Three laughs: The Ark of the Sun God

It is hard to rate some trashy films. Films can be really good entertainment in spite of the quality of the filmmaking. In fact, it might be even harder to create unique trash that keeps surprising you than most "quality" films with which you know what you are going to get. It certainly is an even better pleasure to watch them. My friend says that he knows a trash film is worth something if it gets three laughs out of me. I mean proper, good belly laughs when you just can't believe what the film is showing to you, scene after scene. That's as good a rating as any for these movies. Any film that has these three laughs has a special place in my heart.

Three laughs case file #23:
The Ark of the Sun God (I sopravvissuti della cittá morta), Italy/Turkey, 1984
Director: Antonio Margheriti (as Anthony M. Dawson)

The Italian director Antonio Margheriti grew his career on a couple of early horror films, Danza Macabra and The Long Hair of Death in the 1960's. A workman-like director, he dabbled in various genres, even though could not repeat the success of his early works. By the 1980's, he was doing Italian ripoffs of popular action movies, which resulted in some notably wild and crazy works (such as Car Crash, starring John Travolta's brother Joey, and Yor: the Hunter from the Future that married together Conan-like Barbarian pictures and Star Wars -like fantasy-scifi). I am certain to speak of him again in this column.

The Ark of the Sun God is, of course, an Indiana Jones rip-off. Margheriti has an eye for interesting and quirky characters, and thus the treasuire is sought after the likes of a fat businessman, a wino who happens to have a magic amulet, a safe-cracker, a snooty upper-class Brit and a villain whose accent makes him sound like Ren Höek (calling his minions "eedjits"). The minimal budget is used quite well on a couple of notable sets, and the car chases have been done with miniatures. The film is not Margheriti's best work either in terms of quality or as far as wild rides go, but there's still plenty to be enjoyed here.

Three laughs (SPOILERS):

1. The film has an ear-worm of a theme ("Adventure, adventure", it repeats). It also pops up quite unexpectedly. When we're introduced to the wealthy Mohammed (Ricardo Palacios) it is also shown how he likes the ladies and likes to party. So, we're treated to a disco scene where the fat guy boogies to the film's main theme. Everyone involved in this film seems to have a good time.

2. As mentioned, the car chases are mostly done with miniatures, and it's always fun to see these Matchbox cars in action. There are two major car chases, both of which are over way too soon. It seems thay have been mostly created with remote-controlled cars, with suitable reaction shots of the actors behind a wheel plastered in between. The first one has a car jump through a hole in a train, while the latter one in the desert has a more explosive ending.

3. Oh no! Mohammed is my favorite character in the film and in one scene thugs seem to circle around him and shoot him in the gut. But once police come to inspect the secne, the body is nowhere to be found. But later when the film's hero  Rick Spear (David Warbeck) inspects the sewer (with plenty of sharp-toothed rubber rats to go, he discovers that Mohammed is still alive. His explanation given is that the bullet got stuck in his wallet. With some overnight nursing, he's ready to travel to a desert to find a lost city of gold!