The Girl From Rio
» Entertainments
Having watched the original Modesty Blaise movie left me in the mood for some more late 60s, early 70s silly cinema.
I’d long resisted any temptation to watch The Girl from Rio - resisting Jesus Franco movies is easy. Franco’s cinematic gifts were limited to working cheaply and quickly. Unlike many low-budget auteurs he never showed a spark of individuality or trace of humor. Sort of an bizarro Russ Meyer (a DVD of his Beyond the Valley of the Dolls just arrived - oddly I was requested to write a review of it).
The Girl from Rio is based on Sax Rohmer’s Sumuru. That was the appeal. Even though I’ve never read the book. But I have a weakness for Rohmer’s Fu Manchu novels. And I was in the mood for a film about a woman aiming to rule the world.
The movie opens with a woman singing a weak retooling of Astrud Gilberto’s Girl From Ipanema as the Girl from Rio.
Sumuru’s name is meaninglessly changed to Sumitra, played by Shirley Eaton a Bond girl from Goldfinger.
As the rule of the gynarchic city of Femina she plots world domination and the elimination of malekind. Her strategy seems to be limited to kidnapping men with lots of money and converting it into gold.
It isn’t easy even for a woman in her gynarchy. They are all trained as warriors and - make a mistake - you’re apt to be executed.
The hazy and confusing plot isn’t worth summarizing. Typical of Franco, a long stretch at the end is spent with the camera idly filming people on the street during Rio’s famous carnival. Her city is invaded and despite all their training her warrior women are easily routed by thugs with grenades.
In the ends she destroys Femina to fool the pathetic heroes - including George Sanders, whose descent into movies like this would eventually lead to his suicide - into thinking she’s dead.
Some guys might get enough of a thrill just from seeing women in faux-futuristic warrior guard being mean to men (and other women). Maybe those with a female supremacy compulsion. Otherwise it is best left to folks like me with a taste for psychotronic videos who take a special pleasure in digging through pop culture detritus.
This was actually the second Sumuru movie produced by Harry Alan Towers who also exploited Venus in Furs, De Sade, Oscar Wilde, Honorι de Balzac, the Gor novels and so much else.
There was a Sumuru movie made just a few years ago about a planet ruled by a matriarchy. A not unpopular theme in science fiction adventure, though the guys always make sure the women learn what they’ve been missing.
