Its too bad this script relies on bo svenson to carry the day and donald pleasance is his usual goofy self...naked amazon women please to save us all from dead brain disease...it took me 5 hours watching time with pauses to get to the meat...and then there was none...click, its gone done and over

GOLD OF THE AMAZON WOMEN is one of the earlier films in the career of director Mark L. Lester, whose pinnacle still remains COMMANDO. As a film, this is far below that, and astonishingly tame given the subject matter's ripeness for exploitation. A slumming-it Bo Svenson plays an explorer in New York who embarks on a trip to South America to hunt for El Dorado. Instead, he finds himself captured by a tribe of highly unrealistic Amazon women led by a middle-aged Anita Ekberg, who is better than you'd expect. The waters are muddied by the entrance of Donald Pleasence's ridiculously unimposing villain of the hour, Blasko, who is singularly irrelevant as it turns out. Expect a lot of blonde actresses in leather bikinis running around with bows and arrows but very little else in terms of plot. There's no gore, little action, no nudity, nothing that would make this stand out as even a minor entertaining B-flick.

The excellent reference book "DVD Delirium" suggests hard liquor before an attempt to watch the 1979 TV movie "Gold of the Amazon Women," but somehow, I made it through without. In this amusing cheese(cake) fest, Swedish actor Bo Svenson--38 here and in mid-career--searches the Amazon basin with his thrill-seeking sidekick for the legendary Seven Cities of Gold. They are ultimately captured by a group of white-skinned Amazons, led by the Swedish actress Anita Ekberg--48 here and at the end of her career. The picture actually feels like two separate films, with a fairly serious first half dealing with jungle exploration and some murder attempts on our heroes perpetrated by drug dealer Donald Pleasence (has any modern-day actor appeared in more dubious projects?), but once the girls appear, the film becomes mere male-fantasy camp, with men in cages being forced to sexually please some truly dynamite-looking women. And these guys want to escape?!?! It must be said that Ekberg looks fairly blowsy and out of shape here, unlike her lithe and athletic-looking underlings; she's a looooong way from her Miss Sweden 1951 win, not to mention here "La Dolce Vita" (1960) breakthrough. The film itself also features a helicopter attack, poison ants and snakes, crocodiles, a battle between the Amazons and blowgun-wielding natives, fistfights, smack-addicted Amazons, and the discovery of the Lost City. My advice is to put your brain on hold and enjoy this lighthearted, cheesy fun for what it is. Alright, maybe drink a few beers first...

The filmmakers obviously didn't take this too seriously, and you shouldn't either. Heck, it's a TV movie from 1979 that opens with Amazon archers running around in New York City. It's got action, humor, a few surprises, and a great acting moment from Donald Pleasence when he finally discovers the first of the fabled cities. Bo Svenson anticipates Nick Nolte with his grizzled explorer character who's really a good guy underneath his gruff exterior. The leather-bikini Amazons are cute, although most of them are quite skinny (I imagine the casting director had a thing for skinny ladies). The whole production is quick-paced and good-natured. Pop a beer and enjoy.