Not an easy puppy to come across, but this "Treasure of the Amazon" surely is warmly recommended viewing for every fan of trash, pulp or the glorious exploitation cinema. I was lucky enough to catch it on a national TV channel, during a cult-themed night. This is a Mexican take on the extremely popular jungle adventures of the early 80's, complete with sleaze, gratuitous violence and a once-famous Hollywood cast. We witness how three separate groups of Westerners sift out the dangerous Amazon jungle looking for gold. All three groups encounter wild animals and a savage tribe of head-hunters but eventually it's the typical human greed that is the biggest threat. "Treasure
" is action-packed (not one dull moment) and extremely rich on gore sequences. Highlight of this is a semi-disgusting scene in which a gold-digger is torn apart by ravenous crabs! This particular scene is bit by bit copied from Lucio Fulci's "The Beyond", by the way. Director Cardona Jr. simply replaced the tarantulas with crabs. Much footage comes straight from other (more budgeted) films or nature channel documentaries but that only increases the terrific cult value of this production. The cast performances go from lovely OTT acting (former miss world Ann Sidney) to completely-not-interested acting (John Ireland as the priest). Donald Pleasance is utterly cool as the uncanny Nazi wandering through the jungle to refund the resurrection of his Third Reich. Stuart Whitman shines for the first time again since "The Mark" as the tough jungle rat Gringo.
