Invaders of the Lost Gold (I think the IMDb is wrong stating that's it's called Horror Safari) begins by informing us via an on screen caption that we are in the 'JAPANESE OCCUPIED PHILIPPINES 1945, a consignment of gold is being escorted to the coast by a small platoon of Japanese soldiers...'. The platoon of soldiers are making their way through the dense jungle. They are attacked by hostile natives, they hide the gold deep in a cave. Only three men survive and escape. The film than fast forwards to 'Tokyo 36 years later'. Rex Larson (Edmund Purdom) has found out about the stash of hidden gold from a friend in American intelligence. He tries to contact the three survivors, after unfortunately short lived meetings with two he tracks down the third named Tobachi (Harold Sakata) who agrees to go along and lead him to the gold in exchange for 25%. Larson then contacts Douglas Jefferson (David De Martyn) for financing as the expedition will cost a lot of money and the gold needs to be smuggled out of the Philippines and turned into cold hard cash, Larson believes Jefferson has the right contacts. Also along for the trip is boozy jungle 'expert' Mark Forest (Stuart Whitman),Janice Jefferson (Glynis Barber) who is the daughter of Douglas Jefferson, Cal (Woody Strode) who happens to be Jefferson's body guard type guy and two guides who are friends of Marks, Fernando (Junix Nocain) & Maria (Laura Gemser). They hire a boat to take them deep into the jungle, once there they set up camp. In fact these guys don't have just ordinary tents they bring along a marquis! As they get nearer the gold the expedition members start having mysterious 'accidents' that always end up being fatal. As their number starts to decrease at an alarming rate the survivors must watch their own backs and trust no one as one of the group wants more than their fair share of the gold and will commit murder to get it! This Italian financed production was directed by an Englishman, has an international cast and was shot in the Philippines so it comes as no real surprise that this is a complete mess of a film. Co-written and directed by Alan Birkinshaw this film is far to slow and devoid of any meaningful action. The script by Birkinshaw and Bill James gets the viewer hooked with a terrific opening sequence that unfortunately is as good as the film gets. The rest of it is really dull, first we get 30 odd minutes of Larson setting the expedition up which is frankly as exciting as watching paint dry. When the film finally switches to the jungle most of the time is spent watching our expedition travel down a river in a boat, dull. Things pick up a little, but not much, towards the end as people start to die in extremely boring ways and the surviving cast members finally find the gold and put both us and themselves out of our misery as this thankfully signals the end of the film. Apart from the opening scene there is no gore whatsoever, the nudity is provided by Laura Gemser and lots of lovely strippers in one of the haunts Whitman's character hangs out in getting drunk, a totally gratuitous sequence there only to show some naked female flesh. The cast is great but criminally wasted, Stuart Whitman, Edmund Purdom, Glynis Barber and Harold 'Oddjob from Goldfinger (1964)' Sakata who has the market cornered in short funny looking steel-rimmed bowler hat wearing villains, it's just a shame that not many films call for them! It's also a shame they didn't have a better film to appear in together. Basically it's awful, simple as that. It had great potential but in the hands of amateur filmmakers like these it fails to deliver anything that even approaches entertainment. One to avoid.

A disappointingly routine jungle romp, packaged as an exploitation movie but with little exploitation values to actually recommend it to the pulp crowd. Instead this is a cheap, cheap rush job, with little in the way of action, and some really boring, pedestrian direction by Alan Birkinshaw (who delivered the delightful KILLER'S MOON a few years previously to this). Even though the Italians financed this, don't expect a Lenzi movie. It's nothing like that and could probably be rated PG today. The story is lightweight and it seems most of the budget was spent on the admittedly enjoyable opening scene. It involves Japanese soldiers battling Filipino headhunters, involving lots of shooting, grenade explosions, and heads on sticks. There's even a guy who falls into a spike trap, great stuff. After this the film goes downhill as it reaches the present day.

The smarmy, always unlikable Edmund Purdom visits the ex-soldiers and asks them to come with him to find the gold. One is shot dead, another commits hari-kiri, and the third one agrees, mainly because he is Harold Sakata, aka Oddjob from GOLDFINGER, and he's one of this film's major draws. Then a huge group of old actors and cheap Filipino extras join in and off they all go in a boat. But not before has-been Stuart Whitman has decided to join in on the expedition, and that takes him about half an hour. From here on in, we get a series of uninteresting deaths by snake, falling off a rope bridge, crocodile etc. but there's no gore and each death is staged in a ridiculous slow-motion style that stops you seeing what happened; Birkinshaw is no Castellari, that's for sure.

Along with routine scripting and obvious double-crosses, this film really is a tease: offering you tons of gore and nudity throughout, and never providing them. There's a strip show in a filthy nightclub but the girls on view won't provoke much interest. So the only possible reason to watch this film? It's gotta be the great casting. Purdom chews the scenery with relish, and Whitman convinces us all too well with his portrayal of a washed-up drunk. Glynis Barber (BLAKE'S 7) is on hand as the appealing young blonde love interest but her acting isn't up to much. Then there's the aforementioned Harold Sakata. I like him here. He laughs a lot. I've got a feeling he was a charismatic guy, from the little we get to see of his screen presence. Laura Gemser also shows up to strip off, and her death scene is still the film's biggest puzzle (just what happened exactly?). And finally there's good old Woody Strode, as hard as ever, beating up a bunch of guys in a bar and looking muscular, but his death scene is a real disappointment and a real downer. So, there we have it, a diverse group of actors trapped in a boring film, not what I expected, but still pretty funny to watch.

After an enjoyably trashy opening sequence, in which a group of WWII Japanese soldiers are forced to hide their shipment of gold in a cave when attacked by blood-thirsty head-hunting natives, this jungle-bound adventure movie from prolific producer Dick Randall rapidly turns into a very tedious trek through extremely familiar territory, as a team of modern-day treasure seekers set out to recover the long-lost horde.

Despite a promising premise and an excellent cast of exploitation regulars—including Edmund Purdom (Pieces, Nightmare City),Laura Gemser (the Emanuelle series),Stuart Whitman (Welcome to Arrow Beach, Eaten Alive),and Harold 'Oddjob' Sakata—Invaders of the Lost Gold is instantly forgettable low budget junk that becomes more and more painful with every passing minute.

The story lacks excitement, with much of the film's running time devoted to bickering between characters and unlikely romance rather than on action and adventure, and the whole damn mess just simply isn't exploitative enough: Gemser strips off (I'd have been more surprised if she hadn't),but tasty TV blonde Glynis Barber keeps her clothes on (and I so wanted to see Makepeace nekkid!); there's almost no gore after the opening scene; and the ending totally wimps out, with not a savage native in sight.