Le miniere del Kilimangiaro (Afrikanter)

My review was written in December 1987 after watching the movie on Imperial Entertainment video cassette.

"The Mines of Kilimanjaro", a 1985 Italian production originally titled "Afrikanter", begins like a lame clone of "Raiders of the Lost Ark' and ends up a pale variation of "King Solomon's Mines". You know you're in trouble when the only name actor in the cast (Christopher Connelly) gets killed by a poison dart in the opening reel.

Connelly's main student, Tobias Hosl, is sent to Africa on a pre-W. W. II mission to find a legendary diamond treasure the Nazis apparently have discovered and are using to finance their expansionary program toward world conquest. He teams up with a cute archaeologist (Elena Pompei) and they trek to the mines at Kilimanjaro, finding a lost tribe (being used as slave labor by the Nazis) in the process.

Subpar production values and a sudden, unsatisfying finale sink this would-be adventure pic.

I bought this movie on Beta in Buffalo NY. I finally got around to watching it. It is also on Y/T for you to enjoy. Set in 1930s Africa, the movie claims to have been shot in Africa. If you watch enough of these Italian action movies you will recognize the terrain of the back lot used in many a movie shot just outside of Rome. The first one I saw shot in this location was Morgan the Pirate from 1962. The story has EVERYTHING you can dream up for such a movie. Amazons (Horney at that), diamond mines, Nazis, jungle, tribesmen, animals, explosions, just everything you can think of. Gordon Mitchell gets killed near the end. An OK time-waster.