Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold Blu-ray Movie Review

It was probably lost for a good reason.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 13, 2015

You know that “r” that most people don’t pronounce in February, the one that President Obama made fun of in his recent (reportedly) viral video touting the sign up period for the health care law? Well, that “r” has evidently time traveled and matriculated over to the 1987 Indiana Jones knockoff, Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold. Aside from the typically correct elocution of co-star James Earl Jones, everyone else in this film goes around calling its titular character “Quartermain.” That may ultimately be neither here nor there, but the fact that it rises to the level of annoyance (at least for pronunciation Nazis, and you know who you are) is perhaps at least one indication of some inherent problems with the film, since despite a lot of manic activity on screen there often isn’t enough to keep the viewer totally engaged, thereby leading to quandaries about why so many people can’t seem to pronounce the film’s hero’s surname correctly. Allan Quatermain was the creation of British author H. Rider Haggard, who introduced the adventure seeking character in what would ultimately become the best known of the Quatermain stories, and one which provided fodder for several feature films, including 1950’s King Solomon's Mines and its 1985 remake King Solomon's Mines. That remake attempted to reboot the 19th century character as a kind of “historical” Indiana Jones, and offered Richard Chamberlain a chance to strut both his action-adventure stuff as well as display his light comedy skills. Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold was evidently filmed more or less simultaneously with the 1985 King Solomon’s Mines but languished on the shelf for a couple of years before its eventual release. That delay may have been at least partially due to a slowly dawning recognition that some of the ideas and portrayals running rampant through the film were “historical” in their own right, and not always in a good way. The original Quatermain character was not exactly a model of political correctness, often espousing a typically 19th century set of attitudes about the destiny of white people and concepts like colonization and eminent domain. That makes parts of Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold uncomfortable at the very least, though it’s the film’s relentlessly derivative tone that ultimately may hobble it more precariously.

Unlike Indiana Jones, Allan Quatermain evidently is able to maintain a stable relationship with one female, if only just barely. He’s more or less happily ensconced with Jesse Huston (Sharon Stone) in Africa, after their previous adventures which were detailed in King Solomon’s Mines. Jesse has big plans for their upcoming nuptials, which include finally getting Allan in a suit, something the adventurer isn’t too keen about. When a compadre of Quatermain escapes from some hooded tribal hunters in the forest and shows up in front of a shocked Allan and Jesse, those marriage plans seem to be in jeopardy. That jeopardy only grows when the delirious man tells Allan that Allan’s long missing brother is actually alive and well in a fabled lost city of gold.

That sets the story out on its whimsical quest element, with Allan and Jesse accompanied by “noble savage” Umslopogaas (James Earl Jones) and frenetic Indian swami Swarma (Robert Donner). The film attempts to ape the “Saturday morning serial” approach of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, with a series of vignettes that offer cliffhanger scenarios, scenarios which are almost always concluded more or less instantly with little muss or fuss. In fact the bulk of this film is incredibly incompetently edited, cobbling together brief moments of reaction shots and lo-fi special effects to try, however fitfully, to work up a feeling of excitement and exoticism.

Needless to say, there is indeed a lost city of gold, though whatever practical set was used for this location resembles some kind of low rent resort plunked down in the middle of the desert (one remembers the disparaging comment about the 1973 musical version of Lost Horizon, where the main set was accused of looking like “the Shangri-La Holiday Inn”). It’s at this point that the film tips over into self-parody and complete nonsense, with an addled tribal leader named Agon (Henry Silva, not just chewing the scenery, but swallowing it whole) who has somehow cowed a gaggle of thousands despite having little more than a fright wig to make him seem powerful. (That’s “Elvira,” Cassandra Peterson, as one of the two “queens” backing him up.)

The film has a number of potentially objectionable elements beyond its general dunderheaded qualities. To see an actor of James Earl Jones’ stature tooling around in a fur outfit and carrying a giant axe is depressing enough, but the film takes that stereotypical character and ups it materially by presenting a bunch of other crazed black warriors, all in face paint, feathered headdresses and costumes that look like some kind of song and dance routine out of Stormy Weather . The whole premise of a “lost white tribe” seems questionable at best, especially when it’s finally revealed that the “lost” tribe is actually multiracial.

Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.36:1. This is a somewhat problematic transfer that has the look of having been sourced from dupe elements. The grain structure is not just heavy, it's not especially organic looking and gives the film a kind of pock marked, crosshatched quality, something that makes midrange and wide range shots (and frankly even some close-ups) look overly soft. Things are on the dark side throughout the presentation, with colors that often fail to pop with much immediacy. In fact there are some sequences where the colors are so anemic as to almost make the film look like a (badly) colorized outing, perhaps another indication that original elements were not available. There are some odd anomalies along the way, as well, including a completely odd looking phenomenon at around 29:40 on a shot of the African horizon, where the upper left section of the frame is weirdly pixellated and almost looks like it's suffering from VHS era tracking issues. The greater resolution of this Blu-ray also reveals some frankly shoddy looking process photography (a sequence in a cave is almost comically incompetent looking). All of this said, in brightly lit environments, this presentation is at least watchable, if soft and very heavily grainy looking. Darker moments have a diminishing set of visual returns.

Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix that offers good support for the film's dialogue, but which can't overcome some really haphazard mixing issues with regard to the extremely problematic score. While Michael Linn is credited as composer, the film actually recycles huge swaths of Jerry Goldsmith's score for King Solomon's Mines, along with other cues culled from previous Golan-Globus efforts. The result is like a patchwork quilt, with near incompetent edits, fades and the like. The fact that so much of the score is so obviously modeled on John Williams' iconic work for Indiana Jones just makes the results all the sadder, frankly.

Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (1080p; 1:12)

Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold really could have been a great deal of fun, but a lazy script including some politically incorrect elements and an uncertain tone from several of the performers undercut a film already teetering from almost laughable special effects and an obviously derivative ambience. Fans of the film will probably want to peruse the screenshots accompanying this review, for while this transfer is watchable, it's far from optimal.