If there’s one thing the Italian film industry was great at in the second half of the 20th century, it was leaping with abandon into every single bankable genre made exploitable by a big American hit. Jaws? Star Wars? Dawn of the Dead? (Hey, Dario Argento was actually involved in that one!) Ten more just like it, immediatamente! There are Italian knock-offs in multiple genres: shark movies, space films, zombie romps, etc. And when a certain whip-wielding archaeologist debuted in 1981, it wasn’t long before there were plenty of treasure-hunting clones. Just look at director Antonio Margheriti’s “Indiana Jonesploitation” trilogy, which “borrowed” many elements from the first film in the Lucasfilm franchise, 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Severin Films – purveyors of archival-quality physical home video releases for a wide range of cult genre gems – now presents a box set of Margheriti’s Raiders rip-offs in 4K UHD and standard Blu-ray. This is a visual quality that none of these films were ever meant to achieve; they look beautiful. It’s also a wonderfully complete experience as far as dubbing and subtitle options, with both original Italian and English dubs, and captioning for all options. With all of that, and bonus features included with each film, Antonio Margheriti & The Jungles of Doom: His ‘80s Adventure Films is the way to experience this triple slice of Italian-style schlock.
The “Trilogy” As a Whole
Margheriti’s trilogy comprises three films: The Hunters of the Golden Cobra (1982), The Ark of the Sun God (1984), and Jungle Raiders (1985). Before we look at each movie individually, let’s cover some common ground (and remember, these films aren’t actually connected narratively; it’s just a thematic trilogy). First, no matter what flaws these films have, they’re all trying really hard. They make superb use of exotic, evocative locations; utilize charming and pretty damn effective model sequences for airplane and car chase thrills; and remain largely “family friendly” (Jungle Raiders may be just a bit more violent than the other two). They also all have enthusiastically sung, often nonsensical Bond-like songs that play over the opening and/or end credits. You can often feel the leads in each of these movies having fun together, and that goes a long way to smoothing over the rougher patches.
The films share a lot of cast and crew members; our most obvious visual throughline is Margheriti regular and close friend Luciano Pigozzi, who appears in all of them. The only overall negative is that some of the English captioning is unfortunately a bit dodgy. The most egregious examples are on Hunters, which features mistakes like river “rapids” being called “rappers,” and the words “hearken” and “desecrator” written as “Arcan” (what?) and “desiccator.” If you’d like me to edit the subtitles before future releases, Severin, I am available for a reasonable fee; the rest of your work, however, is excellent.
On to each movie, with a little breakdown of key elements, references, and bonus features:
The Hunters of the Golden Cobra (1982)
It’s the Philippines in 1945 (not that the film does a lot to convince us of the year beyond a few uniforms and planes), and American Bob Jackson (NZ actor David Warbeck) and Brit David Franks (Brit John Steiner) face competitors around every corner as they go on a quest to find a possibly supernatural gold snake. Warbeck may be great at pulling faces, but he doesn’t quite have Harrison Ford’s roguish charm. There’s a bit too much shaky handheld camerawork, attempts at humor don’t quite click, the story doesn’t build the stakes very well, and the movie also lacks a musical score that can pump you up like John Williams’ Raiders compositions.
There’s also some problematic if predictable infantilizing of indigenous people, and we really get next to no real background or development in our main characters, but the movie did surprise me by not revealing one particular character as a villain. An inventive use of lighted gelatin makes for a pretty good lava cavern, Almanta Suska does a nice job doing double duty as twins Julie and April, and there’s a fun bus-based action sequence. Ultimately, this is the least of the three movies in this box… but that’s not bad.
Our MacGuffin: The titular Golden Cobra has a questionable mythological origin and an even vaguer power set. It’s basically a gold snake that may or may not be linked in some way to a mysterious wizard that pops up through slide projectors and defies his own fiery death.
Indyisms: There are direct lifts of the initial briefing, basket game, and Well of the Souls sequences from Raiders, as well as the line, “I’m making this up as I go along.” Plus, the opening plane escape is repurposed for the finale. Weirdly, they also seem to predict the volcanic Temple of Doom itself, as well as the motorcycle chase and some of Elsa’s arc in Last Crusade! Could Lucas and Spielberg have seen this? Shock! (I’m kidding… maybe.)
PigozziWatch™: He’s the white-suited Mr. Greenwater, an avuncular “American” archaeologist that may be more than he seems; he also drinks a lot.
Bonus Features: In interview featurettes, Assistant Director and son of Antonio, Edoardo Margheriti, explains the film as a hybrid war movie/Indiana Jones pastiche and notes its links to Apocalypse Now, while Second Camera Assistant Davide Mancori champions the craftsmanship on low-budget Italian films. There’s a fuzzy but fascinating 1996 Q&A with Warbeck (who died one year later), a quick video essay putting the film in historic context, and the all-important trailer.
The Ark of the Sun God (1984)
A huge improvement over Hunters that debuted just two weeks before Temple of Doom, this film benefits from a faster pace, a bit more reliance on Bond-inspired Italian Eurospy action for the first two acts (and the now stylishly-sweatered Warbeck is an excellent Roger Moore stand-in, as he slyly notes in one scene – in fact, he really was Moore’s back-up for Bond, look it up), and some incredible location footage. And if you think you hear Lee Holdridge’s beautiful music from The Beastmaster (1982) in the final act, you’re right. That “borrowed” score, combined with the stunning shoot at Cappadocia in Turkey, makes for near-epic production value.
Warbeck is Rick Spear (honestly…), a safecracker tasked by Lord Dean (Steiner again) to seek a potentially powerful jeweled scepter… and it’s actually the ’80s, oddly enough. With companion Carol (model Susie Sudlow in her only film) and two nearly identical large, bearded sidekicks, Spear drinks Bacardi with milk and crushed ice (ick), tries and fails to start a catchphrase with “you smarmy bastard,” and has a cool climactic sword fight in an impressive temple. There’s a nice character twist, fairly enlightened commentary about making assumptions regarding other cultures based on their clothes, and Warbeck meta-declaring “Well, that’s a rousing finale” as the entire cast gathers for an abrupt freeze-frame ending that looks like the last shot of a sitcom opening credits sequence. This is the trilogy’s high point, with the biggest sense of spectacle.
Our MacGuffin: The Scepter of Gilgamesh, a supposedly cursed artifact that never demonstrates any particular supernatural abilities whatsoever; nevertheless, everyone wants it and thinks it gives them some kind of unspecified power.
Indyisms: Ricardo Palacios’ Mohammed, who’s better at being a hero than Warbeck’s Spear, is a John Rhys-Davies/Sallah stand-in, and there are nods to Raiders’ bar fire, rolling rock (a stone wheel here), and Ark-opening scenes. There are also eerie future echoes of the Temple of Doom garroting scene and countless elements from Last Crusade, from the boat chase to the rat-infested catacombs and Petra temple finale (fun fact, both films shot scenes at Cappadocia… hmm). Even creepier, there are skeletons sitting in a semi-circle of thrones that look a lot like the climactic aliens of Crystal Skull!
PigozziWatch™: He’s Beetle, a former expedition member who gets to make a cross-genre Jaws reference by singing “Show Me the Way to Go Home!” And yes, he drinks here too.
Bonus Features: Edoardo Margheriti tells us about his relationships with his mercurial father and “uncle” Luciano Pigozzi, while co-writer Giovanni Paolucci reminisces about the height of the Italian “replica” films era in interview segments. Antonio Margheriti himself talks about favorite leading man David Warbeck in a very murky-looking but boisterous rare archival interview. There’s even an extra disc with the soundtracks of the first two films… and yes, the trailer.
Jungle Raiders (1985)
Whither Warbeck? Sorry, Dime Store Moore fans, but he’s been replaced by blonde Peyton Place star Christopher Connelly, with support from… Lee Van Cleef! Yup, it’s “The Bad” himself, just one year after his single season as American TV’s The Master. I figured the veteran actor would appear only at the beginning and end of the film, but he wound up playing more of a role than I expected, even trading in his white duds early in the movie for a black outfit with a familiar hat. It’s also back to a period setting… well, in theory; once again, the movie does next to nothing to convince you it’s 1938, apart from an onscreen caption and some vintage cars.
This time, the action takes us to Malaysia… though in actual fact, it’s just the Philippines again. “Captain Yankee” Duke Howard (Connelly) and his grizzled sidekick (Pigozzi) are scamming rich people with fake treasure hunts when Inspector Warren (Van Cleef) blackmails them into helping two academics (Marina Costa and the ridiculously sinister-looking Mike Monty) find a ruby also coveted by local pirates. Connelly and Pigozzi have a good comedic rapport, with Connelly sporting an outfit that makes him look like an all-American comic strip character come to life. There’s a very nice thread with locals gleefully assisting the very respectful Captain Yankee in scamming stupid Westerners by pretending to be the primitives they most definitely aren’t, a kid’s super-intelligent pet cobra that gets the most heroic and romantic finale in the film, and great lines like “Anyway, there’s the volcano.” But although this one starts strong, it lags in the middle and winds up having too many endings before the inevitable abrupt finale.
Our MacGuffin: Perhaps the least explained of our three artifacts (and that’s saying something), the glassy dewdrop-shaped Ruby of Gloom is once again desired by everyone for reasons that will never, I promise you, become even remotely clear… but it does look nice in a turban.
Indyisms: Once again this movie leans heavily on “borrowing” elements from the opening sequence and basket game kidnapping of Raiders, but with Temple of Doom released the year before, this has more overt nods to the Indy sequel. Costa’s Maria Janez exhibits Willie Scott’s clumsiness and tendency to blunder into things, and even teams up with a Short Round stand-in for the final act. British soldiers turn up on a cliffside to gun down villains as in Temple, and our hero even has an Indy-esque hat retrieval while also weirdly referencing Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with a couple’s dive into the water.
PigozziWatch™: He’s Gin Fizz (not even trying to hide it now), but he winds up hanging back for much of the film. Still, he provides plenty of alcohol-themed jokes, because he’s a drunk, you see. And how will you know that? He’ll tell you!
Bonus Features: Edoardo returns one last time for an on-screen interview to talk model shots and his father’s temperament, and points out that some of the forward-looking “Indyisms” we note here were done by his father first. You can also see the original Italian credits and the requisite trailer.
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