Incontro nell'ultimo paradiso

Normally when you get an Umberto Lenzi film set in the jungle; there's blood and people getting eaten, but with Daughter of the Jungle he actually tried to make a comedy film! Naturally I went into this expecting the worst, but surprisingly it's a decently entertaining film. If I had to compare it to something else along the same lines, I'd probably use Massacre in Dinosaur Valley; although this film is nowhere near as good as the later trash classic. Anyway, we focus on two American men who find themselves in the jungle. They're kidnapped by a bunch of cannibals but think they've been saved when they see an American plane. However, it turns out that the plane is full of mercenaries looking for rubies; so the Americans flee into the jungle where they find a beautiful girl who brought up by monkeys. This film is obviously very cheap and clearly Lenzi was in 'can't be bothered mode', and it's hard to believe that this film was made by the man behind the likes of Almost Human and Seven Blood-Stained Orchids. The use of stock footage is abundant too and the plot is unbelievably stupid. The film was obviously intended to be funny; although the jokes continually miss the mark and the only funny thing about it is the dubbing; which is among the worst I've ever heard. The voices are frankly ridiculous and that saps up any chance that the film may have had to gain any credibility. Still...it does at least make for amusing viewing and the film is at least not as bad as I thought it would be.

Directed by Umberto Lenzi, Daughter of the Jungle is a tongue in cheek parody of both Tarzan and cannibal movies. Sabrina Siani plays the roll of Luana (a female Tarzan-like character) who was lost in the jungle as a child when her parent's helicopter crashes. Rodolfo Bigotti (Ringo) and Renato Miracco (Butch) are two goofy tourists who manage to get lost in the jungle, chased by cannibals and 'rescued' by Luana.

OK, the movie doesn't deserve a 6 based on it's production values, acting, direction, or story; but I give it that score because it's just damn funny. I watched the English dubbed version and the voices alone are hilarious... the brutish guy sounds like Pee Wee Herman while the main bad guy's voice and accent change throughout the movie, another character even cracks a joke about it. The dialog is no less funny as Butch constantly harangues Ringo and blames him for everything. Sabrina Siani is not the best looking girl but she's better than average although she carries a little more junk in the trunk than I personally care for. I give her props, she plays her role well and acts with extreme confidence even when topless. That last might seem silly but many women in film assume distracting, self conscious postures while topless. It's not a movie for everyone but fans of tongue-in-cheek comedies and cannibal movies might find it entertaining.

Umberto Lenzi is perhaps most (in)famous for "Cannibal Ferox", a film that is not good maybe, but is certainly memorably brutal. This movie seems to have a similar plot with two Euro-idiots deciding to tour a Third World jungle where they encounter both a primitive tribe and vicious ruby smugglers. However, they also meet a lone teenage white girl (Sabrina Siani), who is living there for no apparent reason, and the movie becomes instead a throwback to the late 60's "female Tarzan" movies like "Luana", "Samoa", or "Tarzana". Although it was apparently filmed partly in the Dominican Republic (rather than a European zoo), this movie resembles the contemporary cheap-jack Eurocine/Jess Franco productions ("Cannibals", "Diamonds of Kilimanjaro") much more than it does the Italian cannibal epics. The "locals" seem to be a strange mixture of African and Asian, while I strongly suspect many of the "natives" are really white Europeans in grease-paint. To make matters worse, this is actually a comedy. Italian comedies are really an acquired taste (not unlike huffing paint thinner), but even by the standards of that inferior genre, this is pretty inferior.

Lenzi was fairly proficient at gialli and police thrillers (i.e. "So Sweet, So Perverse", "Almost Human"), but he demonstrates no aptitude whatsoever for screwball comedy. The male characters are all incredibly annoying, but it's hard to know whether to blame the Italian actors or the talentless idiots responsible for dubbing them into English. Then there's barely legal Euro-model Sabrina Siani, who had a great body, but absolutely no idea how to use it. It wasn't that she was a bad actress so much as that she was simply NOT an actress. She never really made any attempt to act, just letting her pert young breasts and her post-adolescent derrière do it all for her. Unlike someone like Edwige Fenech, who was a genuinely talented actress, or Gloria Guida, who was definitely serviceable, Siani doesn't manage to pull off either funny OR sexy here. Her body is the only thing she (or this entire movie) has going for it.

If you're tempted to see this, I would recommend instead Franco's "Cannibals" (also with Siani) or "Diamonds of Kilimanjaro" (with Katja Bienert). Both movies are much more unintentionally funny than this movie is intentionally, and most of the annoying cast in those gets devoured by bloodthirsty cannibals.

The iconic Italian director Umberto Lenzi became a cult filmmaker in several genres as Giallo, Peplum & Sandals, Poliziotteschi and mainly Jungle Adventures as CANNIBAL FEROX, in this specific niche came out the sexploitation Incontro Nell' Ultimo Paradiso featuring the eye-candy Sabrina Sianni in sexy tiny outfits allied in a strong humor oriented.

The plot is quite simple two dumbest guys travel to Amazon jungle for a touring, soon they get stranded into a deep forest, bumping up angry natives and later both are caught by a moronic gang of rubies smuggles, at night they sneaking away and daylight they meeting a naïve jungle sexy girl, hereinafter the smart one figure out escaping from there by a jammed helicopter meanwhile the lovesick wondering with gorgeous girl team up a bunch of natives to struggles against the gang.

Shot at Dominican Republic on those everlasting palm trees quite opposite with Amazon rain forest, whoever wrote the screenplay underpinned the offering in two key elements, firstly in dizzying sexy beauty of Sianni and also in many stereotyped characters as the gang leader Dupré and their fat, stupid and even stutter sidekicks, aiming for became it a delightful and harmful Sunday matinee, let it see easily.

Thanks for reading.

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First watch: 1992 / How many: 4 / Source: TV-Youtube / Rating: 5.

Who would have thought that just one year after making one of the most notorious gore-exploitation films ever, "Cannibal Ferox", Umberto Lenzi would return to the jungle for a lightweight slapstick comedy?!? Two annoyingly bickering but essentially good-hearted heroes, a troublemaking but smart monkey, some rather inept crooks, and a few cannibals who don't eat anybody, and actually help the heroes defeat the bad guys at the end, are the main ingredients of this one, and if they don't sound too appetizing, maybe I should also mention the presence of Sabrina Siani in a self-made jungle bikini. This woman is A VISION: I would rate both her face and her body a solid 10 out of 10. There is no gore and the violence is of the "hit over the head with a coconut" variety, but the 20-year-old Siani provides some nudity and makes you go "Wow!" with the natural beauty of her form. The role of a female Tarzan fits her quite well too - she can swing on vines and ride elephants. The film is never very funny, but if you make it until Siani appears (about 30 minutes in), you'll make it all the way to the end. (**)