CAST: Stuart Whitman (Gringo), Donald Pleasence (Klaus von Blantz), Bradford Dillman (Clark), Sonia Infante (Morimba), John Ireland (Priest), Emilio Fernandez (Tacho), Pedro Armendariz (Zapata), Jorge Luke (Jairo), Ann Sidney (Barbara), Clark Jarrett (Dick), Hugo Stiglitz (Riverboat Captain). Produced and directed by Rene Cardona, Jr.
SYNOPSIS: In the 1950s, a tale is told of a legendary river of diamonds hidden deep in the Amazon rain forest. The lure of instant riches draws many adventurers to the Amazon, where they must face Tacho, an Indian who runs the local government with an iron first, and even worse, the Hibero, a tribe of natives with a penchant for collecting and shrinking the heads of their victims. Two new adventurers, Zapata and Jairo, ride a riverboat down the Amazon and soon meet Gringo, a grizzled expert on the Amazon and a member of a previously failed journey. They hire him as their guide and set off through the thick of the jungle. Competing against the trio are Barbara, Dick, and Clark who works for an oil company, and Klaus von Blantz (Donald Pleasence), a former Nazi officer with dreams of reviving Hitler’s Third Reich. Barbara and Dick are the first to accidentally find the diamonds in the river, forcing Clark to take off in his plane to obtain more equipment. However, they are soon under attack by the Hibero with Dick left defenseless as Barbara runs for help and meets up with Zapata, Jairo, and Gringo. She then leads them to the river and upon seeing the diamonds in the river, greed and jealousy soon takes over the group and they split apart. Blantz, along with his Indian guide Morimba, also arrive to find the riches and encounter the deadly Hibero. After much violence in the Amazon jungle, Blantz makes it out alive only to be captured by Tacho and tortured to death for lying about his loot. Gringo and Barbara also make it out, and after telling the truth and handing over half their riches, Tacho allows them to leave the Amazon alive.
COMMENTARY: Treasure of the Amazon, a low-budget imitation of the popular Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), is not ashamed to throw every cliché in the book at the viewer. In this film, the adventurers face all sorts of trouble in the jungle, including headhunters, piranha, killer bees, and leeches. From the opening moments of a native on the riverboat getting his finger chopped off for attempting to steal to going overboard to be eaten by alligators, the audience knows they are in for a trashy film. However, Treasure of the Amazon is actually quite enjoyable, mostly due to its roster of veteran actors like Pleasence, Stuart Whitman, Bradford Dillman, and John Ireland. Another benefit is the direction of Rene Car-dona Jr. who captures some impressive scenes of the Amazon landscape. The film also deserves its “R” rating for some quite brutal scenes of decapitation, topless native women, and a rather nasty death by crabs.
As former Nazi Klaus von Blantz, Donald Pleasence goes overboard with his deranged character. Blantz’s background is somewhat fleshed out as having run a concentration camp during World War II and having made deals with Tacho who gave him Morimba, one of his topless wives, to act as his jungle guide. Although Blantz does not share many scenes with the rest of the characters, he is a major character in the film and his battles with the Hibero are well done. Spouting a German accent, Pleasence also provides some crazy dialogue, such as when he tries to convince Morimba to join his new Third Reich — “You could be part of that world. You are intelligent, like a Doberman.” Blantz is also the most vicious of all the characters, such as when he mows down the natives with his machine gun and betrays Morimba. In the end, Blantz’s crimes and final lies to Tacho earns him a well-deserved death.