Review: Eve

AKA “The Face of Eve” A plane crashes somewhere in the Amazon jungle, emerging is adventurer Robert Walker Jr., looking for a lost Incan treasure. Instead he happens upon the stunning Eve (Celeste Yarnall), who has lived in the jungle since she was a little girl. It just so happens that a lot of people are looking for Eve, including her grandfather Colonel Stuart (Christopher Lee), and even some bloodthirsty tribal natives. Fred Clark plays a scheming night club owner/promoter, and Herbert Lom plays the clearly shady Diego, whilst Jose Maria Caffarel plays a local guide.

 

I’m not really a jungle adventure guy, but this 1968 film from co-directors Robert Lynn (the rather solid true story “Dr. Crippen”) and Jeremy Summers (“Five Golden Dragons”) is well-mounted and one of the more enjoyable ones. In fact, there’s really only two flaws here. The first is a silly subplot involving Rosenda Monteros, a very clearly and visibly Mexican actress supposedly pretending to be Eve, the very clearly and visibly blonde-haired white title character eventually played in the film by Celeste Yarnall. Producer/screenwriter Harry Alan Towers (“The Face of Fu Manchu”, “99 Women”, “Warrior Queen”) seemingly only has himself to blame here, as he apparently stopped paying the actors’ salaries during filming, resulting in Yarnall walking off set and Towers being forced to re-write things with this idiotic subplot until he could convince Yarnall (who also got food poisoning during filming, I might add) to come back. I admire the ingenuity on the fly, but it shouldn’t have needed to occur and it plays absurdly on screen. That wasn’t the only on-set problem as there was a change in directors midway through, and although he’s not listed in the IMDb credits or in the film, frequent Towers collaborator Jesus Franco (he of “Vampyros Lesbos” infamy) was brought on board to direct some of the film.

 

The second flaw is the dreadful miscasting of Robert Walker Jr. in the male lead role. Looking more like Robert Pattinson than he looks like his dad Robert Walker, Robert Jr. is awfully thin to be playing this kind of adventure hero gig and looks like he just stepped out of the hair salon. Thankfully, there’s some solid acting around him here. Jose Maria Caffarel is likeable as Walker’s local helper, and a very clearly dubbed Maria Rohm is good in a small role, too. Fred Clark is here too, basically reprising an approximation of his role in “The Mummy’s Shroud” (one of Hammer’s wors efforts). However, it’s a very dry, suave Herbert Lom who runs off with the film here despite the poor execution of the subplot he’s involved in. He’s good fun and gives the film more than it perhaps deserves. Meanwhile, grey hair and a wheelchair do the job in making Christopher Lee seem older than he really was here. It’s a solid performance from him, though apparently he really wanted the Walker role. For once I think his grumbling is justified, not because I think he was best suited for Walker’s role, just that he’d at least be better than Walker.

 

Lead actress Celeste Yarnall is a stunner and that’s all that is required of her here, she doesn’t even dub her own voice. Sad, touching finale that leads to a suggestion of a series that never eventuated. That’s a shame because I actually like this film for than “Sheena”, “She”, and maybe even the first two Christopher Lee “Fu Manchu” films. It’s a solid, fun B-movie with a dud male hero. Why is it so obscure? I liked this one just fine.

 

Rating: B-