Queen of the Amazons

source: Queen of the Amazons

Moviecut—Queen of the Amazons

Queen of the Amazons

If "Queen of the Amazons" is listed among the 10 worst films of the 1940s at IMDb, I suppose it means a lot of films have been lost since then or are watched by nobody anymore. "Queen of the Amazons" is nothing particularly bad, just an average adventure flick that required plenty of archive footage of giraffes, elephants, a sinking ship etc. to fill the 60 minutes running time. "Queen of the Amazons" tells the story of a lady who looks in India for her lost fiancé. She is told "wrong continent!", because he actually went on a safari to Africa. Hey, we all make mistakes! Or maybe it was just because they also had some footage from an unfinished movie about India in the archive? Nevermind, the heroes soon continue the search in Africa, where lions attack oftentimes, but the Amazons the title promises don't matter so much. The script writer tried his best to provide some twists and turns for the story, so in the end, it wasn't as bad as the 2 out of 10 average rating made me expect.

Wife looking for her husband who disappeared on a safari finds her first clue in Akbar India, which leads to another safari in Africa. Her husband turns out to be living with a white woman named Zeta in the jungle, and he's not really interested in leaving. This low budget movie is surprising in that it really makes you feel that you're in the jungles of India and Africa. The African footages are beautiful and for that alone, this movie might be worth a watch. It also has the most scenes with tiger and lion actually wrestling a man - something we don't see n more modern movie. Acting and the entire mood of the movie is good. It's very watchable even if the premise of the story is little unbelievable. Although low budget, this movie is lot better than many modern fantasy movies that their artificial props takes away from the atmosphere.

I saw this film on the science fiction classics DVD set, but knew that there would likely not be much science fictional in it -- after noting that it also contains "prehysterical" women or the Sons of Hercules films. There was a "bugologist" and some lessons in anthropology, which were quite fictional, even some unexpected dancing and poetry. It was fun, if like me you happen to like these kind of movies with corny, old-fashion, happy endings -- especially after a hard day's work thinking. The monkey and the raven did seem to be the most interesting actors, especially the monkey. There is even a serious side. It certainly reminds one of how things have changed since then in that then it was against the law to sell ivory without giving the colonial power its cut, while now it's supposedly illegal to do so to anyone at all.

I've noticed several reviewers' exasperation at the "amazon" in the title as if it were a great mistake that the movie is not set in the Amazon Jungle. It should be pointed out that "amazon" is a term from ancient myth which does not originate from the Amazon River in South America. It refers to a legendary tribe of women called "amazons". The river in South America is actually named after that legend, apparently some explore thought he saw some women there who fit that description. But if you like Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies, this is not a bad substitute. I especially like the trained crow. After some recent research findings into the intelligence of crows, it's tricks are quite plausible. Maybe more plausible than some of the human performances.

I just watched this film on my computer at work (on my lunch break). What I find amazing is how a whole movie could be constructed around some African safari stock footage and still be entertaining in a junky way. The 1940's stock character actors do their best to put the plot across and for me it works as a grade B campfest. The men are either handsome and stalwart or older and rather dithering and the women look great in that 1940's glamor sort of way. I love that all the jungle amazons look like they stepped out of a Hollywood beauty parlor in full make up. The action scenes are hilariously hokey and you'll have fun pointing out the mistakes in continuity. As the way to pass an hour I prefer this kind of fun trash to some TV reality show or CSI Wherever.