Themes: Daring Rescues, Fish Out of Water, Race Against Time
Main Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Françoise Dorléac, Jean Servais, Simone Renant, Milton Ribeiro
Release Year: 1964
Country: IT/FR
Run Time: 114 minutes
Plot
An eight-day pass, a kidnapping, and a greedy group of South American Indians provide the basic ingredients of this madcap adventure. A French air force pilot has the pass and plans to use it to see his girl friend in Paris. He gets there just in time to see a gang of South American Indians, who believe the girl knows the location of a set of statues that can pinpoint the location of a fabulous jungle treasure, kidnapping her. He follows them to the Brazilian jungle and many riotous adventures ensue. Eventually the lovers manage to escape and return to France just before the pilot's pass expires. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Review
At his worst, Philippe de Broca can be arch and cloying, but in his early international hit, a whimsical comedy-adventure-romance that plays like a more leisurely version of Romancing the Stone (1984), he's at his unpretentious best. As the bewildered Air Force pilot whose girlfriend (Françoise Dorléac) is kidnapped by Indians who need her to help them locate an Amazonian treasure, Jean-Paul Belmondo gives a performance likely to elicit nods of recognition from anyone who's been put in a weird situation by a love. His perpetual exasperation is the film's comic engine, but the stunning Dorléac is equally good as the dizzy dame who seems to enjoy the ride even more as the danger ratchets up. Not the least of the film's pleasures is the Brazilian backdrop, which includes locations in Rio and Brasilea, along with the indigenous music, especially the laid-back eroticism of the samba. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
