Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold (1986)

Based on the novel Allan Quatermain, by H. Rider Haggard, first published in 1887.

The titular character, an explorer, receives an unexpected visitor who comes from a remote region of Africa where reportedly a community of white people is living in isolation. Apparently this is also where Quatermain's long-lost brother may be, so he decides to assemble an expedition in search of the place; the fact that the city is all made of gold causes some excitement among some, for better or worse.

A poor screenplay is the great limiting factor here. A terrible performance by Robert Donner is also a nuisance. This is the second and last film made with the Quatermain character by the same team with the apparent intention of cashing in on the more famous series with an archaeologist named Jones as the protagonist. The Quatermain films, while worse than the Jones films, had the advantage of being relatively free of "politically correct" concerns. Here, among other things, there is a city peopled by members of the white race, a plot detail which was taken from the 19th-century novel it is based on, and which, in 1986, was already a bit of a no-no and would probably have been avoided by a movie more in the mainstream than this one.

Rating: 30