Invaders
of the Lost Gold is a frustrating film, mostly because it gathers together a
great cast and then doesn’t do anything with them. If you ever wanted to see Stuart Whitman,
Woody Strode, Edmund Purdom, Harold “Odd Job” Sakata, and Laura Gemser walk
endlessly around the jungle while sweating and complaining, then you’re sure to
love it. For any other sane person, it’ll
be tough going.
Whitman
stars as an alcoholic adventurer who gets hired by an old rich dude to find a cache
of hidden treasure. They get a team together,
much to the chagrin of Purdom, who knows that the more people you take on an
expedition, the smaller the shares will be.
As the excursion wears on, people start dying off one by one. That’ll help raise your bottom line!
Directed
by Alan (Killer’s Moon) Birkinshaw, Invaders of the Lost Gold is a slow moving
and boring affair. The dull opening WWII
flashback in which some Japanese soldiers hide the gold gets the movie off on
the wrong foot. It’s overlong and clunky
and gets in the way of Whitman’s storyline.
The scenes of the team being put together are equally sluggish, and by
the time they finally head off into the jungle, you’ll already be checking your
watch. The jungle sequences themselves are repetitive
and aren’t too far removed from your typical jungle movie from the ‘30s.
It’s
not all bad though. If you always wanted
to see Woody Strode fight Odd Job from Goldfinger, then Invaders of the Lost
Gold has you covered. Gemser also gets a
lengthy nude swim, which helps perk things up.
Not even that marvelous piece of filmmaking can save the movie.
AKA: Horror Safari. AKA:
Greed.
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