Tue 23 Feb 2016
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: LOVE-SLAVES OF THE AMAZONS (1957).
Posted by Steve under Action Adventure movies , Reviews[5] Comments
LOVE-SLAVES OF THE AMAZONS . Universal, 1957. Don Taylor, Gianna Segale, Eduardo Ciannelli. Written, produced & directed by Curt Siodmak. Second unit direction: Terry Morse.
I saw this when it first came out on a double-bill with The Monolith Monsters at my neighborhood movie house, and once again I observe that you got Bang for your Quarter in those days….
Curt Siodmak always struck me as the cinematic equivalent of Fredric Brown: an unredeemed and unapologetic pulpster who reveled in the gaudy, tawdry delights of things like Son of Dracula, Bride of the Gorilla, and this kaleidoscopic comic book of a film; very bad, but fun nonetheless.
Don Taylor (who directed some very bad films himself later on) stars as world-famous archeologist Dr. Peter Masters, who arrives in Brazil, just why we’re never told, and is almost immediately accosted by Eduardo Ciannelli as Dr. Crespi. (The name is an in-joke.) a local crackpot who claims to have visited the Lost City of the Amazons etc. etc…. it’s all very familiar, but done with speed and economy in lieu of originality or artistry.
Indeed, Writer/Producer/Director Siodmak peels the old banalities right off the yellowed pulp pages and slaps them across the screen with a shamelessness that borders on daring — which was just fine for this skinny seven-year-old of the 1950s. We get fist-fights, river pirates, alligators, drugs, snakes…. and some rather uninspiring Amazon Warriors with their skin painted green. Ah yes!
That’s what has stayed with me through the decades: the look of this thing; parts of it were filmed on location in Brazil (apparently by Terry Morse, who did the Americanized scenes in Godzilla) and parts on studio sets so brilliantly colored that one suspects the art director may have been using controlled substances. We get blue jungle, green-skinned blondes, a massive temple made of brightly-painted cardboard, and clumsy dancing girls decked out more like rodeo clowns than pagan beauties.
We also get a couple of gruesome off-screen deaths, but I the problem is that we never get a good pay-off scene: no suspenseful cliff-hanging, no climactic struggle… not even a guy in a gorilla suit. This didn’t bother me as a kid, but in the wisdom of my advancing years I see the lack of a last-reel ass-kicking as a deplorable aesthetic oversight. And the deficiency in the gorilla-suit department elicits a wistful sigh of disappointment.
Still and all, it’s hard to resist a title like Love-Slaves of the Amazons, and it’s a fun film to watch, if you’re wearing sunglasses or have your judgment impaired by the influence of a controlled substance.
February 23rd, 2016 at 9:32 pm
This came out when you could go down town and step into any of several bars where there were pics of strippers pasted beside the entrance. I was always too young to go in, but those pics seemed incredibly close to the lobby cards for flicks like this. Hubba hubba ding ding.
February 23rd, 2016 at 9:36 pm
What you just said.
I had two more lobby card images ready to use just like these, but I didn’t have room enough to cram them in.
February 23rd, 2016 at 11:14 pm
These films offered much more than they delivered in the hubba hubba department. I’m not sure how you can be salacious and innocent at the same time but they manage it.
I suppose you can add one more crime up to Dr. Crespi.
Siodmak was indeed a pulpster, but he always seemed one step from doing something much better like DONOVAN’S BRAIN or WOLFMAN or even HAUSER’S MEMORY and FPI. He and his brother came out of a productive and interesting period in German cinema just before the Nazi’s changed everything and you have to wonder what might have been in Curt’s case if he had been able to stay in his homeland along with the likes of Lang, Joe May, Conrad Veidt, and his brother Robert.
Again, Dan, thanks for your selfless sacrifice in watching these movies.
February 23rd, 2016 at 11:20 pm
Speaking of The Monolith Monsters, the other half of the twin bill, Mike Tooney reviewed it a while back on this blog. Here’s the link:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=32333
February 24th, 2016 at 8:35 pm
Those obligatory dance numbers never cease to fascinate me with their limited choreography, stock costumes, and ‘exotic’ music.