Amazonia: The Catherine Miles Story 1985 Written by Franco Prosperi and directed by Roy Garrett. An Italian jungle film that the Wikipedia says is a cannibal romantic horror film. I guess it gets lumped in with that lot for one reason or another but there's no cannibalism in the film. The tribe in the film might be called head hunters, Umuaki, the main native character, chops the heads of Catherine's parents from their bodies and hangs them outside a hut. They are the only heads that we see. The movie is another in the Jungle Girls Triple Feature 3 disc set.
The movie is told as a flashback while Catherine Miles is on trial for murder. Catherine had gone on a vacation on the Amazon with her wealthy parents. The parents are killed and Catherine paralyzed with curare. She wakes to see Umuaki cutting her parents heads off. She's dragged off and brought to the village. There Catherine's stripped naked, she remains topless for most of the movie, most of the women in the tribe are topless too.
The chief sells Catherine to some guy for some critters. The guy tries raping Catherine and Umuaki fights the guy, winning Catherine for himself. It's not a good place to live. There's a fair bit of tedious jungle life as Catherine tries to survive with the tribe. She can't run fast enough to escape. She bonds with Umuaki's sister who knows a bit of English.
Catherine eventually finds out that the natives didn't kill her parents, Umuaki saw some white people and natives kill the couple. He agrees to take her to white man land. On returning home she finds her aunt and uncle have taken over the family estate. Realizing they killed her parents she kills them and cuts off their heads. That's the reason she's on trial. Luckily for Catherine, she's got a good lawyer, he gets her a few years in a mental hospital, then she's off to London for a new life.
It's almost average, it starts off fairly exciting but fades in the middle for a good bit, getting more interesting near the end. It's a stark reminder not to go in the Amazon jungle. I gave it a generous 4 on the IMDb. Can't say I'll be getting around to this one again but I'll keep the set.
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