Thursday, May 14, 2020

Jane and the Lost City (1987)

It is 1940 and the Lost City - yes, that lost city - has been found.  Sort of.  A British soldier returned from the lost city and promptly died but not before dropping a diamond the size of a baseball.  The Germans get hold of the diamond and send the infamous Lola Pagola (Maud Adams) to seize the fabled diamond fortune for the Nazis.  Meanwhile, the colonel - no name, just a rank - has been assigned to claim the diamonds for the British.  He is accompanied by his faithful servant, Tombs, and his assistant, Jane (Kirsten Hughes).  Lola is aware of the British effort and has arranged for their deaths.  Repeatedly!  While trekking through the jungles of Africa, Jane meets Jungle Jack Buck (Sam J. Jones), an American, who joins as guide and love interest.

A campy WWII adventure, Jane regularly loses most of her clothes, thus her title as Queen of the Undie-World.  Neither Jane nor the colonel seem to have any particular talents that merit being sent on such a mission but then Lola and her goon squad are equally inept.  The colonel's manservant, Tombs, is often ill-used; he is the one who does most of the work.  The most competent character is Jane's dog, a dachshund named Fritz.  Somehow, looking for Fritz inevitably saves Jane from assassins or allows her to find imperiled allies or hidden escape routes.

If you liked the campier episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess or Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, this is just the show for you.

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