Cult Movie Challenge 2018 | 38/52 | Mondo Macabro
General Balthazar is leading a convoy through the jungle of an unnamed banana republic, carrying $1 million that he intends to get off the island. Jo Turner and Mai Ling join a truck of women riding through the jungle. They plan to interrupt the convoy by blowing up the bridge while the guerrilla leader, Ernesto, and his hired men raid the convoy. Ernesto’s crew warns him about Malavael and One Eye, but they need the firepower if they’re going to pull this off.
The women stop at a farm, where most line up to collect fruit for the farm, while Jo and Mei Ling sneak into the warehouse to meet up with their fellow revolutionaries. They find a stash of automatic weapons and ready themselves. Suddenly, Captain Morales, who works for Balthazar, and his men raid the warehouse. They line the women up and shoot them one by one until Jo reveals the location of their men. But Jo will not break, so they take Jo and Mai Ling to a prison camp. Who betrayed them?
Still, the bridge blows, and the men raid the convoy. They kill the men and locate the money. Ernesto’s crew initiates the splitting up of the cash with Malavael’s men, but Malavael double-crosses them and takes the money for themselves. Meanwhile, policewoman Lynn Jackson interrogates a rapist. Morales interrupts to request her services in interrogating Jo and Mai Ling. But Lynn Jackson has plans of her own.
The film follows Jo and Mai Ling as they chase the money and all the other parties that get in their way.
The movie has a lengthy opening in which W.P. Billingsley explains who is who, who double-crosses whom, and so on, but it felt like too much of a spoiler to mention here. I guess that the production company found the double crosses too confusing and asked for an explanation up top. One of the producers is John Ashley, who plays Billingsley. Incidentally, he also gets a sex scene with each of the stars. It’s played for laughs to show how duplicitous he is, but… c’mon, we know why.
The cinematography might be the worst I’ve seen in a studio movie. Heads and faces are often cut in half. Frames are just sort of whatever they can fit in the picture. In places, it feels like they enlarged the footage to censor it, but it also happens in scenes with just people standing and talking.
Despite all the pageantry, this is ultimately a women-in-prison film. If you’re looking for something lurid, you’ll be disappointed. If you’re looking for Sid Haig in brownface, you’re in luck! Despite this (or more likely because of this), he’s having the most fun of anyone on screen. I wouldn’t call this movie exciting or tense, but it is of reasonable length. The climax is the best part — I just wish it came sooner.