Le Livre de la jungle

This is probably the first movie I have seen. That is the reason why I want to write about it. Every time I watch this movie I remember when I was just a child. I loved this movie and I still do.

The Jungle Book is one of the first color movies ever made and you can see that... but that doesn`t matter because the level of entertainment is so high. Actors in this movie are great but so is the staging.. and matter a fact so is everything else. It is not hard to believe that this picture got a few oscar nomination.

After all, excellent movie and lot of nostalgia... at least for me.

*****

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.

This is a rather amazing production for 1942. The lavish sets, costumes and full-color are quite amazing for the time--especially considering it was made during one of the darkest years of WWII. So, instead of the typical black & white propaganda film, here we have pure escapism.

Now if you are looking for the Disney version of the Kipling story, you'll no doubt be disappointed. Aside from names and a few plot elements, the story really bears little in common with the 1967 film. Unlike the cartoon, this film does address how Mowgli becomes stranded in the jungle as an infant plus about 80% of the film consists of Mowgli's life AFTER returning to the village where he was born. And, also unlike the Disney film, humans are pretty greedy and awful in this film. In fact, instead of the tiger, Shere Khan, trying to kill Mowgli, the plot mostly has to do with a jungle treasure and the terrible lengths greed drives men to have it. By the end of the film, Mowgli is sick of the humans and their wicked ways--and leaves to live in his beloved jungle once again--quite the opposite of the Disney story.

Aside from very nice production values, there is a lot to admire about the film. The story is rather timeless and has some depth to it due to its examination of human nature. The only serious negative is the same negative you'd have with all adventure films of this era--no one in the film is actually Indian other than Sabu! Remember, this was the time of Charlie Chan (played originally by a Swede) and actors such as Errol Flynn and Katherine Hepburn playing Asians!! Here, such reliable Hollywood actors as John Qualen and Joseph Calleia play Indians! It's all rather laughable, though perhaps it was tough finding Indian actors at the time (especially with India in the thick of things in the war). Still, it's all very forgivable considering that it's otherwise a quality production from start to finish.

When the Blitz began taking its toll on London, producer Alexander Korda picked up stakes and headed for Hollywood, with his two brothers, Zoltan and Vincent, in tow. There, they finished "Thief of Bagdad" (1940) and produced "That Hamilton Woman" (1941) before beginning this elaborate Technicolor version of Kipling's Mowgli stories, originally titled "The Jungle Books," (published in 1894 and 1895). The film focuses on three of the volume's stories - "Mowgli's Brothers," "Tiger, Tiger" and "The King's Ankus." It's a fairly interesting screen translation of Kipling's attempt to provide young readers with the stories he was told by his Indian ayah when he was a child growing up in the Far East.

When a big-spending movie producer like Korda acquires the rights to a classic, there are inevitable changes. Someone hit upon the cute idea of giving Mowgli (played by Sabu) a "love interest." She appears here in the person of Mahala (Patricia O'Rourke), but after she passively lends impetus to an ill-fated search for lost treasure, her character becomes inconsequential to the rest of the picture.

The film begins as Mowgli's mother, Messua (Rosemary de Camp) is widowed one morning when her husband becomes breakfast for a hungry tiger. We later learn that the tiger is the vicious Shere Khan, who during Mowgli's childhood has become his arch-enemy. Unfortunately, when Mowgli and Shere Khan square off for a climactic battle to the end, the dated special-effects are a disappointment. Perhaps Kipling's original version of Khan's death (in the book, he is trampled lifeless by Mowgli's animal/allies) would have better suited the film.

Three of the village's leading citizens have been thrown together as a sort of Hindu vaudeville act: Buldeo, the blowhard hunter (the good, underrated Joseph Calleia); the greedy barber (John Qualen); and the "pundit" (Frank Puglia). Their lust for a dead king's treasure is given appropriate levity. The predatory Buldeo, Shere Khan's human counterpart, represents the single most dangerous threat to the jungle and the sense of community held sacred by the animals who live there. Ideologically, therefore, the fire that purges the jungle of all human sins seems an appropriate climax.

In the end, we see Buldeo, now aged and wiser, confessing his past sins to all who will pay a rupee to listen to his story of Mowgli and the jungle. As we see, he ultimately earns his money and reputation honestly as not only a story-teller, but as the narrator of this charming spectacle.

A young child wanders off into the woods and is lost. With the dangerous, bloodthirsty tiger Shere Khan lurking about, the little boy is adopted by wolves and raised in the jungle. Later embroiled in a jungle feud with Shere Khan, the partly grown boy is driven out of the jungle back into the world of man where he seeks a tooth (a knife) with which he can once and for all strike down his arch nemesis. However the world of man offers many unseen dangers and man isn't inclined to follow those laws of the jungle to which the animals abide.

Personally I feel this is the best adaptation of the "Jungle Book" Rudyard Kipling story put to film. I prefer this over the Disney versions because it never fully loses sight of its overall message, doesn't fail to show the key differences between man and beast, and isn't bogged down by comedy or musical distraction. It's also fun and adventurous, boasts real animals in the familiar roles who give surprisingly believable performances. Lead Sabu as Mowgli is a natural to the role while character actor Joseph Calleia does quite well as lead villain Buldeo. Calleia made quite a career out of playing such roles. By far the silliest moments here have got to be the result of the talking snakes with the human voices. They are the only critters in the film to talk in such a fashion. While the information they relay is vital to the plot of the movie, I'm not sure we really needed to actually hear it spoken aloud. Also the romantic subplot doesn't quite fit in the story either and that it's introduced and never resolved is somewhat disappointing. Still at the end of the day, you want jungle adventure excitement done right, you won't go wrong with 1942's Jungle Book.