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Savage Gold U rating

Re-enactment of an expedition undertaken by George M. Dyott, which explored the jungles of Brazil and Ecuador in search of Colonel Percy Fawcett.

1933 72 mins Silent

Overview

Mute copy of a sound film issued in 1933 in the United States which re-enacts the jungle expedition, to Brazil and Ecuador, undertaken in 1928 by George M. Dyott in his search for Colonel Percy Fawcett. With an emphasis on the hunting and head-shrinking rituals of a tribe encountered by the expedition, Savage Gold is closer in spirit to an exploitation film than a reliable document, but is fascinating nonetheless.

George Miller Dyott (1883-1972) was an aviator and explorer. In 1930 he published an account of his search for Percy Fawcett entitled ‘Manhunting in the Jungle’. Percy Harrison Fawcett (b.1867) was an archaeologist and explorer. He made seven expeditions to Brazil between 1906 and 1924. Research had led him to believe that a lost city existed somewhere in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil; he named the city ‘Z’. Along with his eldest son (Jack), Fawcett disappeared in 1925 during an expedition to find the lost city.