Tarzana, sexe sauvage

Tarzana, the Wild Woman (1969)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Glen Shipper (Ken Clark) is a hunter who is asked by Sir Donovan to search the African jungles where a plan crashed fifteen-years earlier. On this plane was his family, family and young daughter. Shipper heads into the jungles where he learns of a young woman known as Tarzana.

This Italian take-off on TARZAN isn't exactly the greatest movie ever made but there's enough camp here to where some may be able to get some mild entertainment out of it. For the most part this film is about as harmless as they come as you get a bunch of scenes in some woods (probably not an actual jungle) and of course there's the female Tarzana and her naked body.

This here is pure exploitation as we see the young woman going around doing her jungle thing while also checking out her own body. You see, Tarzana's boobs aren't all that big so when the new group of people enter the jungle, she notices a blonde with big boobs taking a shower. This causes Tarzana to see things a bit differently. Yes, this is the type of stuff that happens in this film. Oh yeah, you've also got the actors walking around this wooded area and more times than not you can't help but think that all of these scenes were shot at once.

I wouldn't say that Femi Benussi gave a good performance as Tarzana but she doesn't as much as was possible for this type of role. You've also got Clark picking up a paycheck. Most people will probably remember him from the horror cult classic ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES and I must admit that it was fun seeing him here.

With all of that said, TARZANA, THE WILD WOMAN suffers the most because it's just so boring. Nothing ever really happens outside of the nudity. There's no real action. No adventure. Heck, there's really no laughs or love interest or anything else for that matter. They basically took a one-note joke (a female Tarzan) and did nothing with it.

Of course, the main attraction is the topless Femi Benussi as the title heroine. Beyond that, it is a very simple but OK jungle adventure. The production values are adequate, you get to see Tarzana herself riding real elephants, kissing real lions, not just insert stock footage. It should also be noted that the 'African native' music accompanying the dances are really great, not the cheesy, stereotyped, crude "savages' music" (!) you might expect to get.

African expedition finds wild white girl living with animals on a backlot jungle set. Although not reflected in the IMDB credits, the titular (and then some) role is played by Femi Benussi, at her most gorgeous. There are bad guys and good guys on the expedition, but the principal point of the film is summed up in the observation that Femi spends about 99% of her screen time wearing nothing but a little junglekini thong bottom. (She looks terrific, traveling the jungle on elephantback.) At one point she finds some of the expedition's castoff junk, including discarded clothing, and slips into a jacket she's found in the debris. Her pet chimp eyes her up and down, then shakes his head "no" and she slips right back out of the jacket. (This seems to be conclusive proof that the Darwinian theory is, after all, correct.)

One of numerous topless jungle girl movies emanating from Europe in the late 1960s and 1970s, this is par for the genre. This was not released in the US till about 1976, and then with partly anglicized credits which omitted Femi altogether. The only US video print I have seen, on the Sinister Cinema label, is a bit scratchy but watchable. Femi is worth a wow! in this. (So now where can I find a copy of AMAZONS FOR TWO ADVENTURERS, with peachy Marie Ekorre in a 1970s German version of this perennial favorite theme among voyeurs?)