Tuesday, May 22, 2018

GOLD OF THE AMAZON WOMEN (1979) **


Mark L. (Commando) Lester directed this Made for TV jungle adventure the same year as Roller Boogie.  Bo Svenson stars as an explorer looking for gold in the Amazon jungle.  Some Amazon women get wind that he’s snooping around and try to bow-and-arrow him to death.  The killer Amazons are in cahoots with crazy old Donald Pleasence who wants Bo to lead him to the gold, so he can steal it for himself.  Once Bo arrives in the Amazon village, he’s immediately kidnapped and marked for breeding stock by the sultry Queen of the Amazons (Anita Ekberg).  Pleasence attacks the village looking for the gold and Bo agrees to team up with the Amazon Women to stop him.

Since this is a TV movie, there is an awful lot of padding.  The scenes of Bo and Richard Romanus (who’s playing a Latino) making their way through the jungle are slow going for the most part.  You also have to wait until the film’s about halfway over until you get to see Ekberg.  The TV budget doesn’t help either as the climax is chaotic, rushed, and poorly choreographed.  The ‘70s “message” moments are often hilarious though.  (“Times are changing. Men are working with women now.”)

I did like the scene where Bo has to fight a tribe member (perennial ‘70s stuntman/That Guy Bob Minor) for the affections of a scantily clad native girl.  There’s also a decent stick fight between two Amazons on a raft surrounded by alligators.  Because of the television censors, it never gets violent or steamy enough to be worth a damn.  So much for the breeding stock subplot.  

AKA:  Amazon Women.  AKA:  Quest for the Seven Cities.  AKA:  Female 300.

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