Virgin Sacrifice (1960) User Reviews

Jungle pulp junk

[punchinello · 3/10 · 30 July 2006]

Dubbed dialog, artless lighting, and science-film acting weaken what is otherwise a terrible adventure movie. The muddled and repetitive story concerns a white hunter who goes to South America, where he meets pretty Morena, a colleague's daughter. A native comes to town and picks Morena to be the tribe's virgin sacrifice. He and his pals kill papa and drag her off, spurring the white hunter to rescue her.

Early on, we get a little bondage nudity (a surprise for 1959) and jaguar wrasslin'. An excessive cantina dance sequence gets in the way, altho I'm not sure of what... the worst dream-sequence effects ever? Most of the film is a pursuit thru the jungle... with lame booby traps (as usual, pythons stand in for venomous stakes) and a climactic death match of the sort that the original Star Trek was so fond of.

Filmed in color, the location shots look surprisingly good (as does the captive Morena), but are edited with badly-matched studio shots. The producers would have been better off just shooting stock footage to sell to more serious film-makers. The trailer for Tarzana: The Wild Girl had more thrills.

Well, at least it's filmed in color!

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 26 November 2009]

Well, at least it's filmed in color! That's the most I can say in favor of this very, very dull jungle adventure movie. And, unlike most jungle films of the day, it is set in the jungles of Central America--so at least it's different. However, in an odd bit of casting, a leopard AND a gorilla appear in the film--even though they are both African animals (yes, I know leopards can also be found in Asia). In this sense, it's pretty much like all the super-low budget jungle films of the 1930s-50s because all too often they used whatever animals they happened to have in stock footage or that they could rent for the film!

The film is a very tepid affair and for the first half hour or so, nothing seemed to happen. Then, out of the blue, a young woman is killed and her adventurer father is slain. So it's up to another dull adventurer to come to her aid. To only interesting aspects of this are the occasional nudity--which makes you wonder WHERE this American film would be seen. After all, it was not legal to show nudity in most locales back in 1959 and jungle films are usually kids' fare--not the domain of a film where they insert (bad choice of words) a bit of skin to spice things up a bit.

Eventually, the dull adventurer is able to kill off most of the men who have kidnapped her. However, when she arrives back at the tribe with the one kidnapper still alive, the dull guy arrives to find that that one guy is the Chief. So, he'll need to battle the Chief to the death--the winner gets her. And, if it's the Chief, he's planning on sacrificing her to his god. Yeah,....whatever.

Well, it certainly isn't well made or entertaining but it's not 100% terrible. If this, and the fact that it's in color are the only good things I can say about it, it's a film best left unwatched. Dull....dull....and more dull.

Bland Adventure

[Michael_Elliott · 22 June 2009]

Virgin Sacrifice (1959)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

As a child an adventurer saw a virgin sacrificed and he swore he'd never see such things again. Years later he's back in the jungle and a female friend of his is kidnapped by an evil tribe so he must track them down before they kill her. Even at 63-minutes this film here seems extremely long and the final half hour especially as we just see the same places over and over again as we really do have to sit through a track chase. It's funny but the company who made this, Releasing Corporation of Independent Producers, is the funniest thing in the film. The tagline and trailer promised that a real deadly Indian tribe was used for the movie but there were several scenes where you could tell it was a white man with mud (or something) on him. The performances are all rather bland but we do get some nice footage of some wildlife. Director Wagner was apparently a very popular stage director in Mexico and he certainly keeps the film moving as well as he could but there wasn't too much even Kubrick could have done with this thing. Wagner would appear in several films as an actor including the classic THE WILD BUNCH. By the time this movie ends I was really bored out of my mind and that's not good especially considering the short running time. This was the last film on Something Weird's triple feature and playing third is exactly where it belongs.

Bondage drag thru da jungle

[Bofsensai · 2/10 · 25 July 2022]

Other than to watch pretty Angelica Morales - and it would seem in her only film - as the poor kidnapped, bound dragged heroine Morena, and continuity goofs galore spots, complete and utter dross!

Surely of the long gone, past kids' Saturday morning at the cinema complete throwaway trash fare, as in to see the regularly placed exotic animals - elongated man and attack tiger tussle especially - except that at the beginning, for the writhing virgin sacrifice (Linda Cordorva) bound arms up in front of night cavorting, menacingly masked local tribesmen (yup, ALL men, well of course), eventually her top is pulled off* revealing, shock horror, in most pre silicon full pert way .. well, what Saturday morning kids' films most certainly wouldn't be allowed to be shown to THEM!

So, with the following long (long!) tedious drag through the jungle of the next kidnapped sacrificial virgin (our helpless heroine, Morena: Angelica Morales) you have to wonder which audience this might've been aimed at (er, perhaps those kids' Dads?): but plot spoiler coming here - you won't get anymore after that. (Unless ya like bare chested men ...!*)

Instead, you will get fun constant continuity carelessness spots, as poor Angelica would seem to be interminably, literally dragged through the jungle: and surely realistically painfully barefoot at that, after one of her sandals is left behind to be a clue for rescuer hero (chunky David DaLie) to find - plus, later, yet another to assure he's on the right track, he finds her 'earing' that luckily and oh so plausibly spotted to be plucked outta the whole jungle floor of thick vegetation ... Indeed, re being barefoot for most of her captured drag, one closer up shot is of her feet bloodied: and at another shot, near a river, she slips: which looked a genuine fall to me and surely must have darn hurt! To the extent that for both instances, surely makes one wonder if that was also 'literally' real of her acting travails and commitment.

As not only that, but in that interminable drag to the sacrificial poles, many times she's manhandled slung about the evil native baddy kidnapper (Antonio Gutierrez), onto rocks and tree trunks: so much so that I would think it would be those Dads in the audience rather than kids who felt it would be worth sitting through this in effect silent film, as with mostly voiceover diegesis and soundtracked music rather than any location sound: as at that aforementioned slip on the watery rocks, we do hear a rather pathetic full throated whoop call from dragger kidnapper (evil native baddy), but the rushing stream waters at Morena's feet is completely absent.

Rather, you can almost hear the directions being shouted out by director Fernandez Wegner - 'look here, go there, stop there', and as like at that Morena tumble, no doubt, 'keep going Angelica, no matter, you're doing well, looking great, just keep in character, we'll attend to your injuries after we got the shot, don't fuss, now'!

For, on and on, she is dragged as our hero white (ostensibly animal) hunter in pursuit, nonchalantly picking off the pesky natives, even if appear to be mere slips of youths themselves, with them frighteningly, wildly gesticulating arms of theirs they quite deserve to be shot stone dead.

They - or the evil native baddy kidnapper - is also so inept at jungle lore that when he sets his traps, like trip vine spear, he sets it so thick and thigh high that intrepid white man hunter hero easily spots it before blundering into it.

Of another of those wily natives is an 'OILED' tree trunk our hero is shimmying across: we know coz voiceover he assures us: "Oil: They've covered the log! I hadn't realised just how cunning these natives can be!" Yup: think: all those logs to be 'oiled' - or it was, heck, just bad luck he chose that one (out of thousands!)

Then, having gone to all that trouble (half of the film's run!) to rescue her, and being that she just has to be a virgin (of course: hey, it's in the title, innit? And anyway, why drag her so far to sacrifice otherwise?!), then - ah warning (dads!): plot ruiner coming - as soon as he cuts her free - the film ends!

No happy ever after denouement showing nor even indicate her gratitude for a happy ever after embrace - even surely obligatory relieved at rescue kiss, into the sunset! (dads?!) You'll just have to imagine, guess THAT ending - which is as I did, by which then, boy o boy, yup, does that then make this film with sultry Morena, utterly fabulous!

(But so, warning: if ya don't have that imagination, besides Angelica and her tormented feet, complete and utter boring bilge!)

* Although, you could think of a sort equal opportunities was at thought here, because in an early purely incongruous long locals' dance routine, the boogieing dance guy (Joe Lanza) gets HIS shirt pulled off by his female (Lydia Goya) dance partner, so its then him all bare chested gyrating away.

Well see, there ya go: obvious equal sexes bare topped display, no smut nor objectification on display here - move along the plot, please!

* They should all be in the 'Goofs' section, but note, arrowed explorer (could be the actual director, Wegner?) who changes his dead position from camera shot to shot: the masked drummer native who at the fight to death finish is shown no longer drumming so despite the soundtrack frantically continuing drumming: Morena herself 'anointed' with sacrificial burnt wood cross on her forehead, first pretty large down to top of her nose, then disappears, then reappears, but much smaller .. then: ah, well, really, make it fun to watch it yourself as an all drink occasion when yet another crops up.

My child's grandpa made this movie.

[djsmom-17655 · 10/10 · 26 December 2021]

My husband Gary had a father who made a movie or two. He made this. I really enjoy the talent that was put into making this film. Overall, 10/10. (Ignore this part) gfdgfdgdffdgfdgfdgvbzdhfdbvhfdbnnvfdjnvjdfvnhdfbvfhdbvmdfbgjfdbjhfdbvjhfdbvjhfdbvjhdfbvjhdfbvjhfdvbjhfdbvhfdbvhfdbvhfdvbjdfbvjbvfbvjhdfbvjhfbvdfhbvhjbvjhdfbvjhfdbvjhfdbvhjdbvdfjbvfhbvhjdfbvbvfd.