Overrated

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Let's cut to the chase...the plot here in "The Jungle" is ridiculous. It's set in India and elephants have apparently been stampeding the countryside and killing many people. However, the great American hunter called in to take care of it, Steve Bentley (Rod Cameron) has just reported that everyone in his party but him got killed...and they were NOT elephants but Woolly Mammoths!! So, the determined Princess (Marie Windsor) heads into the jungle with her trusted Rama Singh (Cesar Romero) to see for herself...and Steve accompanies their party. In addition to Woolly Mammoths, the film also features something common in the era...white folks playing the leading roles even though they are supposed to be Indians. Romero can kinda pull it off but Marie Windsor looks about as Indian as Lassie! I think the film was sepia tinted to try to hide this but it doesn't work well. Nowadays, such casting is seen as culturally insensitive and insulting. At least everyone else in the film appears to be Indian and the film DOES get the look and feel of India right and the animals seem to be more accurate than most B-movies (where you'd see rhinos and kangaroos and more in the Indian jungle!). Considering it's a low-budget film, I was also surprised that some of the film was actually filmed in that country. So, culturally it's a mixed bag.So is it any good? Of course not! It really can't be! It's a product of its times but really isn't all that great...at best a slow-paced and very silly time passer. But, when it comes to giant monster films, it's better than most (not that this is high praise!).By the way, if you suffer from Ophidiophobia (the fear of snakes) skip this film. Trust me on this. Also, animal lovers might also want to avoid it as there's a scene where a tiger and Sloth Bear fight and it honestly looks like they just tossed 'em together and let them fight! Fortunately it APPEARS neither animal was seriously injured. Later, they toss a boar at a leopard! Great animal lovers they were NOT!

Jungle, The (1952) * 1/2 (out of 4) Low-budget nonsense about Princess Mari (Marie Windsor) who moves back to India where hunter Steve Bentley (Rod Cameron) and Rama Singh (Cesar Romero) fight over her. While all of this is going on villagers are being killed by stampeding elephants so the three love birds go into the jungle and discover woolly mammoths. The jungle film had been around since the silent days and when you hear jungle and low-budget you typically expect all sorts of stock footage mixed in with the actors on a sound stage. It's shocking but that's actually not the case here because this film gets the added benefit of having actually been shot in India and these locations are certainly a major plus. Sadly, the rest of the film is a major chore to sit through because the 73-minute running time is pretty much all start and very little end. We know we're going into the film to see the "monsters" but they don't show up until around three-minutes left to go in the film so we have to sit through countless dialogue scenes that just go no where and it's clear the only reason they're in the film is to fatten up the running time. We get quite a bit of footage of local animals including several elephants as well as lions, tigers and boars. We even get a pretty violent fight between a boar and a tiger that might be the highlight to many even though it never gets too graphic. Being able to see all this stuff was a bonus but the rest of the footage is pretty lame. The sight of the woolly mammoths are a real treat because they're just elephants with some sort of rug thrown over them. I will give the producers credit because they don't look too horribly bad but at the same time it's still very obvious at the trick they did. The three leads are decent in their parts but none of them are worthy of awards. I'd say it's a safe bet that all three were happy with their trip to India so we're lucky we got anything from them. Director Berke was a veteran of this type of film has he was behind the camera on several of the Jungle Jim movies but I can't say I'm impressed with his work as he brings no energy to anything we see.

I can't really criticize this film. It is literally the first film I ever remember seeing and lead to a lifelong love of science fiction and horror films and prehistoric animals. Fortunately, seeing it again years later, it held up fairly well. Rod Cameron plays a big game hunter whose last safari was wiped out by mammoths. No one believes him, including his best friend, played by Cesar Romero, whose brother was among those killed. And Rod Cameron was the only survivor. The film was shot in India and has some good scenery. The acting is on a high level. I don't believe Rod Cameron, Cesar Romero and Marie Winsor ever turned in a bad performance. The mammoths, when they finally arrive are fairly effective. The ending also has an unusual twist, particularly for a 1950's science fiction film. Definitely worth seeing.

Interesting tale of giant mammoth elephants running amok in modern India. Features transparent special effects-elephants dressed in shaggy coats sporting tusk extensions. All this said, we do have a good story and a fine cast at work, and an exciting climax. It's been said that the running time on this one was doubled when it showed in India-courtesy of Robert Lippert, a master at 'padding.' Given a choice, opt for the shorter version.