I’m the type of movie fan who is willing to sit through just about any movie. I’ve seen some really bad movies, some great overlooked movies and some movies that are just so disgusting they were hard to stomach. I understand the struggles of low budget films and always try to respect the outcomes of those filmmakers who work through that to at least present something that can be watched and found entertaining. Sadly INVADERS OF THE LOST GOLD is not one of those movies.
During WWII a group of Japanese soldiers in the Philippines hides a cache of gold bars intending to come back after the war and retrieve them for themselves. They are attacked by native tribesmen who kill all but three who make it away safely.
Fast forward to the present, or at least 1982 when the movie was made. Adventurer and scoundrel Rex Larson (Edmund Perdom) is tracking down the map that provides the location of the treasure. Two of the three survivors don’t cooperate and he kills both of them, taking the map from the second. But it needs to be read by someone who understand it so he talks the third survivor, Tobachi (Harold Sakata) into becoming a partner.
The expedition is being bankrolled by Douglas Jefferson (David de Martyn), whose daughter Janice (Glynis Barber) accompanies him on the trip. To take them down the river and into the jungle on this search is the only man said to qualify for the job, Mark Forest (Stuart Whitman). The problem is that Forest and Larson are sworn enemies due to something that happened in their past.
The expedition sails downriver and includes Forest friend Fernando (Junix Inocian) and his wife, Forest’s ex-lover, Maria (Laura Gemser). Helping Jefferson is his longtime employee Cal (Woody Strode). In addition to these (the names in the film) are several porters who will soon be forgotten and fodder for anything from snakes to crocodiles.
So here is the thing. The movie runs 90 minutes and it isn’t until around the 60 minute mark that they set out for the trip. Most of it is spent putting things in place. Trust me, when you make an adventure film and the biggest adventure is native attack in the first 10 minutes and a bar fight later on, you have a problem.
Shot in the Philippines on a miniscule budget the film looks it. The cinematography is much better than expected but the script is a disaster. It’s as if they took all the different popular movie genres of the time, wrote them on pieces of paper, tossed them into a glad and pulled one out as they wrote the script. And I’m talking ridiculous things too. I mean the cannibal films were big at this time but I’ve never heard of tribal natives in the Philippines, have you?
The acting isn’t too bad but for me it was sad seeing Stuart Whitman and Woody Strode relegated to being in a film like this. Both had solid careers in film for years. But this seems to be what Hollywood does when you get older, push you out the door and bring in the new young faces. Old actors either fade away of find work in films like this.
The extras here include two conversations with director Alan Birkinshaw whose career consisted of 15 directorial credits. Neither of them is very interesting and match his career. It’s not many directors who can say they had Frank Stallone in not one but two lead roles in their films.
The big to do about this film is that it was produced by
Dick Randall. Randall was a producer of low budget productions that seemed to
make money. His movies as a producer include PIECES, SLAUGHTER HIGH, DON’T OPEN
UNTIL CHRISTMAS and several Emmanuelle movies. Think of him as Roger Corman
without the style or success. He has his fans and my guess is that those will
be the ones most interested in picking this film up. As for everyone else don’t
waste your time or money.
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