Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.0

Invaders of the Lost Gold Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 1, 2021

There are some films that come along in various home theater formats that may not have generated much interest either at the time of their initial theatrical release or frankly in intervening years, but when watched at least generate an audible wow when the cast credits are offered. Invaders of the Lost Gold may be a salient example, since I am not ashamed to admit I had never heard of this film before it turned up in my review queue, and yet when the film started and I saw some of the names in the opening moments I did in fact utter that palindromic expression of surprise. As if Stuart Whitman (Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines) and Edmund Purdom (The Egyptian) wouldn't be enough to spark any cult movie lover's interest, in the "wait, you also get. . ." category, Invaders of the Lost Gold also features Woody Strode (Sergeant Rutledge, The Ten Commandments), Harold Sakata (whose name may not ring bells until one interpolates "Odd Job" from Goldfinger between his first and last names), and Laura Gemser (Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals).

If the cast list will at least be a little alluring to a certain demographic, the first thing that might alert discerning potential viewers to the overall ambience of the film may be its very title. Is it possible for "lost gold" to have "invaders"? Well, in a way, that's exactly what happens, though it might have been phrased a bit more artfully. The film begins with a vignette set in the Philippines in 1945 as World War II is drawing to a close, and a precious cache of gold is being taken to a top secret location by a bunch of Japanese soldiers when they're attacked by a bunch of marauding natives. This opening almost feels like a throwback to serials of yore (as in fact do some later moments in the film), but it almost suggests that the natives are going to be some kind of recurrent villains menacing future "invaders", when in fact the story just kind of willy nilly segues to the "present day" to introduce its contemporary characters, and they're never heard from again (with one potential unexplained event, which is mentioned below).

The hunt for the "lost gold" is supposedly the underlying premise of the film, but things are so haphazardly handled that it hardly matters after a while. Case in point: the "safari" into the "jungle" (which looks suspiciously like some kind of city park with a backdrop of forest) features an expedition headed by hard drinking Mark Forrest (Stuart Whitman), who naturally stumbles across a romantic fling from his past, Maria (Laura Gemser), in the wild, and yet completely without explanation either before, during, or after the event, Maria is suspiciously killed by something rather quickly after her introduction, but not before she goes swimming in the nude.

Other characters include Forrest's erstwhile partner Rex Larson (Edmund Purdom), whom discerning cineastes will spot as a potential bad guy simply because he's chewing the butt of a cigar for large swaths of the film. There's also expedition funder Douglas Jefferson (David De Martyn) and his pretty daughter Janice (Glynis Barber), the latter of whom is along for the ride because someone has to assume the damsel in distress role after Maria's untimely (and inexplicable) demise.

There are some goofy moments here which may make the film passingly interesting to some, aside and apart from Laura Gemser's full frontal nudity. The chief of these may be an intentionally comic (at least one assumes) scene featuring "Odd Job" and Woody Strode going at it with each other, only to kind of realize that kind of activity might be something to be more properly consigned to younger folks. But the bulk of this effort has a kind of meandering quality which never is able to capitalize on its supposedly exotic setting or its kind of lo-fi evocation of an Indiana Jones adventure.

Invaders of the Lost Gold Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Invaders of the Lost Gold is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The back cover of this release doesn't get into the provenance of whatever element was utilized, and instead offers only a fairly generic statement that this is "now scanned in 2K for the first time ever". There are some rough moments here, including a pretty noticeably scratched and damaged opening credits sequence, but once the actual presentation kicks in, things improve markedly and a lot of this presentation pops rather well, offering substantial fine detail levels in at least close-ups in good lighting conditions. Occasionally grain can look slightly "smudged" or clumpy (see screenshot 16 for one example), but on the whole resolves naturally. The palette may be just slightly faded (especially in terms of some of the greens), but actually is rather nicely suffused for the most part. There are recurrent if minor signs of age related wear and tear.

Invaders of the Lost Gold Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Invaders of the Lost Gold features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono mix that offers capable support for the film's patently ridiculous dialogue, along with some occasionally kind of equally silly sound effects once the story gets into its main jungle setting. Francesco De Masi' score also reverberates clearly enough, and all spoken material is delivered without any major issues. Optional English subtitles are available.

Invaders of the Lost Gold Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Rumble in the Jungle (HD; 16:33) is an interview with director Alan Birkinshaw, who relays some general career biographical information along with anecdotes about shooting this particular film.


• Outtakes from Machete Maidens Unleashed (HD; 22:25) offers some unused interviews with Alan Birkinshaw and Corliss Randall, wife of producer Dick Randall. Machete Maidens Unleashed was a 2010 documentary by Mark Hartley.

Invaders of the Lost Gold Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If your first reaction to this film is Wow! as the credits unspool, it may morph ever so slightly into How? once things actually get underway, since director and co-writer Alan Birkinshaw doesn't seem to know how to properly shape the material or how to utilize a frankly peculiarly interesting blend of cast members. Even the use of what were evidently real locations in the Philippines isn't especially well handled, and I frankly laughed out loud at a couple of "jungle" scenes which looked like they could have been filmed at any nearby neighborhood park. Fans of the cast may want to check this out, but they're probably well advised to set their expectation bars as low as possible. Technical merits are generally solid if improvable, and the two supplements will probably be interesting to those who may be considering making a purchase.