‘That funny looking babe ain’t gonna puke on my upholstery.’
Two rogues trick their way onto a scientific expedition because they suspect valuable minerals can be found in the jungle interior. However, the lead anthropologist also discovers a tribe of ape-like humans, who may prove to be the ‘missing link’…
Unusual adventure flick with touches of romance and comedy that swerves drunkenly into more serious science fiction territory in its second half. The premise is fairly simple; rascals Burt Reynolds and Roger C Carmel manoeuvre their way onto Dr Susan Clark’s safari into the uncharted jungles of Papua New Guinea with less than noble motives. He’s the charming bad boy and she’s the uptight brainbox, so there are no prizes for guessing where that’s going, although it gets there much earlier than the audience might have expected. At least in the physical sense. Establishing their relationship is necessary to fuel character motivations later on in the picture, but their courting ritual is stretched out over the entire first act, which takes up about half of the 100 minute running time.
Although some of these proceedings are gently comedic, we get a hint that the project has problems with an early scene where Reynolds recklessly defies a local taboo. As a direct result, the safari’s headman gets a spear in his stomach and plunges to his death. Reynold’s character is obviously culpable for his demise, but the incident never gets mentioned again. Perhaps the guy simply wasn’t important. Anyway, it obviously doesn’t matter as we get straight back to the romantic sparring between Reynolds and Clark.
The discovery of the long lost tribe, christened the Tropi, is decently handled and the makeups are not too bad given the vintage of the film. So, up until the hour mark, the film seems to be a mildly pleasing lightweight adventure story, if a little on the bland side. Then the film takes a massive misstep, and simply never recovers. Reynolds and Carmel go back to civilisation to realise their money-making scheme, and enlist the help of rich scientist/businessman and all-round bounder Paul Hubschmid. Several months pass in the snip of an editor’s scissors and their jungle mining operation is firmly established with the Tropis being used to work the claim!
Bearing in mind that Clark knew nothing about their dodgy plans, she’s seems perfectly fine with it as long as she can carry on with her tests and observations. She even talks about mating one of her subjects with a human being in the hope of producing offspring! So the film has suddenly got serious. It does seem to take a while for everyone to get on board with this abrupt change in tone, however, because there’s still time for some romantic comedy with our mismatched leads, accompanied by appropriately light-hearted music. Then Hubschmid reveals that he is bankrolling Clark’s breeding programme because he wants to create a cheap global workforce and cash in! This triggers a serious change of heart for Reynolds, and a couple of very sudden story twists send everyone into the courtroom for the ridiculous final act. This tries to mix humour with tragedy as well as deliver a significant message, and fails on all counts.
‘I, uh… sold the Denebians all the rights to a Vulcan fuel synthesizer.’
It is interesting to see Reynolds before he became a major star, although he had already established leading man credentials in minor projects such as ‘Navajo Joe’ (1966) and ‘Sam Whiskey’ (1969). Clark played opposite Clint Eastwood in ‘Coogan’s Bluff’ (1968) and became a leading lady throughout the 1970s, with a role in excellent Sherlock Holmes-Jack the Ripper rumble ‘Murder By Decree’ (1979) and an Emmy nomination for a TV biopic about Amelia Earhart. Carmel will be forever celebrated as the duplicitous Harry Mudd on the original series of ‘Star Trek’.
Original director Richard Wilson was fired by producer Saul David on the very first day of shooting and replaced by Gordon Douglas, who had worked with him on James Coburn spy satire ‘In Like Flint’ (1967). Douglas did have a lot of experience, including working with Laurel & Hardy, many Westerns programmers and wrangling giant ants in classic 1950s monster mash ‘Them!’ (1954). He’d also delivered several successful crime pictures starring Frank Sinatra in the 1960s. Sadly, he never gets a firm grip on the material here.
The screenplay was based a 1952 novel by French writer Vercors; real name Jean Bruller, and there is the kernel of a good story here. Unfortunately, the film bungles it completely. Things simply happen far too quickly in the later stages, and the initial light-hearted approach is at variance with the attempts at social relevance that follow. Keeping Reynolds and Clark’s romance in the background and ditching the more comedic aspects would have allowed more time to be spent on developing the transitions between the story’s main events, and helped to keep a more consistent tone. As it is, the second half seems hopelessly rushed and fairly silly. Yes, there are some important messages about the exploitation of native people, the corrupting influence of civilisation, and the nature of what it is to be human, but they’re delivered in such a ham-fisted and muddled way that they fail to make any kind of an impact.
Reynolds blamed the film’s failure on indifferent direction and the lack of a good promotional strategy, although he did praise the script. It may be that the end results were simply a case of post-production interference in a misguided effort to make the film more commercial.
Whatever the circumstances, it’s a deeply unsatisfying mess.
Mark David Welsh 