An international co-production with very limited budget, and a lot of stock footage, stars some known actors and others from ordinary Jess Frank's factory. Colorful but inferior production about the subject matter of the typical South American dictatorships , the subsequent upheavals and an international conspiracy in which CIA becomes involved, made in the Eighties style and set in the fictional country of Puerto Santo. A priest and other rebels secretly lead a riot in their struggle against the corrupt military dictatorship of the Central American country of Puerto Santo. We follow businessman Wilson (George Kennedy who's the pro), who deals weapons with the local rebels and general Madero (Robert Forster) , the leader of the military police on the island. In the middle is the good-hearted banana republic-president Ramos (Fernando Rey) and the rebels, among them Ramon Estevez and Brett Halsey, all fighting for their own cause. The Americans want the military crushed and have planted their own under cover agents (Craig Hill) in the middle of this little war, and everything leads to the battle of Esmeralda Bay.
Ridiculousness , silliness and shabby action abound in this average/inferior B-movie . This is a typical Eurociné productions run by Daniel and Maroius Lesoeur, but with a with a little more money and more ambitious feeling. Maybe they had a richer financer in the background somewhere, who also demanded more for the money. But with the time and money Franco had, and a stunning cast, he also delivers an passable , if a bit generic war drama with showy and colorful photography from Barcelona, Tarragona, Catalonia, España and Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. I have to admit that it's a bit tiring in the beginning, but as soon as the intrigue begis Esmeralda Bay becomes an involving thriller-drama, at times, but here's really no depth in the story, but it's easy to see where Franco put his little talent: in the interrelation between the outlandish characters and the crosses and double-crosses that they intermingle. Stars Robert Forster has a lot fun and energy playing the intensively ruthless military leader, though he's usually overacting in his villain role. In smaller parts we have Jesus Franco's regulars: Antonio Mayans and Daniel Grimm, Lina Romay as the pathetic mistress of Madero, all doing functional jobs with the material they have. And, of course, Franco himself , in a cameo as captain of a boat.
The motion picture was regularly written, edited, produced and directed by Jesús, Jess, Franco. Jess was a Stajanovist, restless writer, producer, director who realized over 200 pictures. His career spans over 50 years with a few successes and lots of flops, making all kind of genres : thrillers, adventures, action and with penchant for Terror and erotic genre . Jesus used to sigb under pseudonym, among the aliases he used apart from Jess Frank or Franco Manera, were the following ones : Frank Hollman, Clifford Brown, David Khune, James P. Johnson, David Though, among others. Franco used to use ordinary trademarks, such as : zooms , nudism, foreground on objects , filmmaking in DIY style and managing to work extraordinarily quick in very low budget, as well as frequently releasing various titles at the same time. In most of Jesus Franco's films he works as a hired gun , but he gets to lead the ship to harbour in time and made the producers happy. He was a prolific filmmaker, directing a lot of lousy movies. However, making some acceptable fiñms, such as: ¨We are 18 years old¨, ¨The awful Dr Orloff¨, ¨The Bloody Judge¨ , ¨Count Dracula¨, ¨99 women¨, ¨The Blood of Fumanchu¨, ¨Faceless¨ and a few others. And many of them were heavily cut and with double versions. After a series of hardcore movies and obscurities that never seem to have seen the light of day Jesus Franco was on the go again with several movies with bigger budgets and bigger stars, such as: ¨Faceless¨, ¨Fall of the Eagles¨ and finally ¨Esmeralda Bay¨. Rating : 5/10 . So-so and average action movie. Few other movies can have so silly dialogues and still be interesting to watch. Only for Jess Frank completists.
