Zambo, il dominatore della foresta

This belated (and low-brow) jungle adventure, featuring ex-peplum lead Brad Harris, is one I had never heard of before its late-night Italian TV broadcast not too long ago; as for director Albertini, he was yet another journeyman whose career ran the "Euro-Cult" gamut from caper to superhero flicks, Spaghetti Westerns and various forms of Sexploitation! Anyway, while the film started off on a relatively serious note – with two disparate convicts escaping detention and facing the hardships of the wilderness – it soon veered towards, and got irredeemably stuck, into strictly formulaic (and, worse, camp) territory!; the clearest example of the latter are the handful of flashes to the hero's past (Harris, looking distinctly uneasy in a suit, striving to emote in court over his innocence of a murder charge and a duplicitous girlfriend, as well as an old archaeologist trapped by his equally villainous guide inside a tomb and being driven temporarily insane by the strategic deployment of the Sun's rays which uncovers a buried treasure, to say nothing of a sudden attack by a very fake-looking gorilla!). Harris eventually becomes a legendary Tarzan-like figure, defending the various tribes and forest creatures against the white man's greed; however, his ruggedness and stoicism draws the romantic attentions of the archeologist's young blonde niece – while his exploits garner the adulation of a native who, needless to say, ultimately sacrifices himself to save his hero. The only IMDb review of this one not only is exceedingly forgiving of the film's inherent flaws but gushes at its 'visual splendor' and 'entertainment value' (both of which are actually as modest as the money it cost to make!); to sum things up, then, while certainly harmless in itself, ZAMBO is at the same time riddled with clichés that are rather too blatant to ignore (at least for this viewer).