Umberto Lenzi can lay claim to being the originator of the short-lived Cannibal horror sub-genre, though in the good-natured dispute with his friend and rival Ruggero Deodato as to who got there first, it may only be as noteworthy as the two politicians' feud described as 'two bald men fighting over a comb'. Horror fans who picked up THE MAN FROM DEEP RIVER may be as surprised as I was that it was released as far back as 1972. Even more surprising is that it's much less exploitative (barring the very fast-forwardable animal abuse) in its plot and handling of character. Rather than the later movies' endless reworking of 'crude white explorers justifiably fall foul of a savage tribe' which is almost Victorian in its racist fear/exploitation of foreigners, the excellent Ivan Rassimov (more of him anon) plays a scallywag who hides out with an Amazonian tribe and eventually assimilates, to his and their cost. He develops a sympathy for them and a marriage with the lovely Burmese/British actress Me Me Lai with enough depth and sensitivity to belie the video nasty ghettoisation these films usually deserve.
This is is the only one of the three cannibal movies Lai did where she is allowed any character work, being subject to the same law of diminishing returns on screen as this sub-genre earned. The 88 Films DVD has a great extended interview with Lai by the intrepid Calum Waddell.
(FUN FACT: In retraining later as a police officer in Essex, in the '80s Lai had the ironic experience of making video shop raids during the Nasties witch-hunts where she had to confiscate copies of her own films, unbeknownst to her colleagues).
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