Esclaves des Amazones

Never having heard about the 1957 adventure movie "Love Slaves of the Amazons", as I stumbled upon it here in 2022, I opted to sit down and watch what writer and director Curt Siodmak had to offer. I will say that the concept of the storyline, as presented by the synopsis, definitely sounded like the movie could be worthwhile watching. And thus, I opted to give it a go.

The storyline in "Love Slaves of the Amazons" was a bit tame, to be bluntly honest. I didn't really once buy into the fact that the women in the movie were supposed to be Amazons, especially since most of them looked European. And the whole setting of the movie just didn't come off as being plausible either. So this wasn't a particularly grand movie experience.

Sure, "Love Slaves of the Amazons" was watchable enough for what it turned out to be, and had some moments here and there. But overall, then this 1957 movie fell short of being a movie that was within the scopes of my personal preference of entertainment.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but leading actor Don Taylor definitely carried the movie quite well.

I am sure that there is an audience out there for a movie such as "Love Slaves of the Amazons", I just wasn't part of that particular target audience.

My rating of "Love Slaves of the Amazons" lands on a four out of ten stars.

The premise of a lost city of Amazon women who keep only one captured male alive as their "walking sperm bank" had some potential for interest, but not even the considerable manly charms of actor Don Taylor can save this crop of jungle corn. The Amazon women wear a kind of "Mother Hubbard" style jumper typical of the 50's and many of them are far from alluring. Their green-painted faces don't help much, either. The overall feel of the film is one of adventure, but what dramatic tension it manages to summon is thoroughly dissipated by the frequent lame attempts at humor. Mr. Taylor fares much better in a reversed situation in "The Girls of Pleasure Island", in which he is one of 1500 men competing for one of three nubile girls. If you like this theme, Bill Maher's comic "Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death" is strikingly similar and may provide a few more genuine laughs.

Don Taylor (whose credits as an actor include the original "Father of the Bride" and "Stalag 17", and whose credits as a director include "Escape from the Planet of the Apes" and "The Final Countdown") plays our amiable lead here, an archaeologist named Peter Masters. He arrives in Brazil where he is aggressively pursued by a character named Crespi (the unsung character actor Eduardo Ciannelli), who wants financing for a trip deep into the heart of the jungle. Crespi had previously encountered the legendary female warriors of the title, and wants to prove that his story is not made-up.

Written, produced, and directed by Curt Siodmak, who'd given us such genre gems as "The Wolf Man" and "Donovans' Brain", this is much more forgettable than his best work. It's goofy, dopey B movie nonsense, with Siodmak going to great lengths to play a fair amount of this story tongue-in-cheek. A case in point: the deliberately silly "bathing" sequence.

The ladies themselves are pretty amusing, whether they're painting themselves green, spending a protracted amount of time dancing for Masters (whose reactions are priceless), going absolutely gaga over the hunky Masters, or trying to act all tough.

And to add to that, Masters, Crespi, and their traveling companions had previously gotten attacked by pirates, leading to a hilariously silly action / fight sequence where the baddies keep getting thrown off a ship, landing in mud, and coming right back for more.

This may have the distinction of actually being shot in Brazil, but it's kind of a waste of good atmosphere; some viewers may bemoan the amount of comedy in the second half when this possibly could have amounted to a pretty good adventure. In any event, it was *too* amusing in general for this viewer to completely write it off.

An uncredited Paul Frees provides the voices for a couple of the characters.

Six out of 10.

It has been forty years since I saw this film. Then I was an early adolescent with raging hormones perhaps caused by the film. The women in this adventure-like film are not "Amazons" but rather typical of late 50's Hollywood. The plot was transparent but still interesting. The set and the color made this a good "B" movie.

This film begins with an American archeologist by the name of "Dr. Peter Masters" (Don Taylor) arriving in Brazil for some research at a local museum. It's during this time that he is approached in his hotel by a man named "Dr. Crespi" (Eduardo Ciannelli) who tells him a fantastic story about a tribe of Amazon women located in a remote part of the country. Although Dr. Masters doesn't believe him at first, he changes his mind when Dr. Crespi shows him a solid gold statue of an Amazon queen he obtained during his time there. To that effect, Dr. Masters wastes no time procuring funds for an expedition and they set off by boat up the Amazon River to locate this place. However, they first must battle pirates who have heard of the gold and riches that lie at the other end of this expedition and want it all for themselves. Now, what I understand, the director (Curt Siodmak) had just made a previous movie by the title of "Curucu, Beast of the Amazon" and had some unused film left over which he had to use. If that is true, then it could explain why this film looks like it was so hurriedly done. Throw in some futile attempts at humor along with some jungle footage that looks like it was taken from "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" and the low-budget production values are impossible to ignore. Admittedly, the dance scene featuring a number of attractive Amazon women was rather entertaining, but it simply wasn't enough to overcome the other obvious flaws just mentioned and for that reason I have rated this movie accordingly. Below average.