Queen of the Amazons

Queen of the Amazons is an ambitious low-budget hoot.

Because the production staff tried to make the most of its resources, it's actually for the most part a reasonably paced film with plenty of fun things to see behind the director's curtain. You get silly dialogue, narration written after the movie was shot, a boom mike dropping into view, an artsy silhouetted villain, the sharpshooting female lead who is suddenly helpless with a gun when her beloved is being attacked, and acres of stock footage.

It appears that large portions of the film were written around the most interesting stock footage they could find, both in India and Africa. The Indian stuff is unnecessary to the plot, other than they had the neat footage, or so it seems. But watching them try to write around all of the unrelated (but somewhat intriguing) material is great fun.

The climactic fight scene has one of the most delightfully difficult-to-follow brawls I've ever seen, because the villain looks nothing like his stunt double and looks an awful lot like the other stunt double! Time and again they cut in to a closeup with the regular actors and I was surprised, thinking that the villain was the other guy in the long shots!

There are a couple of unique characterizations as well mixed in among the cliché's, including the Queen herself, a low-key 40s starlet with an accent, and a pre-beat period poetry-spouting cook.

The trained animals are quite good and have a bit of fun footage, including a playful tiger who does a couple of great romps on some stunt doubles.

I saw this movie as part of the 50 Sci Fi(!) Classics DVD collection from Treeline, which is a low-budget and IMDb low-rated movie fan's dream.

Enjoy!

I've noticed several reviewers' exasperation at the "amazon" in the title as if it were a great mistake that the movie is not set in the Amazon Jungle.

It should be pointed out that "amazon" is a term from ancient myth which does not originate from the Amazon River in South America. It refers to a legendary tribe of women called "amazons". The river in South America is actually named after that legend, apparently some explore thought he saw some women there who fit that description.

But if you like Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies, this is not a bad substitute. I especially like the trained crow. After some recent research findings into the intelligence of crows, it's tricks are quite plausible. Maybe more plausible than some of the human performances.

I just watched this film on my computer at work (on my lunch break). What I find amazing is how a whole movie could be constructed around some African safari stock footage and still be entertaining in a junky way. The 1940's stock character actors do their best to put the plot across and for me it works as a grade B campfest. The men are either handsome and stalwart or older and rather dithering and the women look great in that 1940's glamor sort of way. I love that all the jungle amazons look like they stepped out of a Hollywood beauty parlor in full make up. The action scenes are hilariously hokey and you'll have fun pointing out the mistakes in continuity. As the way to pass an hour I prefer this kind of fun trash to some TV reality show or CSI Wherever.

I got this in a science fiction collection. I kept waiting for some technological or science oriented event to take place. This is a bad jungle movie. That's it. It's about a group of people who go to Africa to find some guy who disappeared during a safari into the bush. His fiancée is with the group. She gets to go along because of the way she handles a gun. We are led to believe that the women in this movie are formidable and capable. One can out shoot the male lead. However, when faced with danger, they shrink back and scream. The Amazon Queen is the same way. She has built a society in the jungle, showing no mercy at times, but when it comes time to confront the villain, all she can do is plaster herself against a wall and howl. The men are just as bad. Most of the film is stock footage from African newsreels. It allows you to get a sandwich between plot elements. At times it appears that the safari has about 400 native supply carriers. At other times they have about five. People get eaten by lions and killed with spears. A romance develops between the great white hunter and the other guy's fiancée. The evil Amazon Queen doesn't do much of anything except make idle threats. And when push comes to shove, she doesn't seem to have any power at all. What a worthless movie!

I saw this film on the science fiction classics DVD set, but knew that there would likely not be much science fictional in it -- after noting that it also contains "prehysterical" women or the Sons of Hercules films. There was a "bugologist" and some lessons in anthropology, which were quite fictional, even some unexpected dancing and poetry. It was fun, if like me you happen to like these kind of movies with corny, old-fashion, happy endings -- especially after a hard day's work thinking. The monkey and the raven did seem to be the most interesting actors, especially the monkey.

There is even a serious side. It certainly reminds one of how things have changed since then in that then it was against the law to sell ivory without giving the colonial power its cut, while now it's supposedly illegal to do so to anyone at all.