Customer Reviews

Queen of the Amazons

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Greg Lambert (Robert Lowery) is missing. Where did he go? Jean Preston (Patricia Morison) is off to India to find him. The trail soon leads to Africa, where the searchers encounter a male chauvinist and the Queen of the Amazons. However, by the time you meet the Queen of the Amazons you will likely be either puzzled or annoyed that you watched this turkey.

The movie begins auspiciously. I thought that this movie might be in an Indiana Jones vein. We are soon distracted by stock footage of Indians riding elephants and doing various things, interspersed with Jean and her fellow travelers positioned against generic set walls. The intensity is increased when someone hiding in the curtains murders an Indian girl about to reveal important information. The Indian population is soon fighting, ostensibly because of the murder of the Indian girl, but who would know about the murder?

The travelers escape to Africa, encountering a guide who dislikes women. Jean, being a crack shot, impresses the guide, and everyone sets off into the bush. Lions attack, locusts fly prodigiously, and then there are those mysterious Amazons. Once we get to the Amazons, who seem more like hot, scantily clad babes that need rescued, I was sorely disappointed. There were only a few Amazons. The Amazons looked out of place in the jungle and in Africa. The Queen of the Amazons looked more like a 1940s movie floozy.

I think that having movies such as this one available is a good thing. These movies give those seeking a certain genre or the movies of a certain actor the opportunity to see much more of their portfolio than was once possible. However, I think this movie was sixty-one minutes of low-budget film that must have been matinee filler leading up to a main feature, because I think I would have been unhappy to have paid a nickel or a dime to see this when it was released in 1947.

OK, this is not a film you will want to re-view over and over, but it is definitely worth a watch, that is, if you enjoy campy old films that don't make much sense. It is good for a laugh, but the story really isn't all that bad.

A young woman is seeking to find the man she is supposed to marry, starting in India and winding up somewhere in the wilds of Africa. She is tough and smart, never wavering from the task she has set herself. They find a brave safari guide, who agrees to follow some rumors on their behalf. THere is also a comical cook, with a monkey companion, and a rival for the affections of the girl. As they get deeper into the jungle, mores slowly slip away, leading to murder, the discovery of true feelings, and even a group of EUropean women who have mastered a territory of their own. Things turn out not to be what they seemed.

As the true character and motives of the protagonists are revealed, the outcome is both fun and unexpected. Of course, as with adventure films just after WWII, the effects are clunky, the attitudes still colonial, and the exotic "natives" are stereotypical in some pretty ugly ways.

Recommended for the sake of fun.

Several small stories or scenarios stung together with old 1947 African native footage tossed in as filler. However on the safari there is a real mystery. And as always it is the last person you would suspect if it was a person.

Jean Preston (Patricia Morison) has traced her betrothed (since childhood) to Africa. She is accompanied by her potential father-in-law, his bug loving friend, and a person that considers himself a substitute should they fine the betrothed has met his demise.

Now they need a guide. You guessed it the guide (Robert Lowery) thinks women have no place there. She must convince him with her skills. Mean time it looks like the betrothed was on a mission to find ivory poachers when he disappeared. And the new guide must pick up the trail. Naturally they will need a cook and a bunch or natives. Then there are the stories of a white queen (Amira Moustafa) who captures betroths and bumps off intruders.

So will they be able to pass by locust plagues, man-eating lions, a mysterious curse, and those lonely, long sultry African nights alone in the bush?

VCI Entertainment and Kit Parker Films presents "MOVIE BAD GIRLS DOUBLE FEATURE" (Sins of Jezebel (1954) & Queen of the Amazons (1947) --- (Dolby digitally remastered)...featuring top performances from the '40s and '50s with outstanding drama and screenplays, along with a wonderful cast and supporting actors to bring it all together ... another winner from the vaults of almost forgotten Hollywood gems.

First up we have Lippert Pictures feature "SINS OF JEZEBEL" (1954) (74 min/Color) --- Under Reginald Le Borg (Director), Sigmund Neufeld (Producer), Richard Landau (Screenwriter), Gilbert Warrenton (Cinematographer), Bert Shefter (Composer (Music Score), Carl Pierson (Editor), F. Paul Sylos (Art Director), Paul F. Sylos (Art Director) ----- the cast includes Paulette Goddard (Jezebel), George Nader (Jehuz), John Hoyt (Elijah), Eduard Franz (King Ahab), John Shelton (Loram), Margia Dean (Deborah), Joe Besser (Yonkel, Chariot man), Ludwig Donath (Naboth), Carmen D'Antonio (Dancer) . . . . . our film and story has a scheming wicked princess of Phoenicia named Jezebel whose pagan ways brings destruction to all she comes in contact with ... Paulette Goddard is believeable as Jezebel, with George Nader who is under her magical spell ... will she introduce her pagan idols in place of the God of Israel, what danger lies before the King of Israel Eduard Franz as Ahab ... Sins of Jezebel takes place in 9th Century, B.C., in the city of Jezreel, the prophet Elijah warns Ahab, the King of Israel, against marrying Jezebel the beautiful but evil Phoenician ... on a very small budget this film comes across and delivers the goods and more

BIOS:

1. Paulette Goddard (aka:Marion Goddard Levy)

Date of birth: 3 June 1910 - Whitestone Landing, Long Island, New York

Date of death: 23 April 1990 - Ronco, Switzerland

2. George Nader

Date of birth: 19 October 1921 - Pasadena, California

Date of death: 4 February 2002 - Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California

3. Reginald Le Borg (Director)

Date of birth: 11 December 1902 - Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria)

Date of death: 25 March 1989 - Los Angeles, California

4. Robert L. Lippert (Producer)

Date of birth: 31 March 1909 - Alameda, California, USA

Date of death: 16 November 1976 - Unknown City & State

BONUS FEATURES:

1. Movie Trivia

2. Photo Gallery

3. Three Nuts In Search of A Bolt (trailer)

4. Promises Promises (trailer)

Second on the double bill is a Robert L. Lippert Picture release "QUEEN OF THE AMAZONS" (1947) (61 min/B/W) --- Under Edward F. Finney -(Director / Producer), Roger Merton (Screenwriter), Robert Pittack (Cinematographer), Lee Zahler (Musical Direction/Supervision), John Link (Editor), James Reimer (Art Director) ----- the cast includes Robert Lowery (Gary Lambert), Patricia Morison (Jean Preston), J. Edward Bromberg (Gabby), John Miljan (Narrator/Colonel Jones), Amira Moustafa (Zita, the Amazon Queen), Keith Richards (Wayne Monroe), Bruce Edwards (Greg Jones), Wilson Benge (Professor), Jack George (Commissioner), Cay Forrester (Sugi), Vida Aldana (Tondra), Hassan Khayyam (Moya) . . . . . our story line as woman searches the Amazon jungle for her missing fiancé ... The problem is not that she finds her husband alive and well, but that he has fallen in love with the Amazon Queen ... is the jungle controlled by a tribe of she-devils ... are outsiders safe, or will they be enslaved and tortured by a gang of smugglers ... what's with all the lions roaming the Lippert Picture set, does one of them have a collar ... don't leave the theater you're about to find out in the last reel . . . . . all courtesy of VCI Entertainment, who in my humble opinion is the best there is in restoring early serials and film noir features like this one.

BIOS:

1. Robert Lowery

Date of birth: 17 October 1913 - Kansas City, Missouri

Date of death: 26 December 1971 - Hollywood, California,

2. Patricia Morrison

Date of birth: 19 March 1915 - New York, New York

Date of death: Still Living

3. Edward F Finney (Director)

Date of birth: 18 April 1903 - New York, New York

Date of death: 10 January 1983 - Los Angeles, California

BONUS FEATURES:

1. Movie Trivia

2. Photo Gallery

3. Bad Blonde (trailer)

4. Man Bait (trailer)

5. Unwed Mother (trailer)

Great job by VCI Entertainment for releasing the "MOVIE BAD GIRLS DOUBLE FEATURE" (Sins of Jezebel (1954) & Queen of the Amazons (1947), digital transfere with a clean, clear and crisp print...looking forward to more of the same from the '40s and '50s vintage...order your copy now from Amazon or VCI Entertainment, stay tuned once again for epics and jungle adventures that only VCI Entertainment (King of the Serials) can deliver.

Total Time: 128 mins on DVD ~ VCI Home Video KPF-559 ~ (9/26/2006)

Well, if your anything like me, this title gets your hopes up for an hour of babes running around the jungle in leopard-skin bikinis. Forget it! The first 40 minutes are spent showing us stock footage from India and Africa, peppered with scenes of some dull white folks wandering from place to place. When we finally meet the queen and her "amazons" (of which there are about 4), we get a village of gals who are about as feral as housecats! Yecch! ...

"Queen of the Amazons" is a great title that inspires thoughts of women in fur bikinis running around terrorizing natives with amazing savagery and sultriness. Unfortunately, that is all in a different movie.

This movie is a rambling assemblage of stock footage of wild animals (especially lions) and boring white people (and a monkey) who somehow incite riots in India after they don't commit a murder...a murder that seemingly has nothing to do with the rest of the plot. (Confused yet?) So they fly to Africa. Of course.

Once in Africa they hire a guide and some natives that can't wait to dance for our pleasure at the drop of a hat (read: "more stock footage") and generally lead them far into the bush after telling tales of a horrible shipwreck that stranded the devilish white women, the Amazons, in the jungle. When we finally meet the Amazons they seem better at serving tea and crumpets than in dominating a continent. They have also taught their loyal lions to speak English, as they issue them extremely complex instructions that they faithfully carry out, thus proving once and for all that cats are smarter than dogs, I guess. (It surely proved nothing else, but does pad the plot immensely.) My favorite scene in the film, by the way, involves one of the ferocious felines. Be sure to watch for the scene when one of our heroes gets attacked by the lion and has to fight it off with his bare hands. This scene is only slightly less realistic than the scene from "Monty Python's Flying Circus" in which Michael Palin as "Scott of the Antarctic" fights off the lion with a chair while chain smoking. This and other stunts in the film will make you laugh out loud or roll your eyes (possibly both).

This movie isn't offensive in any way, but it is extremely heavy handed and worse yet, just plain boring. The good news? It's only 61 minutes long.