Shooting two instalments in the series back to back is a film making practice that makes a lot of sense from financial, logistical and artistic perspective. It, however, doesn’t guarantee that those films will be successful. Success is even less likely if they are produced by the likes of The Cannon Group, film studio that became infamous in 1980s with low budgets and often shoddy production values. An example of that can be found in Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold, 1986 adventure film directed by Gary Nelson, which is a sequel to 1985 film King Solomon’s Mines.
Like the previous film, this one is based on the novel by British author H. R. Haggard, in this case Allan Quatermain, which was sequel to original King Solomon’s Mines. Richard Chamberlain returns in the role of title character, an adventurer in Africa at the first decades of 20th Century. At the beginning of the film, following the adventures in King Solomon’s Mines, he wants to settle with his fiancée, archaeologist Jesse Huston (played by Sharon Stone), who wants to spend honeymoon in America. Their plans are stopped with an arrival of Dumont (played by Rory Kilalea), half-delirious man who claims that he escaped from legendary city of gold inhabited by lost white people. He also claims that Quatermain’s brother Robeson (played by Martin Rabbett), who had disappeared while searching for the city, is alive. Quatermain’s skepticism about those claim end when Dumont falls victim to assassins. He decides to organise new expedition, which is joined by mighty axe-wielding Zulu warrior Umslopoogas (played by James Earl Jones), supposedly knowledgeable Indian holy man Swarma (played by Robert Donner) and, finally, by Jesse.
King Solomon’s Mines, made in the obvious attempt to exploit popularity of Indiana Jones series, failed at box office and among the critics, but today nevertheless looks like a decent and mostly entertaining combination of action, exotic Zimbabwe locations and comedy. This one fails in that task, mostly because creative resources have been already exhausted, situation made worse by notoriously penny-pinching practices of Cannon executives. Action veteran J. Lee Thompson is replaced with Gary Nelson, director who worked mostly on television and who seemed unsuitable for this kind of film. Cast, on the other hand, seems disinterested. While Chamberlain again delivers the goods as adequate action hero, Sharon Stone is terrible in her role, burdened with atrocious dialogue. Same can be said for James Earl Jones, and even worse in Robert Donner in role that was supposed to be some kind of comic relief, but ends as combination of ethnic stereotypes and terribly annoying character which would make uncomfortable even viewers that don’t take “political correctness” seriously. Although a huge budget (at least for Cannon standards) was used in the film, Allan Quatermain looks cheap and dated special effects don’t help either. Jerry Goldsmith’s musical score from previous film is recycled here and used in many scenes at inappropriate moments, making it at times quite annoying. Film becomes even worse when protagonists reach Lost City. It happens too late in the film for various exotic characters and subplots to be properly developed. Henry Silva is wasted as villain in ludicrous whig and even shapely Cassandra Peterson (better known as horror hostess Elvira) in the role of villainous Queen Sorais fails to get noticed, with script that doesn’t bother to give her a single line of dialogue. This film, like the previous, failed at box office and the fiasco worsened financial woes of Cannon, leading to collapse of studio in next few years. If we are to judge by films like this one, that collapse was well-justified.
RATING: 3/10 (+)
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