Jungle Bride

A ship sinks off the coast of Africa, and only four survivors make it to shore: Gordon Wayne (Charles Starrett), a guitar-playing nice-guy who has been accused of killing a cop back in the U. S.; Doris Evans (Anita Page), the sister of the man "wrongly" convicted of the crime, and who made it her goal to see Gordon arrested in Europe and brought back to the U. S.; John Franklin (Kenneth Thomson), a law enforcement officer who actually did the arresting of Gordon, and who is set on taking him back for trial; and Eddie Stevens (Eddie Borden), Gordon's comic-relief buddy. These four try to make the best of their situation, constructing primitive huts when not battling fierce lions and laughing at the chimpanzees.

Why a single male lion is wandering around a dense jungle is never explained (that happened a lot in 30's jungle pictures, when the general population was unaware that lions live on the savanna). However, that's about as exciting as this gets, with the remaining animal action meager, to put it mildly. The acting is barely adequate, although the small cast is notable for a variety of reasons: Starrett was on the cusp of becoming one of the longest running B western stars (in the Durango Kid series); Page was reaching the premature end of her stardom, with her abruptly "retiring" this same year at age 23 (she later said that she had been blacklisted for refusing sex with Irving Thalberg); and bad guy Thomson was one of the founders of the Screen Actors Guild. Still, none of that makes this any more watchable.

A year later a proper studio with proper actors used a very similar plot to make an excellent film called FOUR FRIGHTENED PEOPLE. This is most definitely not an excellent film - it does however feature Anita Page getting her clothes stolen by a chimp.

As soon as you see a chimp in a pre-code movie you know exactly why he's there. A chimpanzee has one purpose and one purpose alone in a pre-code movie: an actress will discretely strip off to go for a swim and the chimp will subsequently run off with her clothes.

Along with Jean Harlow, Anita Page certainly had one of the bounciest bodies of the 1930s! This was an asset even Mussolini admired. Whereas Il Duce was apparently besotted with Anita, L B Mayer wasn't - he only needed one Jean Harlow in his studio so coupled with the fact that she allegedly wouldn't sleep with Irving Thalberg, by the time this was made her career was virtually over. Thus she was farmed out to this third rate outfit to make this third rate film which feels like it was made in someone's shed.

Her acting ability wasn't really any worse than Jean Harlow but to be honest, that's not saying much. This film should not be one she should put on her c.v. Her co-stars in this are hardly any better though but I suspect this is a result of poor direction because Anita Page for example was pretty good in a few other films such as WAR NURSE or SKYSCRAPER SOULS.

Chadwick Productions didn't really go in for believable characterisation, just fun action adventure. Not sure you could tick the boxes for fun or adventure but there's at least a lot of action going on. The amateurish feel of this however makes you think you should finish watching it just out of politeness because those guys must have put a lot of effort into making this on that budget so the least you can do it watch it.... even though you know it's rubbish.

Whereas in FOUR FRIGHTENED PEOPLE which stared the divine Claudette Colbert, thanks to C B DeMille's direction we got to see how the survivors' personalities and mindsets were affected by their situation, in this we just get actors reading words. Anita Page's prettiness is not enough justification to sit through this.

This film is really quite terrible but somehow is fun almost because of it and because of the real chemistry between the two stars, both of whom are terrible in it but still you can't take your eyes off of them. The editing is dreadful. There is a huge amount of stock footage just as you would expect including chimps that have been brought in to do silly things and there is some human who keeps grunting in the background and trying to make you think it's the chimps doing it. Anita Page is a terrible actress but she gets little to work with here as some scenes finish off and you wonder what the point of them was. In any case she's a real bombshell and the pre-code side boob shot of the amply endowed Miss Page and her bare back and slit dress leg shot will no doubt be rhapsodized in some summary of pre-code babes. She delivers lines and emotes as if she is in a dreadful high school play and her close-ups play as if she's in a silent movie. But we love her anyway. Charles Starrett is perfectly cast as the brawny almost comic-book like superhero who makes everything work out and gets the girl as well. He sings the same song over and over-- a terrible song called Call of the Jungle-- and the mismatching of his alleged singing (it isn't he) and his not even close to approximation of a guitar player help to label this as a Z film and not even really a B. It's the bottom of the barrel. Starrett does actually sing for real as a drunk in the beginning of the film and the sound is completely different from the singing he allegedly does later in the film! And yet, bad as it all is, the shipwreck sequence still packs a wallop and there is some beautiful photography of the jungle hill on which Starrett pseudo-plays his guitar as Page is lured to make love with him. Their love scenes together seem pretty convincing too as if Anita really went for him. Starrett was always better than his B or Z film material, always giving his all and coming across as a solid leading man. Like John Wayne, his acting may not be the best but he has always a definite screen presence, part of which is due to his size and good looks mixed with an apparently amiable personality. All in all, this has to be a guilty pleasure film. It is dreadfully made and quite a few scenes seem to play out as if the director had no idea what they were supposed to accomplish and then we just go on to the next scene... and it took three guys to direct this film! I kept wondering how Page then at MGM and Starrett then at Paramount could have been loaned out and agreed to make a film with such wretched production values. It seems Trem Carr, the Monogram Pictures founder, had a big hand in this one but why wasn't it released by Monogram which he founded in 1931, two years before? Could it be that this was below the quality that Monogram would accept? Was it simply an independent effort that he helped to get into release? We may never know and the two stars seem at once trapped by their awful material here and at the same time they are trying to make something more of the mess than it should be. I had fun watching this and if you aren't too ashamed of yourself for wasting your time on this garbage you will too.

Jungle Bride (1933)

*** (out of 4)

Doris Evans (Anita Page) and her reporter/boyfriend John (Kenneth Thomson) are on board a ship hoping to clear her brother who has been found guilty of murder. Doris believes that the real killer was a man named Gordon Wayne (Charles Starrett) who just happens to be on the same boat. When the boat crashes, as luck would have it, the three end up on an island with a deep jungle where they must try and survive together. I love watching "B" movies and I love watching pre-codes so this here was the perfect mixture of the two and I was really surprised at how entertained I was. Sure, the thought of an entire ship going down and these three connected people (plus a fourth guy) all end up surviving and then floating to the same island is very far-fetched but once on the island we're treated to all sorts of goodies that would be outlawed in a few years by the Hayes Office. The story itself might be far-fetched but I thought the island/adventure stuff was pretty good. I'm really not sure what island they're on but they've got the beach in front of them and a few steps away there's this uncharted jungle full of lions, monkeys, rhinos and countless other animals that the humans must eventually deal with. In one of the highlights of the film Gordon must go up against a lion and while it's easy to tell when the trainer is fighting with the lion it's still a pretty exciting scene. The pre-code elements deal with some sexual talk but the real highlight comes with the outfit worn by Page. It's a black dress that hangs quite loose on her and it's especially loose around her cleavage, which is constantly swinging for the viewer's delight. In one scene she has her back towards the camera as she takes her shirt off and doesn't this little swing, which causes her boob to pretty much swing to her side and in full view. You don't see anything too graphic but the scene is certainly something that should be in Pre-code Heaven. As far as the performances go I thought the three leads and Eddie Borden as the fourth survivor were pretty good. Page comes off incredibly sexual in her part and I thought the chemistry between her and Starrett was very real. Thomson makes for the perfect jerk and Borden adds some nice comic touches. JUNGLE BRIDE isn't that well-known, which is a shame considering how good the cast is and how nice certain sexual tones are flowing here. The movie is far from a masterpiece but if you enjoy cheap but enjoyable films then this here is just for you.

A group taking a cruise is marooned on the coast. A few surviviors band together, after washing up somewhere in africa. No filming locations are currently listed, but it's probably on a beach in los angeles, with some exotic animal noises thrown in. Lots of stock footage, of wild animals. An engaged couple, john and doris, and an accused murderer, who may or may not be out of trouble, now that they are shipwrecked and clear of society. At twelve minutes, with horrible edits, poor film quality, and momentary lack of subtitles, we can't hear what is being said by the crew. It sounds like someone changed course, and the ship struck something in the water. Was it espionage by the crook and the ship's crew, to help the criminal escape prosecution? Just amazing how their clothes still look washed and pressed the entire time, even after sinking and and washing up on a sandy beach. Of course they show the chimpanzees right away, when they wake up on shore, so we know the chimpanzees will be up to no good! The old saying is, once you have shown the gun, it must be used at some later point! Doris falls for the wanted man, and seems to lose interest in john. Can anyone prove that wayne is innocent so he and doris can finally be together? As poor quality film, and unlikely as all this is, it's still kind of fun to watch these old exotic adventures in "far away" lands. Directed by harry hoyt and al kelley. It's okay. Probably will never be restored, since it's coming up on 100 years old!