Bowanga Bowanga

Abysmal pulp adventure exploitation in the jungle woman genre. Lousy audio thankfully obscures the dumb dialog. And it's awfully talky for a movie about people who don't speak English. There's no adventure to be found here; it's a jungle adventure with cliffhangers and one wild animal attack that happens in flashback.

Three pale-face dopes wander the African wilderness and encounter warring man-hungry tribes of Amazons. These wild women have advanced out of the Stone Age only so far as to invent makeup, shoes, and underarm hair removal technology. Despite their desperation for "hus-bahnd," the ladies insist that they will fight the men and burn the weaker ones.

The only thing of interest, as if there were any question, is the assortment of young women clad in animal skins cleverly designed like the bathing suits of 1951. Plenty of wrestling and bad dancing mixed with stripless 1950s stripper moves. No nudity or appreciable violence. On the other hand, you may be humming the catchy native song for days.

Well, I will start with just why I give four stars. There are scenes with various wild animals in, trees and ?? That's as far as I can go. Now the movie, pretty bad really, over zealous acting and a class stereo typing (for its period) of tribal communities. Today it would (I believe wrongly) be called racist and a example of colonial control. I on the other hand feel it represents a part of movie history long consigned to the learning bin. It is however, another example of serious (for its period) sexism, not totally aimed, I feel, just at the female actors. Strange singing, dubious costumes and even worse, tan lines that are so bad even in black and white they are fully visible. To conclude, I recommend that if you are lost for something to do on a wet day, stick it out to the end.

WILD WOMEN (aka: BOWANGA BOWANGA) stars no one in particular and is about a safari through the "dark continent" of Africa.

This movie's greatest assets are its preposterously erratic non-plot and its idiot dialogue. Absolutely nothing makes any sort of logical sense, with scenes seemingly tossed together in no particular order. This could be due to its being a patchwork of several unrelated movies stitched together. This only adds to the hilarity.

An orangutan, foreign to the continent of Africa, wanders about for no apparent reason. A man in a go-rilla suit roams through for 10 seconds, before disappearing forever. A sudden flashback sequence features an Amish-looking boy's encounter with a "tribe" of white women in 1950's swimwear. Holding spears! Natives dance around while their chief jumps up and down with a big snake in his hands. Savage women run through the jungle, pouncing on unsuspecting adventurers. Annnd, on and on.

Pure ultra-schlock gold!

Nothing can possibly prepare you for the male vs. Female throw-down showdown!

Blessedly short, this rivals other anti-classics like WILD WOMEN OF WONGO and MESA OF LOST WOMEN!,,,

I'm hoping whoever was involved with this foolishness 60 years ago was just kidding. It takes "exploitation movie" to the outer limits. The outer limits of Africa, to be exact. There, a mysterious band of Amazon beauties frighten the bejeebies out of their neighboring tribes.

There's plenty of extraneous stock footage shot by some long-ago National Geographic safari tourists: I love that same hippo that floats by every few minutes in a river that is nowhere near the action taking place. There's also a curious chimp that is shown repeatedly watching something--I guess the Prehistoric women(?), as well as several other animals.

Some guy named Trent who, as a boy, saw a blonde siren up on a mountain, wants to find these ladies, and gets two other comic relief guys from Brooklyn to join in the quest.

The women are, like any women who have been cut off from civilization for generations, dressed in tailored leopard skin. They have their hair done in downtown Hollywood, carefully filed and polished nails, shave their arms and legs, and wear cool moccasins. Everybody has a spear and says, "huzzzzbennnndddd..." Also, the routine cat fights take place, and they worship something while dancing the Shake and Shimmy. How the Amazons got there in the first place is questioned, but never explained.

This is a must-see for anybody who wants to see a movie that makes you exclaim, "Did they really make a film like this?"

Why so many of these films were made is obvious. It's a chance to put women in bikinis. They're cheap to make. And it panders to the sexual fantasy of men who want to be dominated and be submissive to women.

There's also the creepy racism. Africans get shown as primitive. But put white people in the jungle, even "primitive" ones, and they get shown as naturally dominant and superior.

This film was so cheap, its "African tribesmen" are dressed in western jean shorts with leather belts. One of its "Africans" was a white guy they didn't bother putting blackface makeup on.

The supposed primitive women have perfectly blow dried hair in 1950s hairstyles, some of them permed. Some are wearing obvious lipstick.

The jungle is obviously California. Nice oak and pine trees, buddy.

And they can't even decide if it's Africa or the Amazon. "Amazon" women but "African" tribesmen.

It's not bad in a fun way, just bad.