WHITE SLAVE COLLECTION

Three "mondo" films crammed onto one regular-priced disc.

The first is NAKED AMAZON (a.ka. FEITICO DO AMAZONAS), a potboiler from the 50s that alleges to be the film that inspired Jacopetti and Prosperi's notorious MONDO CANE.

Shot entirely in Brazil, it starts with documentary footage of Rio's street festivals. Dancers dance, diners dine and people dress up as native Americans in celebration of their culture. All the while, a pompous Englishman narrates over the top, telling us very little of interest or education in his Chomley Warner style.

6 minutes of music later, and we meet a team of explorers: Monica - who spent the previous evening dining at the Rio festivities, the only link to the film's opening - pretty Andrea, zoologist Jeff, doctor Harry (narrator: "Let's hope they don't need his help"!), guide Ozurio, assistant Bob and the chief of the expedition, the narrator himself (actually portrayed by the film's director Zygmunt Sulistrowski). The narration continues as they board a plane, telling us they are setting off on a 1-year expedition into the Amazon in search of a primitive tribe of Indians. Never mind Jacopetti and Prosperi, what's the betting Deodato's seen this too?!

Once they arrive at the Amazon, our intrepid explorers meet the locals, enjoy bowls of boiled turtle steak and row down the river with the assistance of the native fishermen. Throughout, there is no script - the only dialogue is the chief's narration.

In-between ludicrous amounts of wildlife footage padding, matter-of-fact narration and annoying orchestral scoring, we get to see the team wade deeper into the jungle - "highlights" including Bob's boat overturning much to a waiting crocodile's excitement, unsimulated animal-on-animal violence, the fatal stabbing of a boa constrictor and a jaguar being shot down from a tree.

All of which is real, albeit staged for the benefit of the camera. When the cast aren't abusing animals for the sake of their "documentary", they're grinning like jackasses at us. Which makes this pretty offensive trash.

Dated, ugly and ultimately tedious, NAKED AMAZON is presented uncut in it's original full-frame aspect ratio. The print used is scratchy but relatively sharp and bright, while the mono audio holds up well with a clear, loud mix.

WHITE SLAVE (a.k.a. SCHIAVE BIANCHE: VIOLENZA IN AMAZZONIA; AMAZONIA: THE CATHERINE MILES STORY; CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST 2; CAPTIVE WOMEN VII: WHITE SLAVE) follows. Purporting to tell the true story of what happened to a young student called Catherine Miles, it's a silly foray into third-world exploitation that makes up with wackiness what it lacks in downright nastiness.

We start with Catherine (Elvire Audray, VAMPIRE IN VENICE) in an Amazonian courtroom, pleading not guilty to a double murder charge on grounds of "extenuating circumstances". Via flashbacks, we learn what those are.

Events start calmly enough with Catherine's term at a London college coming to an end, at which point she flies out to meet her wealthy parents who are holidaying on the Amazon.

As they sail down the river, all seems well as Catherine's folks tell her they plan to move to London to be nearer her while she studies. But moments later poisonous darts are blown from the riverside bushes, killing Catherine's parents. The boat is then boarded by several native headhunters who, appropriately enough, decapitate the folks and drag Catherine away with them.

After a bit of all-too-real animal violence and a pretty funny scrap with a rival tribe, the native get to their mud-hut village with Catherine tied and gagged. One headhunter, Umukai (Will Gonzales), wins a fight with another and claims Catherine as his prize. Luckily for her, he's a soft touch given to doing things like rubbing oil into her chest to protect it from the sun.

Soon, Catherine is accepted by the tribe and she grows accustomed to life within their small community. She delights the children with her flute playing, and finds love for the first time in her life in the form of Umukai.

But, as the flashbacks continue interrupted by occasional leaps to the present-day court trial, we learn how Catherine discovers there was more to her parents' death than first met the eye, and she seeks revenge.

WHITE SLAVE is badly dubbed, poorly acted, clumsily scripted, unattractively shot and sloppily edited. It suffers from a sub-CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST synth score by Franco Campanino that seems to exist only to irritate, and is padded out with the usual mondo swill of travelogue stock footage and unsimulated animal violence.

But, it is curiously entertaining. All of the above negatives would go against most films, but for Z-grade trash like this - ultimately a revenge story with a mondo background thrown in - they work in its favour. And in addition to all those key elements already listed, we also get the remaining staple genre ingredients: copious female nudity, bloody violence (head loppings galore), naive racism, nasty westerners acting more despicable than the supposed "savages", a 'twist' ending and a lot of unintentional hilarity.

It's worth noting the screenplay was written by Franco Prosperi, and that despite the film's tendency to be likened to Deodato and Lenzi's jungle flicks, there's no cannibalism here.

Trashy, but fast-paced and oddly enjoyable. But not I could easily recommend. WHITE SLAVE is presented uncut in 1.33:1. In addition to the incorrect framing, the picture quality is soft and washed out, and judging from the odd lines running down the screen, it's sourced from VHS. The English mono audio track is very reliable, however.

Finally, we get the abominable shot-on-video SACRIFICE OF THE WHITE GODDESS. Unbelievably, the opening titles reveal that this is inspired by John Huston's TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE!

It starts off with archaeology student Holly narrating the tale of her boring life, talking us through her break-up with boyfriend Bret as she explains she's heading off to Mexico in search of adventure.

Once in Mexico, Holly meets fellow street beggar Lisa - it's here, 9 minutes into the movie, that we actually get some character dialogue.

The pair beg on the streets until they have enough money to fund an afternoon in a local bar. It's there they meet an old man who sells them a map for a dollar. He tells them the map will lead them to Mayan gold hidden in the Mexican jungle. When Holly wins a local lottery she buys a jeep and takes her, her new boyfriend and Lisa off in search of the treasure - with ill-fated results.

This is an extremely amateur affair, with self-conscious performances and shaky camerawork throughout. Country music is used absurdly during the tedious first half, while the second dispenses with plot in favour of plodding chase scenes and bargain basement gore "FX".

The film's presented in a drab 1.33:1, with an adequate mono sound.

There's no extras on the disc, and only a static main menu page allowing you to kickstart the film of your choice.

Liner notes on the reverse of the cover are provided by Justin Wingenfeld, director of the low budget backwoods effort SKIN CRAWL, and are decent read-up on the influence NAKED AMAZON had upon the disreputable mondo sub-genre.

Poor quality transfers of Z-grade films (the best of which, WHITE SLAVE, is better served by the anamorphic Shriek Show release). NAKED AMAZON may be of interest to mondo completists, I guess.

Review by Stuart Willis