As the title credits roll, we see a woman whose face is covered in dark green makeup trilling some high notes against a jungle background. The story begins with archeologist Pete Masters (Don Taylor) arriving in Brazil to visit a museum, but a nutty old guy named Crespi sidelines him, claiming that if Pete bankrolls his expedition, Crespi can take him into the Amazon to find a lost tribe of women, their queen, and their treasures. Silva, the head of the museum, tells Pete about a previous expedition that vanished, and Pete sees just enough evidence from Crespi that his institution agrees to pay for a trip into the jungle. Fernando and Carlos, two shady (and beefy) brothers, try to join their crew but Crespi won't allow it, so the brothers follow Pete's boat closely and eventually board it by force, clearly intending on joining in and taking some of the Amazon queen's booty. A fight ensues—a nicely grimy mud battle— leaving Pete on shore unconscious with malaria, Crespi wandering the jungle looking for help, and the pirate brothers gone. Women in green body paint find him and take him to their village—this is indeed the lost tribe that Pete and Crespi are looking for. He meets Gina and Mario, two people from a previous lost expedition, and he is stripped (to the waist only) and scrubbed in a big tub by a bunch of older, chubby, giggly women before he meets a group of younger, sexier, starlet-looking gals who congregate with their queen Conori and spend their time engaging in chorus-girl dancing and occasional catfighting over the attentions of Pete. Mario warns Pete that the women just need a male to help expand their population and that they will kill him when they get what they want. Indeed, Pete is drugged and an orgy is implied, during which, one assumes, Pete spreads his seed. The next day, the pirates are sighted in the area and a battle ensues. Mario is killed and Pete and Gina escape into the jungle with the missing Crespi their only hope of rescue.
A movie with a title like this can be tricky. You're not going to expect a serious melodrama, though you might expect a comedy or a high-camp adventure story. This isn't quite any of those. It’s a little like Tarzan lite. By far the best part of the movie is the Technicolor orgy in which Pete is drugged and the Amazons are suddenly wearing glittery Las Vegas costumes while they do their showgirl choreography. I love that the scene's fade-out suggests that they all had their way with him, or tried, whereas in an earlier era, something would have interrupted the threat to our hero's purity. I guess that makes him the sole "love slave" of the movie, and he doesn't object much. The giggly bathing scene goes on way too long, and let me be shallow and say that I might have enjoyed it more if someone a bit younger and hunkier than Don Taylor was being stripped and scrubbed. I generally like Taylor but he has virtually no heroic gravitas here, and he often overdoes his comic reactions to a ludicrous degree. Eduardo Ciannelli goes in the other direction, taking his role too seriously, though he vanishes for most of the middle of the movie. Gianna Segale is not terribly memorable as Gina; Ana Maria Nabuco (pictured) has little to do but is luscious eye candy as the queen. Wilson Viana and Eugenio Carlos are bright spots as the pirate brothers—if you like your villains sweaty and beefy, here you go. The ending is a bit anticlimactic but satisfying enough since your expectations aren't all that high. Apparently there is some background footage that was actually shot in Brazil. Directed by Curt Siodmak who wrote the original Wolf Man movie in 1941. [YouTube]
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