Girl From Rio [DVD] [1969] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Jeff Sutton (Richard Wyler)shows up in Rio with a suitcase with 10 million stolen dollars. The money is wanted by both a crime boss (George Sanders) and by Sumitra (Shirley Eaton)who is building a female army by kidnapping wealthy people and taking this money. These are your typical female army with exposed legs and a woman's usual 24 inch waist.

In one scene Jeff brings a gun to a knife fight, but then uses his fist. The film also has prisoners in glass cages, women being tortured, brief girl/girl action, and the worse soundtrack I have heard in a long time. There was a background buzz for much of the film, plus the music was horrible with terrible lyrics. The pink phone with the long extension cord that can be dragged through a swimming pool was funny. The film has a fair amount of camp value. Also known as "Rio 70" and "Future Women."

Parental Guide: No f-bombs. Sex, nudity (Maria Rohm, Beni Cardoso)

The opening sequence is delirious, a red hued femme cavorting in dry-ice. Imagine Barbarella shot by, well, Jess Franco. Then we get the obligatory establishing local-colour shot, which pans across what could be Rio. So far, so sixties. The music is immediate, sensationalizing bossa-novas. Picture quality is generally as good as this could get, sometimes being less than the colourful opening. Yet the kitsch & minimalist gal's costumes all speak Franco..

The lead femme is haughty but photogenic, you may recall she was the gal covered in gold in Goldfinger. George Sanders, on his last legs, is as ever a delight, if only given a script with hardly a normal sentence to render. Many gals, occasional flashes of breastage, a plot that emulates and at the same time mocks spy films, in a comic book fashion...yet the film has lag. Lots of lag, more than jet lag. There is not sufficient plot for 90 minutes and coupled with a less than thespian quality of the 'leading man', who seems so tanned as to be varnished stiff, and the whole seems a lot longer than an hour and a half.

With the need for speed and the constant drive for comedic throw-away lines, it all does comes across as a slightly surreal comment on action films, what with guns that may be toys, people being tortured with devices that are as frightening as a budgie in a bag. The feel is almost camp Carry On film, the look almost shades of The Prisoner. A surreal romp that doesn't quite deliver punch or dramatic force, but does stand out as a relic of the late sixties and of Franco's just warming up his zoom lens. The extras, a documentary is up to date and most insightful on what Franco saw and what some actors thought they were doing. Which is rarely the same bag when we watch a minor Franco flick. Enjoyable, but slow, like an elephant eating a bun a long way off.