The Pink Jungle (1968)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Delbert Mann

Writers:

Alan Williams (novel)
Charles Williams (writer)

Release Date:

16 September 1968 (Sweden)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

Deep In The Jungle They Hunted The Diamonds... The Woman... And Each Other!

Plot:

A famous fashion photographer is trapped in a remote South American country with a beautiful model and together with some unscrupulous characters...

Plot Keywords:

Diamond Mine | Model | Photographer | Village | Jungle

Cast

James Garner	...	Ben Morris
Eva Renzi	...	Alison Duguesne
George Kennedy	...	Sammy Ryderbeit
Nigel Green	...	Dennis McCune (incorrectly given in credits as 'Crowley')
Michael Ansara	...	Raul Ortega
George Rose	...	Captain Stopes
Fabrizio Mioni	...	Coronel Celaya
Vincent Beck	...	Sanchez
Val Avery	...	Rodriguez
Robert Carricart	...	Benavides
Natividad Vacío	...	Figueroa
Nacho Galindo	...	Hotel Proprietor
Pepito Galindo	...	Bellboy
Victor Millan	...	Helicopter Pilot
Than Wyenn	...	Customs Agent

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15

Company:

Cherokee Productions

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Projectionist (1971)

It's A Lipstick People

Without a doubt James Garner is one of the best comedic actors of the last half of the 20th century. His timing and facial expressions add so much to any film he's in. The Pink Jungle however is one unusual type of comedy for him.

It can probably best be compared to the Humphrey Bogart-John Huston cult classic, Beat the Devil. It's a satire on those adventure in exotic places films that people like Bogart did. The Pink Jungle was invested with a bit more money and had better production values than Beat the Devil even though it never got near South America. But a lot of the satire still fell flat.

Garner is a fashion photographer who together with world renowned model Eva Renzi is plunked down in the middle of some South American jungle in an unnamed country on a shoot. It seems as though some smart Madison Avenue types think it would be a grand idea to shoot Renzi in a real jungle for their product, a lipstick called Pink Jungle.

But before long Garner and Renzi get involved in the local political situation, they kind of stumble into it and they're off on a diamond hunt with George Kennedy and Nigel Green.

The players do their best and Garner is good in anything, but my favorite is Italian actor Fabricio Mioni who's been demoted to this backwater and would like to make a big arrest and kind of zeroes in on Garner as a suspicious character.

I will say this, the ending is quite a surprise, something along the lines of the John Wayne film, The Train Robbers.