The Mystery of Thug Island (1964)
After catching this on Tubi, we realized that in our neverending pursuit of 1960's Internation Co-Production Euro-Junk, we'd left out another sub-genre.......the costume swashbuckler.
Yes, beloved BQers, Italian filmmakers and their frequent European shlock partners (Spain, Germany, France, etc) tried (in addition to Bond knock-offs, spaghetti westerns and giallos) to buckle some swash. Pirates, of course, but they also dipped their toes in that old Hollywood favorite - Colonial India under stiff upper lip British rule.
We longed to review our personal favorite of these, "Temple Of The White Elephants (1964) starring, honest, Errol Flynn's chip-off-the-old-block Sean Flynn but we couldn't nail down an English dubbed copy anywhere.
But here's a worthy suitable substitute, starring Guy Madison, one of 1950's Hollywood B-minus hunks who gravitated over to Europe in search of acting gigs that had dried up back home...(much like Leo DiCaprio's 'Rick Dalton' character from 'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood')
In a rare villain role for Madison, normally a pretty boy lead, he's the religiously lunatic leader of Thugee hordes who worship the usual big ugly statue of the Goddess Kali. (You can think of him of a much better looking version of Mola Ram, the heart-grabbing fiend of 'Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom'.)
Years ago, Guy's ghoulish gang nabbed the three year old daughter of British Captain McPherson (the perpetual white-haired Peter van Eyck). In a cave on the Thugs' remote jungle island, he's raised little Ada (Ingeborg Schoner) into a beautiful virgin priestess in charge of human sacrifices.
But don't despair! Rescue is coming from every direction......Ada's dad and an expeditionary force have set out to find her and wipe out the Thugs. And on the island itself, Ada's come across true love in hunka-hunka poaching snake hunter Tremal Naik (Giacomo Rossi Stuart).
Need we go on? The finale, as you could easily guess, is an all out gun-sword-fist battle between all our good guys and Guy's Thugees.....with the long awaited ultimate slugfest between Guy and Giacomo.
The English dubbed dialogue sounds lifted out of 1950's most cornball low-budget Hollywood costumers.....almost all of it's priceless, hilarious, almost bordering on spoof Oh yes, there's a tiger, which turns into a large stuffed animal for closeups of wrestling with Giacomo. And making things even more unintentionally riotous, Composer Carlo Rustichelli, scores the ominous Thug ceremonies with an out of control slide whistle. (We defy anyone to listen to it without collapsing into giggles.....)
For those connoisseurs/curators of Euro-Junk like BQ, this one's a 3 & 1/2 star find. (***1/2). But if you've been shaking your head in disbelief while reading this review, then you already know enough to go nowhere near movies like this.
We say loosen up, cook up some tubs of buttered popcorn and savor it as guilty pleasure treasure......
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