Lord Donovan believes (without having anything to back up this belief)
that his granddaughter, who was involved in a planecrash in Africa 15
years ago, when she was only 3, has survived all those years in the
jungle. So he sends his righ-hand man Groder (Franco Ressel) and his
secretary Doris (Franca Polesello) to Africa to go find her. They find
themselves a guide, Glen (Ken Clark), who's willing to take them on their
crazy expedition mainly because they pay a whole lot of money. Doris is
the only one convinced they will find the girl, while Groder tries every
trick in the book to dissuade everyone from going on, mainly because
without the girl, he would be the sole heir to Lord Donovan's fortune. He
has even brought a hitman, Fred (Raf Baldassarre) with him to take care of
things should they find the girl against all odds. In a native village,
our heroes find Kamala (Beryl Cunningham), a girl who claims she was once
saved from certain death by a white girl, Tarzana (Femi Benussi), and she
can lead them to her. Tarzana, who loves to roam the jungle in the
topless, has long noticed the expedition though and watches from afar,
without ever being caught. When our heroes seem to get too close to
Tarzana's lair, Fred kills Kamala to discourage everyone else from going
on, but too late, traces of Tarzana's presence are everywhere around them.
So Groder and Fred change their tactics, seperate from the others and
shoot Tarzana with a blowdart to eventually stab her ... but when Groder
prepares to do just that, Fred shoots him dead, wanting the girl for
himself. He figures Lord Donovan will pay everything he asks for her if he
can only produce her. However, his shots have alarmed Glen and Doris, and
they catch up with Fred, a fight ensues, and it all ends with Fred falling
into a hole that welcomes him with spiked logs of wood - no
self-respecting movie jungle should be without one. Tarzana got pretty
scared by all of this, and threatens to throw herself off some cliffs
should Glen and Doris come any nearer. But when Doris shows her her tits
(really) and gives her a doll that belonged to her as a little child,
Tarzana is won over and all three walk off to ... well, to wherever. Nope,
Tarzana the Wild Girl is not a good film, it's clichéed to the
hilt, silly in plot, unimaginative in direction, wooden in acting, and it
was made too cheap for its own good in not all too convincing jungle sets.
Also, the usual wild animal sequences are rather sloppily edited in, and
when Tarzana actually meets a lioness, the glass wall between them
reflects her a tad too strongly. But of course, the film is also great fun, fun for all the wrong reasons of
course, but isn't this the case with all jungle girl movies? And then
there's of course topless Femi Benussi ...
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