Is Jivaro Treasure or Trash?
Blu-ray Distributed By Kino Lorber / March 26, 2019
Newly Remastered in HD from 4K of the original camera negative and a 2K scans of the interpositive – The star and director of 1953 3-D hit Sangaree, team up again in this romantic and thrilling adventure in glorious Technicolor. Jivaro also known as Lost Treasure of the Amazon stars Fernando Lamas (100 Rifles), Rhonda Fleming (Those Redheads from Seattle), Brian Keith (The Rare Breed), Lon Chaney Jr. (Big House, U.S.A.), Richard Denning (Target Earth), Rita Moreno (West Side Story) and directed by Edward Ludwig (Wake of the Red Witch). Alice Parker (Fleming) arrives at the Brazilian trading outpost of Rio Galdez (Lamas) in search of her fiancé, Jerry Russell (Denning), an alcoholic engineer who has ventured into a headhunter country on a quest for gold. 3-D restoration by 3-D Film Archive!
Jamie’s Take 
(3 / 5)
Fernando Lamas is quite good and serves as a decent romantic lead while maintaining a tough-guy persona as Rio Galdez, a Brazilian trading post adventurer who runs a small bar / hotel while trading with various inhabitants on a small island. When he isn’t trading with natives and headhunters (one even offers him a shrunken head, held right into the camera in gorgeous 3-D) he’s mixing it up with friends and foes at his establishment.
Richard Denning (best known to genre fans from Creature From The Black Lagoon) plays Jerry Russell, a adventurer who believes he has found an actual gold mine. While intoxicated, he tries to convince Rio to join him and his other members of his team in digging for gold which Rio immediately declines. When Jerry’s fiance Alice arrives on the island to see him, Jerry is mysteriously gone and Rio decides to help his friend’s fiance in finding him as certain clues point to the fact that his disappearance may have been intentional.
With Lamas spending most of the film with his shirt open or topless, Alice is smitten with the man but maintains her loyalty to her fiance until one night after an attempted rape on Alice, Rio saves her only to get wet due to a rain storm they get caught in. But when Alice gets the idea that Jerry may not have been faithful as well, Alice decides to go for it with Lamas.
While the story is bland and forgetful, the actors do the best job they can and thankfully Jivaro contains not only strong performances by the leads but also solid performances by the supporting cast including genre vets Brian Keith and Lon Chaney Jr (who isn’t in the film as much as I would have liked).
Rhonda Fleming is absolutely gorgeous as the redhead Alice. She looks like a young Christina Applegate and her moments of being undressed or showing off some leg must have been quite titillating back when the film was released in 1954. The fact that she was in 3-D must have gave some woody’s to pubescent teens at the time of release.
Speaking of 3-D, the gimmicks that are used are quite fun with spears, bamboo sticks, fists, and shrunken heads all thrown at the audience’s faces at various moments. The action sequences, while little, are entertaining and look absolutely amazing given the almost flawless transfer by Kino and 3-D Film Archive. Shot in stunning Technicolor, the film looks beautiful and may require several viewings just for the way this transfer looks on blu ray. While there is an option to watch the film in 2-D, I really don’t see the point in doing so as there is nothing special about the story or plot or characters. I would say this is worth a look or purchase if you have the capability to watch 3-D films at your own home.
The blu ray does skimp on the extras with only an audio commentary track by film historians Miek Bellow, Hillary Hess, Greg Kintz, and Jack Theakstan and also a shot by shot stereoscopic analysis. There are trailers but strangely the Jivaro trailer is not in 3-D. In fact the trailers on the disc are for other 3-D movies put out by Kino such as Cease Fire, Sangaree, Those Redheads From Seattle and The Maze with only The Maze in 3-D.
This is a tough one to recommend. While not a bad film, Jivaro suffers due to a weak screenplay but excels due to its lush locations, performances, and 3-D presentation.
Hidden Treasure/Dumpster Fire?
Jamie says: One’s Trash is Another’s Treasure.
| Jamie's Take: |  (3.0 / 5) |
| Blu-ray Extras: |  (2.0 / 5) |
| Average: |  (2.5 / 5) |
[amazon_link asins=’B07LDC9PDW,B07FQ6XPTH,B00L8QP0EQ,B06XS1Y9MD,B000H5TVL2,B079PHFH4X,B075DXZS8V’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’trashmenamaz-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’f7e99573-10fd-4517-a78a-f6a341aeca4b’]
