The Face of Eve

"The Face of Eve" is a not particularly good film that probably isn't worth your time. However, if you like films like "Sheena" or other Tarzan knockoffs, you might want to give it a try...but I wouldn't.

Mike Yates (Robert Walker Jr.) is an adventurer who is in the Amazon region looking for some treasure. Along the way, a beautiful and VERY well-coiffed savage girl, Eve (Celeste Yarnall), comes to his rescue.

Later, after Mike is able to get to a town he tells folks about Eve...which is a problem since another woman is calling herself 'Eve' and is ingratiating herself to Eve's real grandfather, the Colonel (Christopher Lee). Well, the jig is up and the faux Eve and her baddie boyfriend (Herbert Lom) rob the grandpa and leave him for dead. Fortunately, Mike comes along and saves the guy...who now wants to partner up with Mike to find the treasure and his long-lost granddaughter.

There's no denying that this is a bad movie. Although Ms. Yarnall is lovely, she doesn't really get to talk* or act...just stand about in her leopard print bikini. As for the story itself, it's a cheapo jungle film complete with the usual trappings. At least the film didn't overuse stock footage of various jungle animals...like too many of these old films do.

By the way, both Walker and Yarnall made appearances on "Star Trek" and it was interesting to see them doing something different. Not GOOD but INTERESTING.

*The fact that the film is bad is something I rather expected because I usually read through the IMDB trivia before I watch a movie...and there are MANY signs the film would be terrible. They didn't even use Yarnall's voice in post-production! So, the voice you hear is actually some other lady...not Yarnall.

One of my favorites! Why? It has a gorgeous woman in a leather bikini in the middle of the jungle. Ms. Yarnall is simply stunning. One of my favorite scenes is when the bad natives decide she needs to die. They converge at the bottom of her tree house, throw fiery spears in it and smoke her out. She slides down a long rope in the arms of the leader. Snug against him she has second thoughts. Reaching for her dagger at her hip the native grabs it first. Deciding not to plunge it into her he lifts her above his head and encourages the other thousand native to carry her back to their camp for torture. There's an nice ariel shot of "Eve" as the hoard carry her to their camp. She's swooning, helpless and oh so fetching.

Earlier Eve is bathing at a lake. Some natives rush her and try to strangle her. She stabs them and turns her whip on the leader. That set up the above scene.

Wild animals jump on her, she stretches provocatively, run around the jungle in next to nothing...does it get any better than that?

Treasure hunter Mike Yates (Robert Walker Jr. , early deceased Robert Walker's son) sets out in investigate a lost colleague . As Mike looking for his missing partner , who is disappeared in the Amazons , in Brazil , being lost under strange circumstances . Then two pals - Mike and José (José María Caffarel) - go out to find him , undergoing a hazardous voyage to discover clues of their colleague . Then , adventurer Mike stumbles across a gorgeous jungle girl named Eve (Celeste Yarnall) . Soon after , he comes across Eve's grandfather called Colonel Stuart (Christopher Lee) , who is being swindled by a nasty man (Herbert Lom) and a young girl named Conchita (Rosenda Monteros) who is pretending to be his granddaughter Eve . Colonel Stuart is hoping to find a cache of Incan treasure taken long time ago by the conqueror Francisco De Orellana and lost in the Amazon jungle and he assigns to Mike and José to find it . But the swindlers (Ricardo Diaz , Herbert Lom , Rosenda Monteros) also go after the lost treasure . Meanwhile , Mike Yates attempts to reunite Eve with her grandfather .

This Spanish/British/USA co-production results to be a simple , plain and clean fun . Amusing movie , plenty of action , cat-fights , thrills , colorful cinematography , lush landscapes , adequate score ; all meld together under Jeremy Summers's mediocre direction . A lighthearted romp for kids and teenagers about jungle adventures , concerning an expedition looking for a person who has presumably crashed somewhere in the Amazon . It belongs to ¨Jungle Girl¨ sub-genre that includes titles as "Golden Goddess of Rio Beni" by Eugenio Martin , "Kong in the lost jungle" or ¨Eva, La Venere Selvaggia¨ by Roberto Mauri , ¨Samoa , Queen of the Jungle¨ by Guido Malatesta , "Tarzana the Wild Girl" by James Read , "The Jungle Goddess" by Miguel Iglesias and ¨Sheena¨ by John Guillermin . All of them starred by sexpot , wonderful women as Gilliam Hills , Esmeralda Barros , Eva Miller , Femi Benussi , Tanya Roberts and Gina Lee Nolin as TV Sheena . It stars the beautiful Celeste Yarnall who has a decent cinematic career , including titles as ¨Born Yesterday¨, ¨Midnight kiss¨, ¨Scorpio¨, and ¨The Velvet Vampire¨ . Being a Spanish/Brit co-production here appears some notorious Spanish secondaries such as José María Caffarel , Ricardo Díaz and the Mexican Rosana Monteros who played in ¨The Magnificent Seven¨ . In addition , there shows up the prestigious American secondary Fred Clark and the Austrian Maria Rohm , married to producer Harry Allan Towers . This thrilling film packs adventures , emotion , fights and marvelous scenes from deep rainy forest that generate a lot of surprises and illusion . One of the most amazing entertaining film ever produced in the 6os dealing with Amazon adventures . This exciting film contains thrills , emotion , hard-boiled characters , adventure and action scenes of infighting between violent tribes that generate a lot of entertainment . It is a simple and predictable adventure spectacle , ordinarily directed by a British craftsman , Jeremy Summers .

Colorful cinematography filmed by Manuel Merino , Jess Frank's regular , though a perfect remastering is really necessary . Shot on location in Aranjuez, Madrid , Monasterio de Piedra where was filmed the falls scenes , Nuévalos, Zaragoza, Sierra de Guadarrama mountain range , La Pedriza , Madrid, and some brief scenes in Brazil . Enough Budget for a multi-country production formed by Ada Films , Harold Goldman Associates , Hispamer Film and Towers of London Productions/Harry Alan Towers . The motion picture was regularly directed by Jeremy Summers , and direction assistant Robert Lynn , but it has some flaws and gaps . Jeremy Summers is a good professional filmmaking from the 6os , though sparsely scattered and giving various entertaining as well as commercial films, specially known for his thrillers as ¨Danger MXB (81) , Five Golden Dragons¨(67) , ¨The Ghost of Monk's Island¨ (1967) ¨The house of 1000 dolls¨(67) and ¨Vengeance of Fu Manchu¨ (67)

So says Christopher Lee shortly before expiring,probably brought on for signing for this risible Harry Alan Towers production.It throws in a United Nations cast,all the better to sell the distribution rights to people who should know better.Almost entertaiingly bad

This movie could have been much better,but I don't agree with the critic who called it a bomb. Celeste Yarnall was the best "jungle Girl" since Irish McCalla as the 1st TV Sheena, and Robert Walker Jr. was a nice choice to play the young male lead. Herbert Lom could have made an excellent villain if they had let him ham it up more. but Christopher Lee was more or less wasted as her grandfather. THe cast was good and the basic plot had been used before to good effect. The problem was that the middle of the movie was a waste of time. Odd because based on the ending they had obviously planned a sequel. Some good scenes and Ms Yarnall was far superior to Tanya Roberts in the big budget "Sheena", but if you aren't a fan of this kind of thing maybe you should pass it by.