Africa Express 1975 ***

Exploitation film are usually extreme; Africa Express is an odd fish because it’s an Italian rip-off of something, but it’s not clear what. Ursula Andress is Madeleine Cooper, an environmental campaigner who falls foul of big-game hunter William Hunter (Jack Palance). Disguised as a nun, she escapes from a train ambushed by Hunter’s men, and seeks help from a truck-driver (Guiliano Gemma) and his pet monkey (Bibi). This being 1975, Africans are relegated to bit parts in their own movies, and there’s periodic breaks for wild-life photography and a garishly upbeat score. If it wasn’t for the causal racism and goggle-eyed misogyny, Africa Express might be a good family film, which was presumably the intention. Instead, Michele Lopo’s film is something of a time-capsule of attitudes it was acceptable to have in the 1970’s. Andress does the best here, enjoying the chance to play a driven character while not eschewing a smidge of glamour. Another weird choice for streaming on Amazon Prime, this film might seem obscure, but it presumably made enough money to justify a sequel the following year, Safari Express.