La jungle aux diamants

I didn't know anything about the film before seeing it. I just saw it on the shelf at my local library and the cover made me think it might be a fun flick, a la "Romancing the Stone." Well, it wasn't.

There is plenty of potential for fun, adventure and intrigue (as the cover promises) with Garner, Kennedy and Renzi - who's quite easy on the eyes. But the story (which the plot summary does a fine - albeit no frills - job of covering) and acting is so lackluster, it never gets off the ground. Poorly timed jokes delivered with about as much enthusiasm as someone reading a dictionary; action that is very stilted and uninspired; and intrigue? - it was tacked on to the last 30 seconds of the film.

Besides the fact that less than a few minutes of this takes place in what anyone could consider a "jungle" (after viewing the movie, I found out the title actually refers to a color of lipstick, but the picture on the cover makes it look like it might take place in a jungle setting). The bulk of the movie actually takes place in the desert. In theory, there's nothing wrong with that - but that's not what I was expecting from the title and the cover.

Rather disappointing, overall.

My rating: 5

If you're a fan of James Garnder, George Kennedy or Nigel Green, then The Pink Jungle will make an enjoyable late night flick. It's light-hearted fluff to say the least. Lots of cornball jokes, over-the-top acting, stereotyping of Latinos, and light action. The whole movie looks like it was filmed on the back lot of Universial Studios. George Kennedy steals the movie as a rough and tumble Diamond smuggler. James Gardner does a pre-Rockford type performance. Nigel Green is the "Bad Guy", and beautiful Eva Renzi provides the love interest. Michael Ansara and George Rose give their typical solid performances. If it's a late, rainy, stormy night, then The Pink Jungle is a nice way to kill about two hours.

Without a doubt James Garner is one of the best comedic actors of the last half of the 20th century. His timing and facial expressions add so much to any film he's in. The Pink Jungle however is one unusual type of comedy for him.

It can probably best be compared to the Humphrey Bogart-John Huston cult classic, Beat the Devil. It's a satire on those adventure in exotic places films that people like Bogart did. The Pink Jungle was invested with a bit more money and had better production values than Beat the Devil even though it never got near South America. But a lot of the satire still fell flat.

Garner is a fashion photographer who together with world renowned model Eva Renzi is plunked down in the middle of some South American jungle in an unnamed country on a shoot. It seems as though some smart Madison Avenue types think it would be a grand idea to shoot Renzi in a real jungle for their product, a lipstick called Pink Jungle.

But before long Garner and Renzi get involved in the local political situation, they kind of stumble into it and they're off on a diamond hunt with George Kennedy and Nigel Green.

The players do their best and Garner is good in anything, but my favorite is Italian actor Fabricio Mioni who's been demoted to this backwater and would like to make a big arrest and kind of zeroes in on Garner as a suspicious character.

I will say this, the ending is quite a surprise, something along the lines of the John Wayne film, The Train Robbers.

I do like this movie. If nothing else, it has pleasant memories from when I saw it with my family, first at a drive-in theater in 1968, then on TV in the early 1970s. It's a decent family movie, sort of an Indiana Jones type adventure movie that should appeal to boys, which it did (to me), there are a number of fairly humorous scenes and lines, and the sex and violence are mostly implied rather than depicted. Even my dad enjoyed the movie, especially rugged Sammy's line "Strain it through your teeth."

On the downside, however, I have to admit it's awfully forgettable. Years after my first two viewings I couldn't remember anything about it other than the "Strain it through your teeth" quote, and even after renting the video in the 1980s, again I forgot virtually everything about it within a few years. Also on the downside is that there is virtually no jungle. "Pink Jungle" is the name of a lipstick, and although the tiny town where the model and photographer land is in a jungly area where the photographer supposedly planned to photograph real savages in a real jungle, and although they buy a purple Cattleya orchid from a passing merchant, somehow the jungle is quickly and completely forgotten from the plot as soon as the couple leaves on a diamond- hunting expedition across an all-desert terrain for the majority of the film. Desert scenery is fine, but it is rightfully a let-down for those who paid to see an adventure set in a jungle. Sorry, no Indiana Jones jungle caverns or giant spiders here. Sadly, the presence of a real jungle in the film probably would have made the film much more memorable: deserts are the standard setting for numerous Westerns, but jungles are more reserved for a few exotic films along the lines of Tarzan films, so jungles are inherently more interesting and exotic--therefore more memorable. If the filmmakers were going to rent helicopters and film desert panoramas anyway, they could at least have treated us to some nice aerial shots.

Speaking of scenery, obviously the film missed some golden opportunities for some female eye candy, too, since the light blue peignoir shown to the Customs men, the "Naked Savage" title, the presence of a female model, and McCune's pressure to have Alison stay in his tent all hint of visuals that are never even approached in the film. Another desert adventure movie, "Mackenna's Gold" (1969), did this right just one year later.

The trio on the expedition (Mr. Morris, Alison, and Sammy) are all likable characters in their own ways, and I was impressed with the smooth acting and demeanor of James Garner (Mr. Morris) and George Kennedy (Sammy). The early part of the movie is highly stereotyped, especially the bar scenes, where the characters even make fun of the cloak-and-dagger stereotypes around them, and there are instrumental bossa nova night club standards from the '60s (e.g., "The Girl from Ipanema," "Summer Samba").

Speaking of music, the soundtrack is much better than I remembered or expected. The opening theme song is an appealing but unknown bossa nova instrumental with Latin percussion and acoustic guitar playing rock chords, and all the night club songs are quite pleasant bossa nova tunes, too. I doubt a soundtrack album exists but it surely would have been very nice.

There's not much more I can think to say about the movie. There are several clever capture evasion tricks throughout the film, and a major twist at the end that is cute but seriously lacks logic or realism, in my opinion. I didn't get any sense of real romance in the movie, although evidently it was supposed to be there. Oh well, if nothing else, the movie should leave you wondering what their local "Lobusta" rum tastes like.