shagging like it's going out of style, dancing in crap-looking nightclubs and getting nekkid once every four seconds.
On Mykonos Suzan attracts the attentions (and affections) of would-be gigalo Paul. Suzan thinks Paul is great although he can barely conceal his disinterest in her. She continues to believe in him even when he gets off with a wealthy, Roman-nosed uber hottie right in front of her face.
To the Director's credit the viewer really sides with Suzan and feels genuinely sorry for her when she becomes the victim of a plot to blackmail her out of her (very) hard earned savings. But who could be the guilty party when everyone in the film (and I mean everyone) looks as guilty as the man behind the grassy knoll?
While having neither the sleaze of 70's exploitation nor the carnality of 70's hardcore Mykonos Illusions succeeds quite remarkably by trading on it's variable merits of hilariously wooden acting,beautiful locations, woozy eroticism and a plot that wouldn't seem out of place in a daytime soap opera.
It's a dreamy and strangely psychedelic experience as the beautiful Patricia Donaldson (long before porny actresses started doing sit-ups!) drifts dumbly from location to location while various men and women attempt to seduce her. The sex is explicit enough, especially the first scene and Suzan's liaison with Paul near the end but it never really lingers on the money long enough to become hardcore, despite some fairly graphic (and unfashioniably hairy) views and one instance of bodily fluids flying about!
As the film draws towards the end of the second act it neatly sidesteps the lag in pace that trash cinema often encounters by introducing, gasp... a twist! Although not entirely surprising and plenty easy to poke holes through (the bullets in the gun appear to be intermittently fake/real as the plot requires) this ups the pace, drawing the film to a conclusion that while perhaps a little rushed, certainly does not outstay it's welcome. I must also say that the sight of the Cop walking casually up to the couple having sex at the end was unintentionally, but brilliantly hilarious!
To conclude Mykonos Illusions is an enjoyable and overlooked curiosity, buried in time not because it's crap but because it's director has gone on to become very successful in the world of mainstream TV. If you like 'so bad they're good' type films, sleaze with more than a little bit of sex and that promiscuous 70's vibe a la Russ Meyer then you will definitely like this.
As a footnote for super-anoraks I understand that Jane Ryall, star of the infamous Greek treasure, Island of Death is in this film somewhere (I was hoping it would be in one of the sex scenes!!). Personally I couldn't see her. Also I note Patricia Donaldson appeared recently in the appalling Pitt/Jolie vehicle Mr and Mrs Smith. It might be worth sitting through that flaccid mess again just to see how Ms Donaldson has aged.
Lovely but slightly dim prostitute Suzan, backed into a corner, kills her abusive pimp/boyfriend (who looks like a young Captain Birdseye)and then flees to the island of Mykonos to stay with her ludicrously shifty fashion designer friends and indulge in the boho lifestyle: shagging like it's going out of style, dancing in crap-looking nightclubs and getting nekkid once every four seconds.
On Mykonos Suzan attracts the attentions (and affections) of would-be gigalo Paul. Suzan thinks Paul is great although he can barely conceal his disinterest in her. She continues to believe in him even when he gets off with a wealthy, Roman-nosed uber hottie right in front of her face.
To the Director's credit the viewer really sides with Suzan and feels genuinely sorry for her when she becomes the victim of a plot to blackmail her out of her (very) hard earned savings. But who could be the guilty party when everyone in the film (and I mean everyone) looks as guilty as the man behind the grassy knoll?
While having neither the sleaze of 70's exploitation nor the carnality of 70's hardcore Mykonos Illusions succeeds quite remarkably by trading on it's variable merits of hilariously wooden acting,beautiful locations, woozy eroticism and a plot that wouldn't seem out of place in a daytime soap opera.
It's a dreamy and strangely psychedelic experience as the beautiful Patricia Donaldson (long before porny actresses started doing sit-ups!) drifts dumbly from location to location while various men and women attempt to seduce her. The sex is explicit enough, especially the first scene and Suzan's liaison with Paul near the end but it never really lingers on the money long enough to become hardcore, despite some fairly graphic (and unfashioniably hairy) views and one instance of bodily fluids flying about!
As the film draws towards the end of the second act it neatly sidesteps the lag in pace that trash cinema often encounters by introducing, gasp... a twist! Although not entirely surprising and plenty easy to poke holes through (the bullets in the gun appear to be intermittently fake/real as the plot requires) this ups the pace, drawing the film to a conclusion that while perhaps a little rushed, certainly does not outstay it's welcome. I must also say that the sight of the Cop walking casually up to the couple having sex at the end was unintentionally, but brilliantly hilarious!
To conclude Mykonos Illusions is an enjoyable and overlooked curiosity, buried in time not because it's crap but because it's director has gone on to become very successful in the world of mainstream TV. If you like 'so bad they're good' type films, sleaze with more than a little bit of sex and that promiscuous 70's vibe a la Russ Meyer then you will definitely like this.
As a footnote for super-anoraks I understand that Jane Ryall, star of the infamous Greek treasure, Island of Death is in this film somewhere (I was hoping it would be in one of the sex scenes!!). Personally I couldn't see her. Also I note Patricia Donaldson appeared recently in the appalling Pitt/Jolie vehicle Mr and Mrs Smith. It might be worth sitting through that flaccid mess again just to see how Ms Donaldson has aged.