Really Surprised!

Good start, but then it gets ruined

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

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

It's clear that this movie's target audience is 14-year-old boys. "Liane, das Mädchen aus dem Urwald" ("Liane, Jungle Goddess" in English) has little purpose beyond showing off Marion Michael's body, especially the upper half. And boy is there something to show off! I understand that Marion Michael was known as Germany's answer to Brigitte Bardot. As expected, the movie got treated as an adults-only movie upon its initial release (although you can bet money that a number of boys went to see it and it helped them become men).Obviously the movie has a colonial mentality in its depiction of the Africans. That's to be expected. We can understand that and simply luxuriate in all the shots of Marion Michael swinging from the vines wearing as little as was allowed.

*Spoiler/plot- Liane, Jungle Goddess 1956. An African expedition consisting of Germans find a blonde native girl in the jungle. Research proves that she is the heir to a German billionaire's industrial fortune. The heir is brought back to civilization only to get involved in family drama.*Special Stars- Marion Michael, Hardy Kruger. *Theme- Kindness and help will benefit the weak.*Trivia/location/goofs- German, B&W. Very early screen appearance for actor, Hardy Kruger. Some suggested jungle nudity in swimming and dancing. Many 50's & 60's German character actors are included.*Emotion- A wonderfully naive plot and theme for a foreign jungle film. It's fairytale story keeps you wondering where the drama will start. It does and keeps you interested till the final scene. Simple film with easy virtues.

"Liane, Jungle Goddess" is a simple German Tarzan clone. Clearly aimed at the Saturday matinée market, it remains a worthwhile family film.It is a straightforward adventure story and was obviously made quite cheaply. There are few twists in the plot and there is a distinct lack of artistry in the storytelling and direction but it remains quite watchable after sixty years.The story tells of how white girl is found living amidst an African tribe and is rehabilitated to her family. As is so often the case in these stories, it emerges she is the granddaughter of a wealthy tycoon so, fairytale-like, she is set to inherit a fortune unless a jealous antagonist's plot is successful.The African tribes-people are initially treated as a marginalised "other" and have no voice in the initial stages of the film. It is only when one of them travels back to Germany with Liane does he gain a voice and he is shown to be an honourable protector. Nevertheless, throughout the black people are shown to be subservient to the white girl who leads them which is interesting given the film was made in a German still coming to terms with the horrific racial policies of its recent past.The early colour in the film is badly faded now. The sets are limited but emphasise the contrast between the rich western world and the jungle life but it condemns neither. Implicitly, though, there is the feeling the white girl belongs with the white people and that a return to civilisation is a better place for her.The initial mystery of Liane's origins is staged in a very rudimentary way, as is the plot at the end. More fun is seeing how she adapts to life in Hamburg and uses her jungle knowledge on her family estate.Marion Michael's acting is passable in a brave performance. Some other reviewers have raised the question of the nudity in the film. It is completely non-sexual in nature so conservative parents need have no concern. Indeed, there is no offensive material in this film at all, apart from possibly the representations of race mentioned above.Overall, this is a very workmanlike film and, on one level, it is sad to see how the German film industry had declined since the heady days of Fritz Land and the Weimar Republic. On the other hand, in its simplicity and wholesomeness, the film is clearly trying to capture something of innocence, an innocence that had been lost in the horrors of the Third Reich. Marion Michael herself was a refugee from Königsberg, evacuated as a child as her city was annihilated around her, so the fact that she was able to survive that absolutely horrific situation and find success in the film industry by personifying a character displaced yet holding onto a hopeful innocence, perhaps gave the German populace and, indeed, all of us a hope for humanity that the civilian victims of war may survive and overcome the trauma to create something so good and so wholesome.

German expedition to Africa's darkest jungle region stumbles upon topless blonde girl whom natives revere as a goddess. Is she possibly the long-lost granddaughter of wealthy Hamburg industrialist? (Would there be a movie if she wasn't?) Well, then, let's take her back to the BRD and reunite her with her family. But will she ever be able to adjust to a world of cars, tap water, and wearing a bra? Therein lies the conflict.This was strictly adults-only US release of the 1950s and played for years as a "special". The NYT critic of the day declared it virtual pornography, though the exploitation material consists of some seminude Africans in NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC-type footage and a few peeks at the bare breasts of heroine Marion Michael, a fresh-faced German teenager. Her long fake hair, and the lion cub she frequently carries around, protect her modesty considerably. (Compare Tanya Roberts in SHEENA, which showed more and drew a PG from the MPAA.)If, and I'm not naming names, you were too young to see this in the 50s or even the early 60s, when it played your nabe, and you always wondered what kind of positively adults-only thrills you might be missing, LIANE is available in a not-bad (but not-great) print from Sinister Cinema and you can satisfy your curiosity.The storyline is pretty thin and is laid out point for point in the IMDB synopsis above. Marion is cute as a button and looks a lot more like a 1950s SEVENTEEN covergirl than a denizen of the tropischer Urwald. Sinister describes this as its best-selling Jungle Thrills entry, so apparently I'm not the only one who was waiting for this to hit video. Like so many other long-deferred delights, the anticipation was rather more rewarding than the fulfillment.