The Pink Jungle

Without a doubt James Garner is one of the best comedic actors of the last half of the 20th century. His timing and facial expressions add so much to any film he's in. The Pink Jungle however is one unusual type of comedy for him.

It can probably best be compared to the Humphrey Bogart-John Huston cult classic, Beat the Devil. It's a satire on those adventure in exotic places films that people like Bogart did. The Pink Jungle was invested with a bit more money and had better production values than Beat the Devil even though it never got near South America. But a lot of the satire still fell flat.

Garner is a fashion photographer who together with world renowned model Eva Renzi is plunked down in the middle of some South American jungle in an unnamed country on a shoot. It seems as though some smart Madison Avenue types think it would be a grand idea to shoot Renzi in a real jungle for their product, a lipstick called Pink Jungle.

But before long Garner and Renzi get involved in the local political situation, they kind of stumble into it and they're off on a diamond hunt with George Kennedy and Nigel Green.

The players do their best and Garner is good in anything, but my favorite is Italian actor Fabricio Mioni who's been demoted to this backwater and would like to make a big arrest and kind of zeroes in on Garner as a suspicious character.

I will say this, the ending is quite a surprise, something along the lines of the John Wayne film, The Train Robbers.