Duel in the Jungle

I am wondering if there was product placement,because I would swear that the native boatmen were singing "I'm with the Abbey National".The Abbey being a big building society.David Farrer as the villain easily steals the acting honours.At the end there is a credit for Elstree Studios over a photo of the studio.So I presume it was they who were responsible for the truly awful process photography.

For its first half, the tone is fairly light-hearted as its American hero ambles about London (complete with a fleeting appearance by Paul Carpenter who would soon make a career out of starring in this sort of nonsense) before taking a slow boat to Northern Rhodesia; which is where the money has really been spent, and the matte work largely ends and the location work starts.

Ripe with saturated Technicolor, some of the jungle photography is magnificent; although you can usually see throughout where the studio ends and the second unit begins.

Reading here that an assistant director on this film was killed in the rapids no doubt filming the final action sequence of Duel In The Jungle, makes me wonder was it worth it. This poor man didn't exactly die for the making of Citizen Kane.

Duel In The Jungle finds Dana Andrews heading the cast of a British production where he's an insurance investigator sent to Africa to investigate the death of David Farrar, a rich adventurer on whom the company has written a million dollar policy. The company doesn't want to fork over that kind of loot without it's own investigation.

Andrews also devotes time to harassing and that's the only way you can describe it, Farrar's fiancé Jeanne Crain. That's all right because Farrar is a nasty villain.

The film was shot on location in South Africa and Rhodesia and good location shots were wasted on a rather predictable action/adventure film. It isn't The African Queen or King Solomon's Mines you'll be seeing with Duel In The Jungle.

Dana Andrews stars in this B-grade jungle adventure as an insurance investigator who teams up with the widow (Crain) of a diamond merchant (Farrar) who has apparently drowned after falling from a boat. Cautioned by native guide Vincent (Mataka) that his presence won't be welcome when they reach the village, Andrews persists in his doggedness to uncover the truth about Farrar's disappearance, and in his attempts to seduce the now nubile widow.

Assistant director Tony Kelly died making this picture, so it's of some comfort to know that it isn't a bad little pot-boiler, building some reasonable tension and punctuated with occasional light humour (the scene in which the chimp empties their luggage from the jeep is worth a chuckle). George Montgomery's look-a-like brother Dana Andrews is sturdy without being marvellous, and Farrar plays the obnoxious British git with aplomb.

Superimposing the actors over the white-water rapids backdrop, or in a confrontation with a menacing lion often looks clumsy, but this B-picture isn't staking any grand claims, just mild entertainment for afternoon channel-surfing.

I would have never net a dime that this film, adventure flick, was directed by an American film maker, especially George Marshall; I woud have bet on Terence Young or even Jack Lee Thompson. I know, there is Dana Andrews here, because it is a co production, but the US touch is not that obvious. It remains however very entertaining and rather light hearted. I saw it a long time ago and totally forgot it. Not bad but far from being the best from this director who seemed to work in a so frantic pace, so many movies in his filmography confirm it. Good time waster taking place in Dark Africa, with some elements of thriller.