Memorable, crazy movie

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Copyright 13 April 1942 by Alexander Korda Films, Inc. Released through United Artists. A Zoltan Korda film. Presented by Alexander Korda. New York opening at the Rivoli: 4 April 1942. U.S. release: 3 April 1942. U.K. release: 5 June 1942. Australian release: 7 January 1943. 9,521 feet. 106 minutes. Copyright title: RUDYARD KIPLING'S JUNGLE BOOK.SYNOPSIS: Wolf boy is forced to lead a trio of evil villagers to a king's treasure chamber in a lost city.NOTES: Negative cost: Sterling £250,000.Nominated for the following Academy Awards: Best Color Cinematography (lost to Leon Shamroy's The Black Swan); Best Music Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (lost to Max Steiner's Now, Voyager); Best Art Direction in Color (lost to My Gal Sal); Best Special Effects (lost to Reap the Wild Wind).COMMENT: The dialogue is atrocious and Mr Calleia gives an especially hammy performance, even affecting a ridiculously phoney accent (on top of his normal accent, would you believe?) which he was evidently persuaded to drop half¬way through the film. His co-conspirators, Puglia and Qualen, are upon us at this point - and they are almost equally appalling. These two do not figure in Kipling's stories, and Stallings has even introduced an old vaudeville wheeze (the barber places his foot over a dropped coin) to keep them occupied.The rest of the principal players, led by the redoubtable Sabu (who is in fine form and seems to do all his own stunts) are somewhat more capable, though hampered too by the dialogue. It must be admitted that Stallings has lifted a fair amount of this straight from Kipling. It reads more fluently than it sounds. But it doesn't really matter. For Jungle Book has four or five things going for it that elevate it to a pantheon of artistic achievement.It's difficult to decide between the music and the cinematography for first place. Jungle Book is one of the finest examples of Technicolor photography I've ever seen. The colors positively glow with such artistry as impart to forest and animals a three-dimensional life. The music is undoubtedly the most stirring score Rosza ever composed. He had the good judgment to utilize it (with a minimum of adaptation) for his famous "Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book Suite" (a recording originally issued on 78 rpm with Rosza conducting the Victor Symphony Orchestra, and narration by Sabu. I prefer the later version: Rosza conducting the Frankenland State Symphony Orchestra, with Leo Genn narrating).Add to the music and photography, Vincent Korda's truly magnificent sets and some spectacular animal footage directed by Andre De Toth, and you have at least four unimpeachable reasons why, despite the occasional clumsiness of dialogue, acting and direction, Jungle Book is a richly endowed masterpiece.

I wanted to watch this movie from long, and the movie was on my DVD shelf from past since June 2011, right when i heard about the protagonist on a local newspaper. Sabu, who hails from Mysore, India was the first Indian to make it big in Hollywood. Yet, his descendents back in India are leading a poor life. The movie should be one like a King Kong of those time. The screenplay is realistic, you would find the movie to be an extraordinary being it made 70 years ago when there were no computers to graphic. My little nephew like the movie when the wild animals were there!The film is also a mixture of Indian Culture, it again proves that India is a land of Wonders! Those traditional beliefs, which oppose people movements, those supernatural guards all just elevate your thinking on India. This is be true even now in India, as there was vast treasure found recently beneath the temple. You can call it an amazing treasure hunt movie.One suggestion, i saw as a VHS print, but nowadays DVDs are available. Check in a DVD to view in a better quality.

Here we have a glorious Technicolour adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling stories, nowadays forgotten after being eclipsed by Disney's cartoon film of 1967. Its status is ill-deserved, however, as this turns out to be a thrilling and eventful movie along the same action-packed lines as THE THIEF OF BAGDAD.It's hardly surprising, given that the two films share both Zoltan Korda as director and Sabu as star. THE JUNGLE BOOK serves as a loose adaptation of a handful of the original Mowgli stories, featuring all the animal characters that Kipling made famous and integrating them into a storyline that's very much of its era.Once the Tarzan-like jungle adventures are dispensed with, the plot involves a trio of greedy hunters and their quest for a mythical city of gold. Along the way, there are plenty of animal encounters which utilise some cutting edge technology for their day; those giant snakes still look impressive even now, and I'd for sure take them over lazy, modern-day CGI.Overall the film has a pleasant and whimsical tone, and the bookend scenes involving an old beggar narrating the tale are very well handled. Sabu is in his element, and doesn't put a foot wrong, and there's enough drama to satisfy both child and adult viewers.

Although THE JUNGLE BOOK seems to limp along at a slow pace, it catches the eye with its splendid Technicolor photography of lush forests, a brilliantly staged forest fire and the "Lost City" where hidden treasure drives men to greed and destruction. Close-ups of the jungle animals are beautifully shot and all of their scenes are well staged.As Mowgli, the boy raised by wolves, SABU has the fierce looks of a wolf-child, although he does learn to converse in English awfully soon, thanks to some choppy editing continuity. ROSEMARY DeCAMP is his mother, beaming at him with adoration and accepting the fact at the end that he must return to the forest kingdom where he rules rather than stay with man.Joseph CALLEIA is terrific as one of the greedy pursuers of gold, marking Sabu's trail so he can find "The Lost City." JOHN QUALEN too is excellent in another supporting role.Miklos Rozsa's music is not given sufficient strength on the soundtrack, muffled behind all of the dialog and jungle sounds, so it doesn't get its due despite some good orchestrations. It sounds better on recorded excerpts from the film.A fantasy from my childhood that doesn't register as strongly as it did back then but still manages to hold the interest with its visually arresting sets created by Vincent Korda. TCM is showing a better Technicolor print of the film than was released in the Public Domain version years ago, which was nominated for four Oscars including one for its color cinematography.