Producer Dick Randall mounts a jungle "epic" with the impoverished adventure INVADERS OF THE LOST GOLD, on Blu-ray from Severin Films.

In the closing days of World War II, Japanese Colonel Yakuchi (Protacio Dee, HUNTERS OF THE GOLDEN COBRA) and two of his faithful soldiers hide a purloined cache of gold bars in a cave in a cannibal-occupied jungle in the Philippines. Thirty-five years later, mercenary Rex Larson (Edmund Purdom, PIECES) murders the colonel to get his map to the location of the gold. When the more faithful of Yakuchi's soldiers commits Seppuku rather than help him, Larson approaches the more corruptible Tobachi (Harold Sakata, GOLDFINGER) who agrees to lead him to the gold for a cut. Needing funding for the expedition, Larson is frustrated to find his own cut shrinking as wealthy entrepreneur Douglas Jefferson (David De Martyn) not only insists on a cut but also on going along, with the expedition being lead by Larson's rival Mark Forrest (Stuart Whitman, SHATTER) who has a score to settle with him. Also along for the expedition is Jefferson's pretty daughter Janice (Glynis Barber, EDGE OF SANITY), faithful strongman majordomo Cal (Woody Strode, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST), Mark's guide friend Fernando (Junix Inocian), as well as Fernando's lover and Mark's former flame Maria (Laura Gemser, EMANUELLE IN AMERICA). Larson is resentful of the Mark as well as the large party, but is he responsible when someone starts cutting them down one by one as they venture deeper into the jungle?

The more impoverished of Whitman's two similar jungle efforts – the other being Rene Cardona's more picturesque, gory, and entertaining TREASURE OF THE AMAZON – INVADERS OF THE LOST GOLD is not quite an Italian cannibal film ripoff, an Indiana Jones retread, or even a throwback to the forties jungle serials. It is just a stilted TEN LITTLE INDIANS-esque "adventure" that plods along from one unexciting death to another – most of the unclear because of a lack of special effects and camera coverage – until the climax involving some dull stalking and chasing in a cave. Director Alan Birkinshaw (KILLER'S MOON) seems to be just taking advantage of a job that travels, Sergio Salvati's former cameraman Roberto Forges Davanzati (TENTACLES) just pans the camera and zooms in and out, and the entire score is recycled from Francesco De Masi cues that originated in THE MURDER CLINIC and were also used in Riccardo Freda's THE GHOST and J.L. Merino's THE HANGING WOMAN. While there are probably some wild behind the scenes stories pertaining to the stars and the financing antics of producer Dick Randall (DON'T OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS), INVADERS OF THE LOST GOLD is not even a timewaster. Make-up effects artist Cecile Baun would later work on several Fillipino exploitation films including a number of the ones helmed by Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso in the eighties and the later digital video ones by Mattei.

Released direct to VHS by Mogul Communications offshoot All American Video, INVADERS OF THE LOST GOLD languished on the video shelves with the unauthorized Crash Media DVD barely making a blip on the radar. Severin Films' 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray is sourced from a 2K scan of unspecificed materials bearing the onscreen title GREED and a title sequence identical in content but in a completely different font from the INVADERS version. After the grainy title sequence, the image improves greatly with crisp detail and vivid greenery – apart from some rushed second unit shots, out of focus inserts, and some grainy post-production slow motion – with a few instances of wear including some tears. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono soundtrack is almost entirely post-synched with Purdom dubbing himself, Whitman possibly recorded live in some spots and dubbing himself in others, and others dubbed by familiar voice actors of the English versions of Italian genre film. Sound design is rather sparse apart and the entire recycled score lacks much presence. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided. The film runs over a minute longer than video versions due to extended exit music.

Birkinshaw appears in the interview "Rumble in the Jungle" (16:32) in which he recalls meeting Randall at a film festival in Milan, signing a deal on a napkin, and bringing in an investor whose subsequent pulling out meant that Britt Eklund (THE WICKER MAN) also pulled out leading to Birkinshaw's discovery of Barber. He discusses the diva antics of Purdom and Whitman who were both convinced they were the lead, having to read Strode's dialogue to him, the enthusiasm of the locals who had also worked on APOCALYPSE NOW, some of the hazards of shooting in the jungle, and the many titles under which Randall marketed the film (including HORROR SAFARI).