Now, what exactly is this supposed to be? Let's pose the same question in multiple-choice format, shall we? Is "Trader Hornee": A a comedy? B a sex film? C a jungle adventure? D all of the above. Surely the creators will try and convince you it's a mixture of everything, but the painful truth is that "Trader Hornee" eventually ends up being nothing at all. I appreciated the spirit and joyfulness of everyone involved in the cast, but after barely 20 minutes or so, the film has little else to offer but sheer boredom and forced chuckles. Private eye Hornee (his name is an obvious running joke) and his playful assistant are hired by a bank director and sent to Africa to look for the heiress of a wealthy couple of adventurers that went missing 16 years ago. For you see, during their quest to capture a rare white gorilla, the girls' parents were killed by a tribe of savages and she was never heard of again. Hornee, his assistant, some greedy relatives, a gossipy journalist and a scientist still on the lookout for the white gorilla form quite the unusual expedition crew and discover that the girl is still alive, but not exactly willing to return to the civilized world. The plot, and clearly also the title, is based on a 30's movie called "Trader Horn" that I haven't seen but heard very good things about. The concept of a 'White tribal queen' also got used in several cheap and sleazy (Italian) cannibal flicks, but at least not to my knowledge never in a sexy comedy. Well, the genre classification is debatable, since the film isn't very funny or sexy. All the ladies especially the jungle queen look delicious and show a fair amount of flesh, but these moments are too brief and practically always second to lame jokes. For early 70's standards and, moreover, Something Weird traditions, "Trader Hornee" isn't nearly naughty or rancid enough and simply pales in comparison with "The Adult Version of Jekyll and Hyde", "Space Thing" and "Sinderella". The S&M loving cousins are cute and the scenes with the white gorilla actually stalking the team provoke some genuine laughs, but overall the film is a waste of time.
