\
PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological, sociological*
I hadn't intended to watch two jungle-girl films this morning, but I watched the second of the two first because I got the impression that there was only one film starring jungle-heroine "Gungala," given two different titles. Unfortunately, though there was a subbed version for the second film available to me, the first one, GUNGALA-- VIRGIN OF THE JUNGLE, was only in untranslated Italian.
I don't think I missed much, though. It starts off with two thieves in Africa, attempting to steal a diamond from the fetish of a neighboring tribe. The two have a falling out and the skinny guy shoots the fat guy. Much later, three Europeans mount an expedition into that area of Africa. One is a heavyset fellow, Wolff, who may be the same guy who was shot, while the second is a guide named Chandler and the third is a hot young blonde woman, Fleur (Linda Veras). Two online reviews claimed that the trio were looking for uranium but I didn't see any of them doing scientific things. (And how many lady scientists go by a name like "Fleur?")
After the threesome listen to local legends about a mysterious female spirit named Gungala (Kitty Swan), they bungle around in the jungle for a while, and then run into the jungle virgin. Wolff promptly shoots at her, and she runs away with a superficial wound. Natives then capture all three Europeans, tie them to stakes, talk to them for a while, and then-- just let them go. The hunters go back to hunting whatever they're looking for, while Gungala watches them from hiding. She sees Fleur exchange a little spit with Chandler, and Gungala's curiosity is clearly aroused, among other things. After a fair number of talking-head scenes, Gungala comes into the group's camp, clearly hoping to have sex with Chandler. Wolff shoots her once again, and this time, it's clear that what he wants is a big diamond on her necklace, which I must assume is the same as the one from the first part of the film. I doubt the film even explained how she obtained it. Wolff, for his part, proves himself a bad shot once again. Gungala, again just superficially wounded, revives and calls up a band of leopards and lionesses to rip Wollf to pieces (offscreen). Then she reclaims the necklace and runs off. As Wolff dies he relates to Chandler and Fleur the origin of Gungala: that her father's plane crashes in Africa with her on board, and that though the father died the little girl grew to womanhood among the animals. There may be some other points of interest in his revelations, but it's such a dull film I don't know why anyone would care.
VIRGIN's director/co-writer Romano Ferrara had only a very short cinematic career, and aside from the Gungala series I know him best for the above-average Eurospy flick SPY IN YOUR EYE.
In contrast to almost all of other Euro-jungle films of this period, VIRGIN's sequel GUNGALA THE BLACK PANTHER GIRL-- directed by Ruggero Deodato and only co-written by Ferrara-- boasts an opening in which we see a modern African city with people living modern lives. A narrator tells us that the main action of the film will be in an "Africa of our dreams," which is a nice touch.
The film finds an adequate excuse to re-unite the jungle waif with explorer Chandler (though the character is played by a different actor this time). Viewers learn Gungala is a potential heiress, so her late father's company wants to find her, in order to settle the division of her father's estate.The company hires Chandler to escort a small expedition into the area where the Black Panther Girl holds sway over a still-savage tribe, the Bakendas. In addition to Chandler, the expedition includes Gungala's cousin Julie (Micaela Pignatelli) and another jungle guide, one Morton, with whom Julie had an earlier affair. Thus, for once a European expedition doesn't plan to despoil the tribes of their resources. Gungala herself wears a huge diamond necklace, which makes a taboo presence to the Bakendas. At one point, Julie covets the rock, but the gem is not the primary motive for the adventure
This time a devious, unnamed Arab fills in for greedy Europeans. The guy's got some grand scheme for a "united Africa," though he may only be using this as an excuse to filch the huge diamond at the first opportunity. He's seen briefly at the opening but mostly fades out for the first half of the film.
On the way to the country of the Bakenda tribe, Julie comes on to Chandler, but doesn't completely cut off Morton from her affections, and she shows some jealousy of the men's pursuit of the jungle girl even before she's met her wild cousin. Then the Bakendas attack, slaughtering the bearers and stealing most of the expedition's supplies. The surviving whites make camp, but this doesn't stop Chandler from venturing alone into the jungle. This time when he meets Gungala, the two of them enjoy a mild romantic tryst, despite the fact that Gungala can only communicate in hisses, growls and whoops, like the animals in whose midst she was raised.
When Chandler gets back to camp, Julie comes up with the bright idea of impersonating Gungala to get clear of the natives. She dresses up like the panther girl, but she doesn't have the identifying diamond. Conveniently, Gungala gets caught in a native-made spring-trap, giving Julie the chance to swipe the big diamond. Julie runs off, hoping to deceive the natives into giving them supplies. Morton, however, won't leave the panther girl to the natives, who may no longer esteem her once she's lost the diamond. He cuts her free and Gungala runs away. However, when Morton gets caught by the hostile natives, she frees him with the help of her animal friends.
Gungala takes Morton to her jungle home and, after she introduces him to some of her animal friends, she canoodles a little with Morton. Usually if Italian jungle-moves have a good girl and a bad girl, the good girl is true to her first love while the bad girl will do anybody. I don't know if the writer intended it, but the effect is as if he were saying that Gungala and her cousin Julie inherited the same horny genes. Anyway, the jungle girl and the civilized man, despite sharing no common language, cavort on the African veldt, and Morton, who doesn't intend to capture Gungala as his bosses ordered, gets her to pose for photographs. Though the panther girl clearly has idea what Morton's doing, she responds to his attention by striking poses anyway.
Then Morton and Gungala find out that the Bakendas have captured both Chandler and Julie, and that the Arab has talked the tribesmen into sacrificing Julie, specifically because they think she's the hitherto taboo Gungala. Morton asks the panther girl to intercede and she breaks up the sacrificial ritual by riding into the village on the back of an elephant. The Arab escapes with Gungala's diamond, but just as his tribal accomplice says that he's realized the Arab means no good for Black Africans, the Arab steps into quicksand. Morton arrives too late to save the malefactor, but does recover the diamond. He arrives back at camp, where Chandler has taken Julie, apparently immobilized by pre-sacrificial drugs. Julie comes out of her trance just as Chandler and Morton get into a fight about who's going to return the diamond to Gungala. The natives attack again, but this time Gungala repulses the Bakendas with an army made up of elephants, leopards and chimps. Morton, Chandler and Julie all escape in a boat, but Gungala has eyes only for Morton as the film ends with her romantically pining on the river-shore.
The original Gungala film was both directed and co-written by Ferrara, but even though I couldn't follow the dialogue I found its mise-en-scene pretty dull. Yet PANTHER, directed by Deodato and only co-scripted by Ferrara, was much more entertaining, and I think that even without dialogue I'd have still responded positively to all the sheer number of melodramatic incidents, which may be the result of plot-tinkering by Deodato. None of the actors distinguish themselves in this derivative escapism, with the exception of Kitty Swan. She's as dull as the others in VIRGIN, but in PANTHER her performance is appealing, putting across the innocence of the Biblical Eve, communing with the simple beasts of her realm, and yet also showing when necessary the dynamism of a jungle queen. No, Gungala doesn't slug full-grown men like Sheena, but she has a couple of scenes where she swings on a vine so as to kick bad natives in the face-- and she does have an unquestioned rapport with four or five species of jungle-denizen, who come to her defense in approved Tarzan-fashion. So while VIRGIN is no better than any other Euro-jungle flick, PANTHER stands as one of the three best, alongside 1968's EVE and a selection I've not yet made since most of these movies are so torpor-ific.
No comments:
Post a Comment