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Released by: Crash Cinema
Released on: April 15, 2003.
Director: Alan Birkinshaw
Cast: Stuart Whitman, Edmund Purdom, Woody Strode, Laura Gemser, Harold Sakata
Year: 1982
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The Movie:
Invaders Of The Lost Gold has really only one thing in it's favor - it's made up of an all-star exploitation cast. Harold Sakata (Odd Job from Goldfinger), Stuart Whitman (who appeared alongside an oiled up Lee Van Cleef in Captain Apache and a ton of other b-movies), Woody Strode (Kingdom Of The Spiders, Once Upon A Time In The West) and Laurie Gemser (of Joe D'Amato's Emanuelle series) all have large roles in the film.
The story starts off with a bang. A troop of Japanese soldiers in the Philippines during World War II are attacked by a tribe of blood thirsty savages (who, sadly, don't appear to be cannibals) and the gold they are escorting through the jungle becomes lost when the savages chop off their heads.
Cut to the swinging seventies and an entrepreneurial chap decides to hire on Mark Forrest (Whitman) to lead an expedition consisting of himself, his foxy blonde daughter, his assistant Cal (Strode) and his henchman Tobachi (Sakata) into the jungle to find the gold and in turn make themselves all filthy rich.
Once they're there, they meet up with Forrest's ex-girlfriend Maria, played by Laura Gemser, who five minutes later takes off all her clothes, jumps into a lake for a swim, and dies screaming only to wash up on shore a few minutes later. How or why she dies isn't important I guess, as we're never given a reason for it. She just takes off her clothes, goes swimming and starts to scream. Ummm….ok. Sure.
Anyway, back to the story. Eventually other members of the crew start getting knocked off, and only Forrest and the foxy blonde daughter make it to the cave to find they've been double crossed by Forrest's old partner from back in the day.
This movie is a total mess. The first ten minutes are great and the last twenty or so are pretty solid, but the middle drags a bit and there are so many loose ends left dangling that it can really make your head hurt if you try and sort it all out. That being said, it does have a small amount of charm, particularly if you're a trash film aficionado like myself as it's incoherence and gratuitous nudity and violence do make for a few stand out moments.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Crash has presented Invaders Of The Lost Gold in a non-anamorphic 1.85.1 transfer. Although the transfer itself is quite decent, no artifacts or edge enhancement is noticeable, the elements used were in pretty rough shape so there are scratches, grain and other forms or print damage evident throughout the duration.
The Dolby Digital Mono track is surprisingly clear and robust and it's never hard to understand any of the dialogue. Sound effects come through quite nicely as does the background music and there are only one or two instances where and hissing or popping is noticeable.
Included are a few trailers for a couple of other unrelated Crash Cinema releases. The cover art is pretty keen as well.
The Final Word:
Invaders Of The Lost Gold is a mish-mash of craziness that should prove interesting to exploitation fans or bad movies.