5/10
Mediocre Jess Frank movie co-produced by West Germany/Spain including noisy action , crossfire , treason and violence
7 July 2020
The film starts with a reporter stating a speech ; from now on , a long flashback develops the movie action : as a plane leaving the turmoil of a South American nation in the midst of a revolution crash-lands in the Amazon jungle in Brazil . Among the passengers are a selfish banker who is smuggling diamonds out of the country , a journalist (Thomas Hunter) , a gorgeous Spanish woman (Esperanza Roy) , the spectacular blondie Mrs. Wilson (as Ewa Stroemberg) , Miss Steffi (Gila von Weitershausen) , a shady young ( Hans Hass Jr) and a mysterious flight attendant (Fernando Sancho) . The survivors find themselves up against not only the risks of the jungle itself but a band of thieves (Howard Vernon and his lover Lolita : Beni Cardoso) go after them , while all of them are looking for the smuggled diamonds.

This is an action adventure movie set in Amazon jungle with corrupt characters , crosses and double-crosses , thrills , chills , nudism and shootouts . This very campy picture contains struggles , betrayals, disconcerting situations , and being developed in fits and starts . As our passengers become involved into twisted incidentes among themselves , being assaulted by band of revolutionaries , headhunters and gangs of cutthroats . Here Franco manages to give us an appropriate ambient in Amazon jungle , an evocative production design , action enough , including a criminal plot enough to keep you intrigued throughout the flick . However , here he doesn't use his trademarks , as he pulls off a traditional narration , without zooms , neither lousy pace . The picture was made early 70s , shortly after the time in which Franco directed nice movies such as : ¨Rififi En La Ciudad¨ , this ¨Miss Muerte¨ or ¨Diabolic Doctor Z¨ , ¨Necronomicon¨ and ¨Gritos en la Noche¨ , developing a consolidated professionalism , as his career got more and more impoverished in the following years, but his endless creativity enabled him to tackle films in all genres , from "B" horror to erotic films .

The motion picture was middlingly directed by Jesus Franco ; being ordinarily written , produced by Artur Brauner and often deemed among his mediocre films . Jesus Franco was a Stajanovist director , as his filmography boasts 203 directorial credits from 1957 to 2013 , a record few can match in the era of talking pictures . Given that many Franco films exist in three or four variant versions, sometimes so radically different that alternative cuts qualify as separate movies , his overall tally might be considerably higher but embarrassing . As the picture belongs to Franco's first period in which he made passable flicks . Franco used to utilize a lot of pseudonyms and customary marks such as zooms , nudism , foreground on objects , filmmaking in ¨do-it-yourself effort¨ style or DIY and managing to work extraordinarily quickly , realizing some fun diversions, and a lot of absolute crap . Many pictures had nice photography , full of lights and shades in Orson Welles style , in fact , Franco was direction-assistant in ¨Chimes at midnight¨ and edited ¨El Quijote¨ by Welles . He often used to introduce second , third or fourth versions , including Hardcore or Softcore inserts or sexual stocks many of them played by his muse Lina Romay . In many of the more than 200 films he's directed he has also worked as composer , writer , cinematographer and editor . His first was "We Are 18 Years Old" along with the documentary ¨El Arbol de España¨ and his subsequent picture was ¨Gritos en la Noche¨ (1962) , the best of all them . Like ¨Justine¨ , some of these films have been extraordinarily entertaining : ¨The Diabolical Dr. Z¨ (1966), ¨Vampyros Lesbos¨ (1971), ¨A Virgin Among the Living Dead¨ (1973) , ¨The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein¨ , ¨Female Vampire¨ , ¨Women Behind Bars¨ (both 1975), and ¨Bloody Moon¨ (1981). As his ¨Necronomicón¨ (1968) was nominated for the Festival of Berlin, and this event gave him an international reputation . He also directed to the great Christopher Lee in 4 films : "The Bloody Judge" , ¨Count Dracula¨, ¨The Blood of Fu Manchu¨ and ¨The castle of Fu Manchu¨ . Jesús's influence has been notable all over Europe . Many of his films have had problems in getting released, and others have been made directly for video . More than once his staunchest supporters have found his "new" films to contain much footage from one or more of his older films . He broke up with all that and got the independence he was seeking . He always went upstream in an ephemeral industry that fed opportunists and curbed the activity of many professionals . But time doesn't pass in vain, and Jesus' production has diminished since the 90s ; however he went on shooting until his death .
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