SPOILERS INCLUDED
Invaders of the Lost Gold is an exploitation film that really does throw in everything but the kitchen sink. It was helmed by British director Alan Birkinshaw, a former TV cameraman who was well versed in sex and horror cinema having previously directed Confessions of a Sex Maniac and Killer's Moon. The former was one of the tread-barest of Britain's careerist sex comedies and features a pretentious architect feeling up various glamour girls under the guise of wanting to design a breast shaped building. While the latter is largely considered the British horror film's most distasteful and unintentionally funny hour, due to lines like 'if we ever get out of this alive maybe we'll both live to be wives and mothers', the casting of a three-legged dog and a John Lindsay-type fixation for passing off secondary starlets as schoolgirls. Unlike many of his contemporaries who either retired (Pete Walker, Stanley Long) or struggled on in the declining British film industry (Derek Ford, Norman J. Warren), Birkinshaw spent much of the 1980's in Europe working for globe trotting producers like Harry Alan Towers and Dick Randall.
Here under the thumb of Dick Randall, Birkinshaw spins a tall tale whose opening documents a little known incident in WW2 in which the Japanese army faced off against a tribe of unkempt, head-hunters (or rather some blacked up extras wearing fright wigs) in the Filipino jungle. Despite their heavy firepower the Japanese come off noticeably worse and the cheerful head-hunters soon have a few severed heads to enthusiastically waive in the audiences faces. The only survivors are three Japanese soldiers who, forced to leave a large consignment of gold behind, vow to one day return. However '36 years later' ruthless businessman Rex Larson (welwyn garden city born actor Edmund Purdom) is up to no good and using less than democratic ways to separate the aged Japanese soldiers from a map of where the gold is hidden. One of the soldiers gets riddled with bullets when Larson shoots up a room full of Kung-Fu goons; another opts for an even more gruesome way out and commits hari-kari. With the map secured Larson's boss Douglas Jefferson, an upper-crust Englishman in a safari jacket then ensembles a motley crew of street fighters, mercenaries and unclassifiable toughs to journey back into the jungle for the gold. Much to Larson's annoyance his boss has also enlisted the services of Larson's nemesis, hard-living heavy drinking American Mark Forrest played by Stuart Whitman fresh from his Jim Jones gig in Guyana-Crime of the Century (1980).
Forrest and Larson have old scores to settle after Larson left his former friend Forrest to rot in a jail for five years; naturally Forrest has revenge on his mind. Once in the jungle it also becomes clear that someone is out to sabotage the expedition. And with members of the team gradually being bumped off one by one, by the time they reach the gold the number of people sharing it is unlikely to be in high figures. It has to be said though, that this bunch of would be adventurers behave in such a clumsy fashion that the mystery killer has little to do other than put his feet up and wait for them to fall from rope bridges or stumble cluelessly to their deaths in the jungle. No prizes for guessing that the instigator of the group's misfortune is Larson, who in the middle of the film fakes his own death only to make a 'surprise' return for the climatic shootout sporting a three day growth of beard.
Likely to disappoint anyone expecting 'part Cannibal Holocaust and part Raiders of the Lost Ark' (as the mondo crash DVD cheekily sells it as), Invaders of the Lost Gold is a standard but not unenjoyable jungle adventure. Birkinshaw throws in some unconvincing gore, a little nudity and fans of his Killer's Moon will be pleased to know that continuity is still not Birkinshaw's strong point (just try and figure out what fate is meant to befall secondary character 'Maria' during her ill-fated swim). Surprisingly though, while Birkinshaw's two British films ear-mark him as a man who could deliver a high amount of exploitation film goods on a micro budget (no doubt what brought him to Dick Randall's attention) here his direction seems pedestrian and at times the proceedings threaten to drag dangerously to a halt. The best thing about Invaders of the Lost Gold, and what keeps it watchable, is the eclectic 'all star' cast which as well as Messrs Purdom and Whitman also includes Woody Strode, Laura 'Black Emanuelle' Gemser in an atypical role despite her nude scenes, Harold Sakata making an odder job of playing a heavy than usual and looking hopelessly lost as Whitman's 20 years younger love interest Glynis 'Dempsey and Makepeace' Barber in a role she'd be forgiven for leaving off her CV these days.
Invaders of the Lost Gold is best viewed as a 'I'm an exploitation film celebrity get me out of here' with the cast suffering both for their art and the audience's enjoyment in believably hellish Filipino jungle locations. The print used for the DVD is in a very scratchy condition and the only extras are trailers for some dodgy 1970's Kung-Fu titles which look far worse than the main feature.
Invaders of the Lost Gold is an exploitation film that really does throw in everything but the kitchen sink. It was helmed by British director Alan Birkinshaw, a former TV cameraman who was well versed in sex and horror cinema having previously directed Confessions of a Sex Maniac and Killer's Moon. The former was one of the tread-barest of Britain's careerist sex comedies and features a pretentious architect feeling up various glamour girls under the guise of wanting to design a breast shaped building. While the latter is largely considered the British horror film's most distasteful and unintentionally funny hour, due to lines like 'if we ever get out of this alive maybe we'll both live to be wives and mothers', the casting of a three-legged dog and a John Lindsay-type fixation for passing off secondary starlets as schoolgirls. Unlike many of his contemporaries who either retired (Pete Walker, Stanley Long) or struggled on in the declining British film industry (Derek Ford, Norman J. Warren), Birkinshaw spent much of the 1980's in Europe working for globe trotting producers like Harry Alan Towers and Dick Randall.
Here under the thumb of Dick Randall, Birkinshaw spins a tall tale whose opening documents a little known incident in WW2 in which the Japanese army faced off against a tribe of unkempt, head-hunters (or rather some blacked up extras wearing fright wigs) in the Filipino jungle. Despite their heavy firepower the Japanese come off noticeably worse and the cheerful head-hunters soon have a few severed heads to enthusiastically waive in the audiences faces. The only survivors are three Japanese soldiers who, forced to leave a large consignment of gold behind, vow to one day return. However '36 years later' ruthless businessman Rex Larson (welwyn garden city born actor Edmund Purdom) is up to no good and using less than democratic ways to separate the aged Japanese soldiers from a map of where the gold is hidden. One of the soldiers gets riddled with bullets when Larson shoots up a room full of Kung-Fu goons; another opts for an even more gruesome way out and commits hari-kari. With the map secured Larson's boss Douglas Jefferson, an upper-crust Englishman in a safari jacket then ensembles a motley crew of street fighters, mercenaries and unclassifiable toughs to journey back into the jungle for the gold. Much to Larson's annoyance his boss has also enlisted the services of Larson's nemesis, hard-living heavy drinking American Mark Forrest played by Stuart Whitman fresh from his Jim Jones gig in Guyana-Crime of the Century (1980).
Forrest and Larson have old scores to settle after Larson left his former friend Forrest to rot in a jail for five years; naturally Forrest has revenge on his mind. Once in the jungle it also becomes clear that someone is out to sabotage the expedition. And with members of the team gradually being bumped off one by one, by the time they reach the gold the number of people sharing it is unlikely to be in high figures. It has to be said though, that this bunch of would be adventurers behave in such a clumsy fashion that the mystery killer has little to do other than put his feet up and wait for them to fall from rope bridges or stumble cluelessly to their deaths in the jungle. No prizes for guessing that the instigator of the group's misfortune is Larson, who in the middle of the film fakes his own death only to make a 'surprise' return for the climatic shootout sporting a three day growth of beard.
Likely to disappoint anyone expecting 'part Cannibal Holocaust and part Raiders of the Lost Ark' (as the mondo crash DVD cheekily sells it as), Invaders of the Lost Gold is a standard but not unenjoyable jungle adventure. Birkinshaw throws in some unconvincing gore, a little nudity and fans of his Killer's Moon will be pleased to know that continuity is still not Birkinshaw's strong point (just try and figure out what fate is meant to befall secondary character 'Maria' during her ill-fated swim). Surprisingly though, while Birkinshaw's two British films ear-mark him as a man who could deliver a high amount of exploitation film goods on a micro budget (no doubt what brought him to Dick Randall's attention) here his direction seems pedestrian and at times the proceedings threaten to drag dangerously to a halt. The best thing about Invaders of the Lost Gold, and what keeps it watchable, is the eclectic 'all star' cast which as well as Messrs Purdom and Whitman also includes Woody Strode, Laura 'Black Emanuelle' Gemser in an atypical role despite her nude scenes, Harold Sakata making an odder job of playing a heavy than usual and looking hopelessly lost as Whitman's 20 years younger love interest Glynis 'Dempsey and Makepeace' Barber in a role she'd be forgiven for leaving off her CV these days.
Invaders of the Lost Gold is best viewed as a 'I'm an exploitation film celebrity get me out of here' with the cast suffering both for their art and the audience's enjoyment in believably hellish Filipino jungle locations. The print used for the DVD is in a very scratchy condition and the only extras are trailers for some dodgy 1970's Kung-Fu titles which look far worse than the main feature.