River of Death (1989)

Dir: Steve Carver

The Third Reich is crumbling. The Russians have beat back the Hun to the Fatherland. It is 1945, Germany. SS Commander Heinrich Spaatz (Donald Pleasence HALLOWEEN) arrives at a P.O.W. camp, the Russian army just a short distance away. He is there to see the Mengele like Dr. Wolfgang Manteuffel (Robert Vaughn KILLING BIRDS). His orders are to bring the Dr. and himself to Hitler's bunker. But Heinrich has a better plan. He wants the Dr. to join him in South America. Heinrich will be a prosperous businessman and the Dr. can continue his inhumane experiments in his quest to rid the planet of inferior races. The Dr. agrees but at the runway rendezvous point to escape the in flames country he turns on his friend. Shooting Heinrich in the knee, the Dr. leaves behind his former comrade. Heinrich vows to find the Dr. as he watches the plane fly away.

Skip ahead 20 years. It is now 1965. Jungle guide / adventurer John Hamilton (Michael Dudikoff AMERICAN NINJA) leads a Dr. Blakesley (Victor Melleney CYBORG COP II) and his daughter Anna (Sarah Maur Thorp EDGE OF SANITY) through the Amazon jungle. The Blakesley's are on a humanitarian mission to discover the source of and a cure to a mysterious disease that is plaguing the indigenous tribes. Trekking to the unexplored region of the jungle, the group is attacked by an unknown tribe. The Dr. is killed, Anna is kidnapped and Hamilton barely makes it out of the jungle back to civilization. Realizing that the tribe's village is a fabled lost city and vowing to return and rescue Anna, he seeks out the police commander Colonel Ricardo Diaz (Herbert Lom A SHOT IN THE DARK). The colonel isn't buying the tall tale about the city of legend and tries to dissuade Hamilton from venturing back into the jungle. Hamilton, man of daring that he is, and being smitten by Anna, will have none of that.

Hamilton turns to old friend Eddie Hiller (L.Q. Jones THE WILD BUNCH), gun runner and midget boxing promoter, to seed his return trip. Eddie has already heard about Hamilton's adventure in the jungle and so has seemingly every one else in the town. Eddie connects Hamilton with a wealthy businessman interested in traveling to the lost city and willing to fund the expedition. Hamilton agrees to take the man and his secretary Maria (Cynthia Erland DEATH FEUD), not realizing the man is Heinrich Spaatz living under an assumed identity. Even more parties reach out to Hamilton. There's the couple who are secret Israeli Nazi hunters. The government bureaucrat who claims he can speak the tribal tongues and clutches a worn piece of luggage as if his life depended on it. Throw in a couple of helicopter pilots and men who I have no idea what they are doing there and there's plenty of fodder.

Nazis. Gunfights. Tribal warfare. River pirates with a mortar on the bow of their boat. Chemical warfare. Indiana Jones and APOCALYPSE NOW references. A wonderful cast with Donald Pleasence hamming it up and stylin' it with a number of horrendous looking wigs. Double and triple crosses. This film packs it all in. All that's missing is a piranha scene.

Directed by Steve Carver (who helmed LONE WOLF MCQUADE, one of my favourite Chuck Norris films) and based on the Alistair MacLean novel of the same name, RIVER OF DEATH is not what I'd call a good film but it certainly is a fun combination of exploitation and action. Dudikoff acquits himself well as the intrepid jungle explorer who has a knack for getting into trouble. It's obvious Pleasence is having a blast with his character and Robert Vaughn is menacing as the cardboard cut out evil Nazi doctor. L.Q. Jones is a plus to any film he appears in. Oh, Herbert Lom wielding a SMG! Throw in plenty of action and that's my entertainment sorted for the night.

Released by Canon, produced in part by Harry Alan Towers. What a combo.

**1/2 out of ****