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Treasure of the Amazon (1985)

Dir: Rene Cardona Jr.

1950’s…The Amazon…three separate groups of people succumb to the allure of diamonds hidden deep in the Jungle.

First we have ‘Gringo’ (Stuart Whitman, "Ruby") a hard as nails guy (as we witness via him chopping of the finger of a native who tries to steal some food from him!) who was the only survivor of a 6 man expedition to find the diamonds earlier. He returned 6 years later, mad, clutching a bag containing the shrunken heads of his companions!
Two rogues, Zapata (Pedro Armendáriz Jr. “Walker“) and Jaime Jorge Luke, team-up with ‘Gringo’ to find the gems.

Next up is Clark (Bradford Dillman, “Bug”), who is introduced flying into eagles in his plane, who is surveying for oil. When the contract is pulled Clark, his partner Dick (Clark Jarret) and their ’shared’ girlfriend Barbara (Ann Sidney, UK born ex Miss World) seem to be going back to civilisation. But when Clark and Dick discover a headless skeleton with a bag of diamonds they decide to stay to search for more.

Lastly we have rabid Nazi Klaus von Blantz (Donald Pleasence) who with his ever topless female companion, Morimba (Sonia Infante), is trying to find the diamonds to start up his own Third Reich!

Watching over them all is the local Government official Paco (Emilio Fernández, “The Wild Bunch”) who insists on confiscating the ‘Government’s’ share of anything valuable brought out of the jungle. And a nasty fate awaits those who do not pay up!

So off into the jungle the interested parties go, facing crocodiles, mosquito’s, head hunting natives and betrayal….

This Mexican entry in the short lived mini-boom of cheap ‘Indiana Jones’ style adventure movies (see also the likes of “Treasure of the Four Crowns”, “Ark of the Sun God”, “Hunters of the Golden Cobra”) has to be one of the goriest as well as one of the most entertaining. Not that there is that much competition!

We have a few obvious sets for some of the extended dialogue scenes, but otherwise (as with the other mini-boom of European Cannibal movies) the actual location footage gives the movie a huge boost in scope and atmosphere. It was thankfully cheap to film in such locations in the late 70’s/80’s and as such even low budget schlock fests could take advantage of the wonderful scenery.

And talking of advantages, the greatest advantage “Treasure” has (it’s much needed gore aside) is it’s great cast of slumming thespians. Strangely though, most are not really used to their full advantage;

Whitman is given the main character and he does a stand-out job as the gruff, tough and still slightly disturbed adventurer. He’s a long way from Oscar nominations and John Wayne films here…but he gives one of his most entertaining and interesting performances since his psychotic turn in “Sands of the Kalahari”. And for 61 years of age he looks pretty damn good, not quite as good as the wonderfully cheesy poster art would have you believe though!
Dillman though, after his initial great introduction of politically incorrect bird destruction, is given very little to do and indeed vanishes for a gig chunk of the movie.

The less said about Ms Sidney’s Southern Belle accent the better, but she does okay otherwise with her pretty feisty (and trigger happy) character. And she looks good in a bra.
Schlock fans will recognise Hugo “Nightmare City” Stiglitz as a ferry boat Captain, though he does very little, and John Ireland pops up as a font of all knowledge Priest but has such a small part he must have taken the role to get a holiday!

Pleasence is given too little screen time, but his whacked out German (with delightfully pantomime accent) adds a nice dollop of scheming fun to the proceedings. His bizarre, almost sadomasochistic, relationship with Morimba is another treat.

And as Morimba, Ms Infante is striking and her breasts almost upstage poor Donald Pleasence in their various back and forth dialogue exchanges, but her no-nonsense Amazonian is disgracefully underused.

Talking of breasts (as we were) trash fans will be pleased to know we have various pairs of them bouncing around, including a veritable boob blow out during a mass ritualistic wrestling match, and they make for a nice antidote to all the macho chest beating.

If the film is overlong and loses it’s pace during certain sections (mostly endless arguments between ‘Gringo’, Jaime and Zapata), the violent, frenetic gore sequences boost proceedings no end.
The full-on attacks by the head hunters deliver much throat slashing, blood spurting, head removing fun and just in case this was not enough we have some bloody crocodile feasting and a wonderfully gratuitous bit of gross-out thanks to a pack (is that the word?) of face eating crabs!
The FX by Sergio Jara may be rather cheesy, but they work in that trashy 80’s way and are oh so welcome!

Rene Cardona (“Night of the Bloody Apes”, supposedly a man who was in fact various family members all using the same name now and again ) delivers some great visuals, and lots of cheesy fun and gore, but could have upped the pace now and again and utilised his cast more. Generally though he gives us a good old fashioned romp spiced up with 80’s nudity, gore and the odd foul mouthed insult and it all makes for an unpretentious jolly good time.

Now available on a budget DVD from VCI (non-anamorphic, average transfer but still pretty good and perfectly fine for the price) “Treasure of the Amazon” is a diamond well worth hunting for, despite it’s small flaws. Luckily though you shouldn’t have to brave pissed off head hunters to get your hands on it!