As the film opens, several
women are riding horses, their naked breasts bouncing in slow motion. When they
arrive at the home of the Simpsons, they demand that Mr. Simpson comes out.
When he complies, they put an arrow in his chest. His wife is likewise killed.
As the women leave, the couple’s young daughter, Liana, comes round from the
back of the house to discover her parents’ bodies. The film then jumps to
several years later, and Liana (Analia Ivars, but credited as Joan Virly) has
grown into an attractive woman who befriends and rides elephants. (There is
some really nice elephant footage, marred only by one of the worst soundtracks
to ever make it into a film.) Liana is friendly with a wide variety of animals,
actually, including giraffes and a chimpanzee (or is it a monkey?). Father
Johnstone (Olivier Mathot, but credited as Oliver Matthew, who also appeared in
Diamonds Of Kilimandjaro) arrives at
the house. He was a friend to Mr. Simpson and has arrived to find out what
happened to him. (Took him long enough, eh?) As he reads aloud to Liana from
her father’s diary (her parents didn’t teach her how to read), we are treated
to a flashback of the action in which Mr. Simpson first encounters the Amazon
women and discovers their great caverns of gold. The women warn him to return
the gold he’s taken and to leave the area, but he doesn’t heed their warnings.
He’s kind of an asshole, actually. And his wife fires a gun in the women’s
direction, making her not too sympathetic either. So, as with Diamonds Of Kilimandjaro, we quickly
find ourselves siding with the tribe and not the so-called “civilized” man.
Anyway, Liana vows revenge on the women who killed her shitty parents.
As she sets out on her search,
she is almost immediately captured in a net by a tribe of men. But it turns out
they only stopped her out of concern for her. (That’s how my friends try to
keep me from making mistakes too!) Their plan doesn’t work, of course, and one
of the tribe’s members ends up accompanying her on her quest. He is the tribe’s
medicine man, and he is apparently there mainly for comic relief. They are also
joined by a group of archeologists (after Liana was captured by their porters –
you know, for a girl who grew up without parents in the jungle, she’s not very
savvy about her surroundings). And the group goes off in search of adventure, a
lost civilization and revenge.
Quite a bit of the film is dull
and silly. The gold aluminum foil on the walls looks ridiculous, and the guy
who is supposed to be hammering it is clearly hitting it gingerly so as not to
tear it. And the cheap blond wigs often look terrible. But still, there are
certainly some interesting moments and elements. The Amazons are actually ruled
by a mysterious man named Uruck (William Berger) and his mistress Rena, a woman
who worries that Liana will take her place. And the moment when Uruck takes
Liana into his chamber is handled really well. We see that he rapes her, but
the camera remains outside the room, with the guards and with Rena, who is
humiliated after losing a fight with Liana. She is also humiliated and
distraught because she is being replaced at that very moment. She is defeated,
and Liana is being defeated, raped by the man who ordered the deaths of her
parents. It’s an intriguing and strange and effective scene. This film also has
a surprising amount of cool footage of animals. And remember, when things get weird: “Forget your archeology, let’s get out of
here.”
Golden Temple Amazons is scheduled to be released on Blu-ray on
September 11, 2018 through MVD Visual as part of the MVD Classics series. The
disc provides the option of watching the film dubbed in English or in its
original French. The film’s trailer is included, as well as the trailer for
Jess Franco’s Diamonds Of Kilimandjaro.
