Gungala, the Black Panther Girl

One of the factors that led to my sad existence as a bad movie fan was watching Johnny Wiessmuller's Tarzan flicks when they actually used to show such films on the television. From Tarzan clearly swinging through the jungle on a trapeze swing to fighting a rubber crocodile, from Cheetah going from a live chimp to a hairy rag doll when thrown across the jungle floor, it was a constant source of hilarity for me and my family.

So it was that within about ten minutes of Gungala I realised that I was getting Tarzan: Only With Boobs and Less Laughs. I didn't realise that before resorting to slaughtering animals in real life to provide entertainment (with Cannibal Holocaust and Last Cannibal World), Ruggero Deodato had made this film, a jungle action flick that begins nice enough with the pretty Kitty Swan running about the jungle in the buff to a nice theme tune. Sadly, the first thing she seems to learn from the modern women is how to cover up!

You see Gungala is the long lost heiress to a huge fortune who vanished when a plane in crashed in the jungle some years before. An expedition is sent either by her family or an insurance company (and I've now resorted to having to translate Spanish on the fly, as well as Italian, so forgive me if I'm a bit choppy with the plot), and of course not everyone involved in the expedition is entirely trustworthy. Julie I think works for the company, as does her colleague Johnny. The blonde guy I think was perhaps a relative of Gungalas. Of course there's an evil foreign guy working independently with the local cannibals we have to look out for too, as well as a drunken mage-like man. But first, as with the Wiessmuller films, all the black porters must be slaughtered by the natives about ten seconds after everyone sets foot in the jungle, but don't worry - our white heroes are safe behind their suitcase barricade, with their long-range rifles.

It's not long of course before Gungala turns up with her pet panther and starts acting like a cat and making Julie jealous (women, eh?), but then I think Johnny started hitting it off with Gungala and we get a very lengthy sequence where Gungala imitates various animals while Johnny tries to figure out what 'Can I mash your paps' is animal talk. Also, the foreign guy keeps trying to kill everyone and those nasty cannibal types are overdue for a jungle chase, so how is the plot going to fit in the quicksand sequence, the tribal drumming sequence, the topless native girl sequence, the topless cannibal tribeswoman sequence, the Gungala and the chimp versus the cannibal tribesman sequence before we get to the big escape part with Gungala calling in her elephant friends?

All of that was par for the course with those Johnny Wiessmuller films, so why am I complaining about this one? It's just a bit dry and serious I guess, but then, would you rather have a bunch of actors tear apart a turtle for real? For shame, Ruggero.

Gungala did learn one thing I guess - all men are jerks.

This exciting film contains thrills , emotion , hard-boiled characters, adventure and action scenes of infighting between violent tribes and explorers. Only the Italians would have the audacity to focus an entire film around the spectacle of a "jungle girl" running around with her breasts in the air and wearing only a small thong. All manner of short-budget mayhem ensues, as most of them turn out to be traitors, vicious natives, ominous Arabs and jungle animals attack too. The plot is nothing more than a female version of the often-shot Tarzan story, but it lacks the curious mixture of glossiness and raw entertainment that most Tarzan films have to offer. It is a simple and predictable adventure spectacle in which only stands out the beauty Kitty Swan , including her gorgeous attractive with nude set pieces and Sexciting scenes never before shown, never be made again by herself. Dealing with an insurance company, led by a wealthy English family, organizes an expedition to Africa to find a lost heiress who has been raised in the wild as Gungala and one of the explorers falls in love with her. When unscrupulous explorers steal a sacred diamond from the Basoko tribe. Their white queen, Gungala (Kitty Swan), who keeps a panther as a pet, takes revenge to impose jungle justice. This here is pure exploitation as we see the young woman going around doing her naked jungle walk. Gungala is a potential heiress, so her late father's company wants to find her, in order to settle the division of her father's estate. The company hires Chandler to escort a small expedition into the area where the Black Panther Girl holds sway over a still-savage tribe, the Bakendas. In addition to Chandler (Jeff Tangen), the expedition includes Gungala's cousin Julie (Micaela Pignatelli) and another jungle guide, one Morton (Angelo Infanti), with whom Julie had an earlier affair. Thus, for once a European expedition doesn't plan to despoil the tribes of their resources. Gungala herself wears a huge diamond necklace, which makes a taboo presence to the Bakendas. At one point, Julie covets the rock. When Chandler gets back to camp, Julie comes up with the bright idea of impersonating Gungala to get clear of the natives. She dresses up like the panther girl, but she doesn't have the identifying diamond. Conveniently, Gungala gets caught in a native-made spring-trap, giving Julie the chance to swipe the big diamond. Along the way, our protagonists are attacked and abducted by aboriginal tribes on the edge of jungle, and confronting each other.

Gungala, the Black Panther Girl is one of numerous topless jungle girl movies emanating from Europe in the late 1960s and 1970s, this is par for the genre. Inserted scenes include plenty of native rituals in which topless black women dance seductively to the beat of the drums and plenty of shots of elephants, lions, panther going about their business in the jungle. Sometimes the film cuts between a set-bound jungle location to a shot of Gungala swinging through the trees on a vine and the effect is less than breathtaking.¨Gungala the Black Panther Girl¨(1968) is the sequel of ¨Gungala, Virgen of the jungle¨ (1967) by Romano Ferrara, starring Kitty Swan, Linda Veras, in contrast to almost all of other Euro-jungle films of this period, this follow-up directed by Ruggero Deodato and only co-written by Ferrara-- boasts an opening in which we see a modern African city with people living modern lives.

Typical exploitation film in which an African expedition finds wild white girl living with animals on a backlot jungle set. The titular role is ridiculously played by lovely Kitty Swan, at her most gorgeous, but giving one of the worst interpretations in the film history . Gungala just wore like tearing cloth just to cover her front and back and we can see her usually naked. There are bad guys and good guys on the expedition, but the principal point of the film is summed up in the observation that spends most time on the screen wearing nothing but a little junglekini thong bottom. She looks terrific, traveling the jungle on elephantback. Her pet panther eyes her up and down, while her chimp does frolics and capers. Kitty Swan is also known for other jungle films: "Tarzan in the Golden Grotto" (1969), and "Tarzan at the Rainbow" (1972), later titled Tarzan and the Brown Prince) in which she was badly burned on the set along with the starring Tarzan played by Steve Hawkes.

Resulting to be a lighthearted romp for teenagers about jungle adventures, concerning an expedition looking for a person who has presumably crashed somewhere in the African jungle. The subgenre about Tarzan spoof with a female star had a large developing in the European cinema during the 60s and 70s, such as: ¨Golden Goddess of Rio Beni" (1964) by Eugenio Martin, starring Gilliam Hills, ¨Tarzana, the Wild Woman¨(1969) by Guido Malatesta with Beryl Cunningham, Femi Benussi; the latter Femi Benussi starred as an Amazon girl in ¨Che fanno i nostri supermen tra le vergini della jungla? (1970) by Bitto Albertini. And in the Spanish cinema: 'Kilma, Queen of the Jungle" (1974) and "Kilma, reina de las amazonas" (1976) by Miguel Iglesias, starring Eva Miller.

The director of the first entry and co-writer Romano Ferrara had a very short film career, and aside from the "Gungala: series, I know him best for the above-average European spy film "Spy in Your Eye." The picture was badly and painly directed by Ruggero Deodato. He made a successful horror film, the infamous ¨Cannibal Holocaust¨ . Ruggero Deodato directed the "Cannibal Trilogy" made up of ¨Ultimo mondo cannibale¨ (1977) , ¨Cannibal Holocaust¨ (1980) and ¨Cut and Run¨ (1984). This artisan was a prolific cameraman/writer/producer/director who has made all kinds of genres. He was a notorious Italian director especially known for this one, today considered a classic, "Cannibal Holocaust". He has directed all kinds of genres with particular penchant for terror, violence, and adventure movies, such as: ¨Jungle holocaust¨, ¨House on the edge of the park¨, ¨Bodycount¨, ¨Dial help¨, ¨Phantom of death¨, ¨The washing machine¨, ¨The raiders of Atlantis¨, ¨Concorde affair¨, ¨Live like a cop die like a man¨, ¨Lone runner¨, ¨The barbarians¨, among others . Rating 2.5/10. It suffers the most because it's just so dull. Nothing ever really happens outside of the nudity. There's no real action, no much adventure, there's really no laughs or anything else for that matter.

I was lucky to see this second Gungala part in Russian, so I can say, that it is just one of those 60s jungle born woman series. Nothing special, but the jungles and trip atmosphere. I can see that in this 1968 effort horror master getting in to natural effects. The main actress is quite sympathetic and the whole adventures story is funny in some places, but this is not an original film, just a film. Still,those who like this exotic trip movies with the nice presence of peaceful eroticism. But it is the prototype of many early 80s jungle-based b movies . Good music .. Andrey Grachev "www.myspace.com/neizvest" If you are really interested in this sort of films. I can also recommend Umberto Lenzi before 1970.