The Virgin of Bali (1972) User Reviews

70's exploitation charms

[OnePlusOne · 5/10 · 17 July 2006]

Bali-Archipelago-thrills from director Guido Zurli who also gave us the urban cannibal flick Lo Strangolatore di Vienna. In La Vergine di Bali, an English gentleman banker gets fed up with the London city rat race and ventures to Bali to find the meaning of life. Which, by the way seems to include severe alcoholism, brawls, harassing prostitutes, playing with local kids on the beach and making disparaging comments to anyone trying to talk to you. Soon the novelty wears off with the local Police, who makes our hero(?) an ultimatum: Get a job or go home. Said and done, the Englishman takes up employment with a local booze distributor named Fatso(!). But after getting it on with Fatso's wife, it seems his employer is out to kill him. But Fatso's half hearted attempts at assassination fails, and after a failed leisure cruise which ends in a shipwreck, it turns out that fatso is in the gold smuggling racket, and that our guy got his employment to spy on Fatso for the local 5-0. It all ends in a shoot out at sea over the sunken gold and our Englishman finds love in, yes, the virgin of Bali (who by the way is English). …But is he willing to give up his newfound lifestyle for love? All in all this is an enjoyable flick if you are able to over look the fact that the Englishman is seriously annoying and possibly one of the most charmless leads you'll see. A lot of film stock is spent on what I guess Guido Zurli categorizes as Bali's "weird-goings-on", adding up as colorful documentary footage of traditional theater, bull racing and religious festivities. And I must say the smuggler subplot comes across fairly well handled but what makes this film is the fact that it positively reeks with 70's exploitation charms. So if you think you're up for that, give it a chance, they certainly don't make 'em like this anymore.

Mondo Indonesia

[JohnSeal · 4/10 · 27 February 2007]

George Ardisson stars in this Italian-Indonesian co-production as David Rank, a bowler-hatted London bank employee who takes the advice of a Hyde Park Corner speaker and drops out of straight society in favour of living on the island of Bali. He admires the local culture, enjoys the native women, and is having a marvelous time until the local police chief gets tired of his hell-raising ways and threatens to send him back to Blighty. David falls in with local smuggler Porfirio who proceeds to blackmail him--even while the randy Englishman is seducing Porfirio's wife Elaine. There's some fascinating mondo style footage recording traditional Balinese rites such as bull racing, as well as a gorgeous Alessandro Alessandroni score that is worth the price of admission alone, but the knockabout comedy and cheap softcore thrills otherwise offer minimal entertainment value.