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Saturday, July 13, 2024

ALLAN QUATERMAIN AND THE LOST CITY OF GOLD (1986)

Ah, the Cannon Group, aka the Golan/Globus boys.  A barrel-scraping production team active in the ‘70s & ‘80s; always on the hunt for low-lying fruit or a commercial angle to hang a crappy film on.  (When they tried for a quality product, things got even worse.)  This one a followup to their KING SOLOMON MINES remake of the year before.*  Lambasted as being a cheap ripoff of INDIANA JONES, a comparison that might go either way, no?  What were the films George Lucas got his inspiration from?  More problematic, where MINES had J. Lee Thompson directing and a score from Jerry Goldsmith, the sequel has journeyman tv & Disney house director Gary Nelson and Cannon house composer Michael Linn.  Still, not really a bad production, cheap in a fun way . . . for a while.  But when the stunt work and unmatched edits reach their nadir in a ludicrous leap over a cave chasm, everyone tosses in the towel.  Richard Chamberlain is almost adequate as a Great White Adventurer hunting deepest darkest Africa for the eponymous lost city as well as a lost kid brother, amusingly cast with Chamberlain’s longtime real-life partner Martin Rabbett.  Not so amusing is a pre-breakout Sharon Stone, aping Dyan Cannon as tagalong fiancée; and James Earl Jones as an African warrior auditioning for Marching Band drum major with an ax for a baton.  Yikes!  Credit the Golan/Globus boys when knowing when to quit.  No more QUATERMAIN pics for a couple of decades.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  Just about everyone in the film adds an ‘R’ to Allan Quatermain’s last name, pronouncing it Quartermain.  Can this be right?  Or did no one notice?

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK:  *Best and best known of the eight (?) KING SOLOMON’S MINES adaptations is M-G-M’s 1950 hit with Stewart Granger & Deborah Kerr.    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/king-solomons-mines-1950.html

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