3/5
Mediocre Movie!
by Melvin Hunt (Cleveland,, Texas United States)
This movie had to be a drivein special. The women were georgous but that's where it ended. Hamilton Hornee has
benn hired by the Wabash bank in Indianapolis to travel to Africa and find a missing Matthews heir named Prentiss. He is accompanied by his secretary Sultry Sommers,Tender Lee and two more heirs Max and Doris Matthews.
Also traveling with them on the trip is Dr. Stanley Livingston who wans to search for Nabucco the white gorilla.
Upon entering the jungle they are captured by feirce African tribesmen. Shortly thereafter they discover that Prentiss the missing cousin is actually Algona the white goddess who rules this tribe. After some attempts at action and humor the safari people escape. One member stays behind. I didn't remember seeing this movie at the drivein during the 1970's.
4/5
Here's Algona!
by Howard Sauertieg (Harrisburg, PA USA)
Friedman's spoof of Hollywood 'jungle movies' is over 30 years old, but it still holds up as both comedy and 'adult' fare.
There's a fair measure of toplessness and multitudes of bare behinds, particularly among the jungle denizens, so this film is not for the kiddies (unless you're a rather progressive parent). What makes the film memorable, however, is its outrageous treatment of that timeless Hollywood genre wherein Anglo-Americans venture into savage territory for treasure or to capture some legendary creature (e.g. King Kong). Friedman (who wrote the screenplay) pulls out all the stops here, making TRADER HORNEE both a masterpiece of political incorrectness (stuffed with questionably racist & sexist jokes) and a harmless confection of tame eroticism.
Blond siren Deke Sills ("Algona") never made another film, but she's a great amateur actress - greatly amateur, if you get my drift - and a balm to the soul. If you're red-blooded, full of pep and ambition, and a fan of matinee-style jungle adventures, you don't want to miss TRADER HORNEE!
The DVD includes the 8-minute film trailer - a classic of pulchritudinous self-congratulatory rhetoric - and an informative though low-key audio commentary by Friedman & Something Weird's Mike Vraney. You'll watch it more than once, and that's saying something!
3/5
Trader Hornee (1960) d: Lucas, John
by Tony Crosgrey (Peterborough, Ontario)
Over-the-top sex comedy from producer David F. Friedman "It's the film that breaks the law of the jungle!" A film that makes you ask: "What's a nice white goddess like you doing in a picture like this? After Friedman and Herschell Gordon Lewis parted wasy, David F. Friedman went on to produce a whole bunch of softcore sexploitation films such as: Space Thing (1968); Starlet (1969), Thar She Blows (1969), and this film Trader Hornee (1970), which isn't all that softcore (having sex without taking off clothes?), But it is still a fun picture with comedy, sex and sight gags. Full of cheese jungle themes galore, such as singing cannibals, and witch-doctor with a large people boiling pot.
A detective is hired to find the long lost Algona, heiress to her father's fortune. Joining him are a sex starved gang, including a lesbian journalist, and two of Algona's greedy S&M loving relatives. As well, some scientists are along for the journey, trying to find a legendary white gorilla rumored to be living in the same jungle. Algona is found, and she turns out to be a blonde she-goddess worshiped by the `Meshpokas', "the most feared humans in all Africa," while the white ape turns out to be an escaped Nazi war criminal. Weird stuff as usual from Something Weird Video.
1/5
Innuendo porn
by
As usual the acting was weak and the story so-so. NO VALID ROMANCE. When it came to the "exotic" parts, the DVD movie skipped beyond minute displays of frolicing nudes. As for comedy, maybe after a few kegs. By then, you'll laugh at anything, well anything like this waste of funds.
4/5
Entertainment Bonanza
by Thomas K. Kilgore (Atlanta, GA United States)
This movie is incredibly ahead of it's time. Considered porn in it's day due to nude females and "adult" language, it is no more shocking by todays standards than a Madonna video. It is the comedy that sets this one apart from the crowd.
This is ribald comedy in the classical sense, peppered with 1960s taboos and social commentary, but serving up the sight gags and asides when you least expect them.
A Dave Freidman classic.