Dance of the Dwarfs

An anthropologist hires a down-on-his-luck helicopter pilot to fly her into the jungle, where she is searching for a scientist who is investigating reports of a tribe of reptile-men.

Dance of the Dwarfs follows the story of Dr. Evelyn Howard (Deborah Raffin), who hires Harry Bediker (Peter Fonda), a drunken, down-on-his-luck helicopter pilot, to fly her into the jungle to find a fellow archaeologist studying a lost tribe of pygmies. On the way, their oil line is shot by bandits, forcing them to land to look for fuel. They find Luis, who along with his wife Maria (Iliang Vitales) runs a fortress-like fuel station (to protect him from bandits) in the jungle.

Luis (Venchito Galvez) has previously lodged Evelyn's colleague Dr. Eslinger. Reading Eslinger's journals, Evelyn determines that Dr. Eslinger had an overly paranoid view on the duendes, and despite her host's obvious fear of the tribe, she vows to continue searching for them.

Fed up with her pilot's drinking, Dr. Howard takes his whiskey in the night and, the next morning, uses it for target practice, much to his chagrin. Harry takes some drums of Mazola oil to refuel his helicopter and leaves Dr. Howard to her studies in the jungle.

In the forest, Evelyn encounters Esteban (Amos), a witch doctor who they saw earlier stopping by a camp. Esteban forces her to drink a strong alcohol out of a jug as they discuss the Duendes. Esteban tells Dr. Howard that the tribe she searches for are the children of the devil who hunt at night.

Meanwhile, as Harry packs, he is ambushed by a duo of bandits (Carlos Palomino and Telly Babasa). Seemingly unable to bargain with them, Harry tells them that they would not be so tough without their guns, instead challenging them to a game of "Cuban Roulette" a game similar to Russian Roulette, but with two bullets instead of one. Bandit 1 agrees, but tells Harry to go first, Harry instead points the bandit's gun at his oppressor and shoots him. The second bandit runs into the jungle and, after being pursued by the duendes, falls into a boiling lake.

Evelyn is noticeably drunk when she crawls over to her radio and calls Harry, who notices her slur and, after she says she's been with Esteban, and knows she's drunk, to his amusement. Harry decides to rescue her, and after he refuels his chopper, he flies off over the jungle.

At night, Evelyn radios Harry again and tells him she sees the duendes, which, she discovers, is really a tribe of lizard creatures. She shoots a few with her flare gun before fleeing onto a vine over the deadly lake. Before her arms give out, she is picked up by her pilot, who she kisses as they fly back to Luis's fort in hopes of rescuing him.

However, they find both him and Maria dead, and his compound crawling with the duendes. They manage to escape them and fly away with love, or at least respect, noticeably blossoming. However, when Dr. Howard goes to the middle of the chopper to check on some machinery, she is grabbed by one of the clawed hands of the duendes.

Dance of the Dwarfs (AKA Jungle Heat) is a 1983 adventure film directed by Gus Trikonis, loosely based on the book by Geoffrey Household by the same name. It stars Peter Fonda as Harry Bediker, Deborah Raffin as Dr. Evelyn Howard, and John Amos as Esteban.