As I live in Rio de Janeiro I was curious to see this film. The other reason I picked up this film was that it was directed by Jess Franco (I had already seen "Vampyros Lesbos", "She killed in ecstasy" and "Sadomania"). These films are what I would call porn trash - they tell stories that offer us luscious images of female flesh, lesbianism, mild violence and really entertain us. "Vampyros Lesbos", in particular, is a psychedelic sound and visual trip, featuring the gorgeous Soledad Miranda, present also in "She killed in ecstasy". Jess Franco has a sophisticated visual style of his own.
But "The Girl from Rio"(called also "The Seven Secrets of Sumuru) is absolutely amateurish. It tells no story at all. Its plot is a mixture of science-fiction, spy-thriller and soft porn trash. There is the detective, a mixture of James Bond and Flint (the main character?) always wearing flashy suits and carrying a suitcase containing 10 million dollars, there are the girls from Femina, a city located somewhere near Rio that intend to conquer the world and enslave the men, and there is a gang run by George Sanders. The 10 million dollars is what they are all fighting for. There are of course lots of girls.
Many fights, so badly done that people fall before they are hit. Femina was filmed inside and around the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio. The gang run by George Sanders is composed by 5 people! There's a scene in which they run after the hero(?) wearing fantasy masks and after a ridiculous fist fight, he knocks them out and runs away. Incredible! Not to mention the "apocalyptic final battle" among the hero, the female warriors of Femina and the Gang of Five.
"The Girl from Rio" belongs to the category "so bad that it's good". I had my fun all right! By todays standards this film can't even be considered porn and the violence is mild.
If you see this film, do it the same way you would watch an Ed Wood movie and you'll have your fun. This film was made in such an easy-going way that if you let yourself flow with it, you will have a smile on your face when it ends.
