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Stranded in Africa without a passport, Brooklyn-bred Nona (Arline Judge) has
taken on a job as singer at shady Simmons' (Arthur O'Connell) hotel. When
Simmons & his 2 even shadier partners Groszman (Victor Kendall) & Beltz
(Feodor Chaliapin jr) - quite fittingly for the time identified as Nazis - kill
a British agent for some important papers, Nona decides to escape into the
jungle on her own to avoid trouble & soon meets up with the expedition of
paleontologist Larry Mason (John King) & his butler Jefferson Jones (Mantan
Moreland).
At first, Larry is less than happy to have her on his team too, but soon
Nona's charms work on him, & he even shakes Grozman & Beltz - who are
after her since someone has slipped the important papers of the British agent
into her coat unbeknowest to herself - off her trail. Still, Groszman &
Beltz do not give up easily, & they soon team up with the local native
tribe, who promise to track down the fugitive girl for them. To escape them,
Nona, Larry & Jefferson hide in a hidden cave that turns out to be an
ancient natives' tomb - but when it also turns out to be the home of a big
gorilla, they have to make another escape ... right into the natives' clutches.
In the natives' camp, they await certain execution, until the natives' chief
Mabongo (Laurence Criner), who turns out to be an Oxford-educated African,
makes friends with Jefferson, & the two find out that all of Jefferson's
Harlem-style behavioural patterns (pretty much Moreland's typical parody of
racial clichés) have their roots in Mabongo's tribe.
Now the tables are turned on Grozman & Beltz, who soon become
prisoners of the tribe, while Nona & Larry are left off into a romantic
future together ...
Very low budget jungle thriller, shot on cheap less-than-convincing jungle
sets & not even relying on jungle-wildlife stock footage to create the
illusion of a real jungle - which is just as well though, since badly inserted
jungle footage more often than not destroys the illusion rather than
contributing to it -, come to think of it, apart from the man in the gorilla
suit, there's no wildlife at all in this movie. Also, the plot is less than
thought through, & the finale, despite being funny, does not really work as
a conclusion for the story.
On the plus side though, Arline Judge makes a spunkier than usual leading
lady, & Mantan Moreland delivers another funny performance - though from
today's point of view his racial comedy (rather a parody of racial stereotypes)
might be considered less than politically correct (despite the fact that he was
quite popular with black audiences back then).
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