Safari senza ritorno

Schlock producer Dick Randall almost had a solid "B" movie with Invaders of the Lost Gold. The first third of the film was excellent with a particularly fun bar fight seen augmented by very beautiful lady's gracefully dancing for our enjoyment. Once the premise is set and the whole gang is in the Jungle on a River Boat determined to retrieve the gold which as you can guess is hidden in a Jungle Cave, things really go haywire. If you have ever worked with haywire you will understand the reference. Lovely Laura Gemser (Maria) dies for know apparent reason during a skinny dipping scene, Someone releases a snake into the jungle guides tent for no reason, Harold Sakata (Tobachi) and the great Woody Strode's (Cal) fight to the death scene ends up in a Bro-hug for no reason, On and on we go. The acting is good with the very hot Glynis Barber (Janice) and her father David De Martyn (Douglas) quite believable. Stewart Whitman as leading man (Mark Forest) was also O.K. A special shout out to Harrold Sakata, in his last film, who keeps a sense of humor while everybody else on the boat is either forlorned or angry. The great veteran of many Filipino movies Mike Cohen as the scruffy boat Captain is also notable. I understand that director Alan Birkinshaw has done good work in other endeavors but he really bit the big one with Invaders. Wow, really bad directing and it seemed that he just ran out of any sort of screenplay with thirty minutes remaining in the film. The scene where Woody Strode meets his end would have received a (D-) from any respectable Junior College film class. I am however going to give Invaders of the Lost Gold a recommendation for the talent on screen, and even with the numerous flaws it was still entertaining. With a little more story and better directing Producer Dicky Randall would have had a clear winner.

While there is no actual flesh eating, the slaughter at the beginning resembles the Italian jungle horror films of the previous five years ('Cannibal Holocaust', 'Make them Die Slowly' etc..). We get decapitations, heads on spears, and a spike pit. Cut to some years later and all the movie offers from that point on is a tacky adventure tale. Sure there is a hari kari scene and Laura Gemser's full frontal nude dip in a pond, but everything else is garbage. The end arrives abruptly, yet without any shocking twist.

I'd like to add that the one dollar copy of this video I found is titled 'Invaders of the Lost Gold', written in a 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' script.

There's a reason why "Horror Safari" isn't as known or infamous as most of its contemporary Italian jungle adventure-movies like, say, "Cut and Run" or "Massacre at Dinosaur Valley". Despite the cheerful title and a promising sounding plot description on the back of the DVD-cover, it's a tremendously dire and stupid movie. We have a bunch of very unlikable characters searching for a shipment of gold that was left behind in the Phillipines jungle (among a cannibalistic tribe) near the end of WWII. The expedition is put together by a rich bastard and assembles the most incompetent adventurers you've ever seen. The "leader" is an American drunk who's heroic years are long over, one of the original Japanese army commanders that lost the gold in the first place, a black strongman who's far too friendly to be believable, two women that are completely useless and one mean, double-crossing sleazebag. "Horror Safari" feature the absolute weakest death scenes I've ever seen; hands down. Instead of getting torn apart by the cannibals – that have just vanished suddenly, by the way – the characters just fall off of cliffs or walk straight into the open mouths of plastic crocodiles. One poor girl, the dreadfully miscast Laura Gemser, even spontaneously drops dead during a skinny dip! Honestly, if there's anyone who can give a reasonable explanation for Gemser's character dying, please email it to me! This must be one of the worst films ever made, complete with lousy editing, uninspired use of beautiful locations and bad acting with an even worse dubbing. Even the most hardcore fan of Italian cult cinema shouldn't waste one penny on this piece of crap.

Yes this started out with a promise of being a rather good adventure outing. With in the first 5 minutes a head hunting tribe against Japanese Army showdown begins resulting in a lot of gore and bloodshed.

Then it just degenerates further and further into large plot holes, bad acting and terrible editing for effects shots.

This movie was enjoyable as a novelty for the first 2/3, then became a chore there after till the convoluted and "you guessed right" ending.

After an enjoyably trashy opening sequence, in which a group of WWII Japanese soldiers are forced to hide their shipment of gold in a cave when attacked by blood-thirsty head-hunting natives, this jungle-bound adventure movie from prolific producer Dick Randall rapidly turns into a very tedious trek through extremely familiar territory, as a team of modern-day treasure seekers set out to recover the long-lost horde.

Despite a promising premise and an excellent cast of exploitation regulars—including Edmund Purdom (Pieces, Nightmare City), Laura Gemser (the Emanuelle series), Stuart Whitman (Welcome to Arrow Beach, Eaten Alive), and Harold 'Oddjob' Sakata—Invaders of the Lost Gold is instantly forgettable low budget junk that becomes more and more painful with every passing minute.

The story lacks excitement, with much of the film's running time devoted to bickering between characters and unlikely romance rather than on action and adventure, and the whole damn mess just simply isn't exploitative enough: Gemser strips off (I'd have been more surprised if she hadn't), but tasty TV blonde Glynis Barber keeps her clothes on (and I so wanted to see Makepeace nekkid!); there's almost no gore after the opening scene; and the ending totally wimps out, with not a savage native in sight.