JUNGLE BLUE (1978)
Director: Carlos Tobalina
Vinegar Syndrome

Vinegar Syndrome answers the "ball of the wild" with their new DVD of the truly bizarre X-rated Tarzan knock-off JUNGLE BLUE.

Jane (Kathie Kori) arrives in Peru in search of her missing father. Lovely Silvia (Nina Fause, MARILYN AND THE SENATOR) convinces Jane with a lesbian massage to let her and Hank (Hank Lardner) join her on the trip. Posing, respectively, as a pharmacist and botanist searching for healing herbs, Silvia and Hank are actually in search of precious jewels, and the tribe Jane's father was studying are the only ones with real jewels in their ritual ornaments. In the jungle, they meet – and Jane and Sylvia lust after – loin-clothed white man Evor (Bigg John, V: THE HOT ONE) – rumored to be the "lord of the jungle" created like Adam but immortal since he has not "sinned" (i.e. gotten laid) – who informs them that Jane's father has died. While Jane mourns, Silvia takes the opportunity to jump Evor's bones (when she later discovers that Evor has also made time for Jane after their exhausting session, she muses "Even if he's not a super man, he's a super fuck!"). Silvia – who turns out to be a real ball-biter – is nevertheless a practical woman; so she and Hank push ahead with their plans to get Evor to introduce them to the tribe, poison them all with candy, and make off to Brazil with the jewels.

JUNGLE BLUE is quite frankly a mess. It may have been an unfinished production or a softcore film with added hardcore footage – inserted at random to keep the audience from getting bored during the unnecessarily lengthy set-up – or a patchwork of a completely unrelated production augmented with said hardcore inserts (including a drug orgy filled with unrelated characters apart from Silvia, and a random white girl getting it on with a gorilla-suited guy in the mist). The JUNGLE BLUE title card is actually a close-up of the title on the poster, but it is followed by the actual title card REY DEL AMAZONAS with a 1976 copyright. Supporting cast names are presented as a pan across the credits on the poster, before a similar shot of the star names above it; however, we also get traditional optical credits for Fause, Kori, and Lardner (but not lead "Bigg John"). The cutaways to the drug orgy throughout the film make it seem like it's taking place over several days (or it could make the jungle story a dream) – these and flashbacks to Silvia and Jane's lesbian massage make give it the feel of a Jess Franco jungle film – and it appears that the same female stand-in is used for Evor's encounters with both Jane and Silvia.

Vinegar Syndrome's single-layer, progressive, anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1 rather than the 1.85:1 stated on the back of the case) transfer probably looks as good as the film can. Colors are rich with some grainy shadows in the sunny exteriors, and the materials are generally unblemished apart from some scratches inherent in the stock footage. Sharpness varies depending on the camera focus. The Dolby Digital 1.0 mono track is fairly clean, with the rough edges of the original mix's blend of location audio, awkward dubbing, and voiceovers in evidence. The film's trailer (4:30) is the only extra. Not a good film – and definitely a wasted opportunity for a pornographic take on Tarzan (although apparently Joe D'Amato has since filled that opening) – but certainly intriguing viewing for anyone with a more than casual interest in the quirks of 1970s adult filmmaking. (Eric Cotenas)

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