The Pink Jungle (1968)

Ben Morris (James Garner) is a fashion photographer sent to some South American country for a shoot in the jungle for some new cosmetics line with model Alison Duguesne (Eva Renzi). Except the local colonel suspects Morris is a CIA agent smuggling microfilm inside lipstick and impounds the cosmetics for a week.

With nothing better to do while they wait, Morris and Alison settle down in the humdrum nearby town, unaware they're being watched by more than the colonel. On a lark, Morris buys a map pointing to an alleged diamond mine and rents the man's car to go a larger town. On the way, he and Alison pick up a machine gun toting hitchhiker named Ryderbeit (George Kennedy), who is also after the diamonds.

So the first half of the movie is a comedy along the lines of The Man Who Knew Too Little, where Morris and Alison are treating the whole diamond thing as part of some gag the locals play on tourists. There's a whole bit where they go to a night club to meet the guy Ryderbeit insists knows the real way to the diamonds, where the duo keep predicting that the nightclub owner will look a certain way, and she does, that Ryderbeit's contact will look a certain way, and he does, and that his story will involve a man promising millions with his dying breath, and it does.

The problem being, everyone else is entirely serious about the diamonds, including Ryderbeit. Especially Ryderbeit, who Kennedy plays as having wild mood swings from one moment to the next. He may call Alison a dumb broad one moment for something she says, and then make a joking comment about how she can't keep her eyes off him when she points out he might want to put on pants before seeking revenge.

The second half of the movie is considerably less funny, as the trio set out across rough terrain looking for the diamonds. They run into a man claiming to be the Australian geologist who found the diamonds and says he was betrayed by Ryderbeit's contact, and that only makes the journey more hostile. Attempted murders, betrayals, people trying not to die of thirst, people diving behind rocks to avoid being shot. 

It's not a wild swing because the movie spent that first half showing people were getting killed while Morris and Alison were both joking about how boring the little town is. It's more like we, as the audience, were waiting to see when/if the two leads catch up with the rest of us. Or maybe to see if the whole thing turned out to be a hoax, everyone chasing a phony story.

Garner is James Garner. He's usually calm and drily sarcastic, even when he's tired and frustrated, it's in a, "well fine, guess I'll do this thing that might kill me." Renzi is fine. she's pleasant, but she doesn't make much of an impact. That might just be that Kennedy's out there chewing so much scenery it makes everyone else look bland in comparison. Renzi does seem to have good chemistry with Kennedy in how she laughs off his flirting comments and can put him in his place a couple of times when she needs to.