Christopher Powell is in Malaysia with his fiancée and her father, capturing wild animals. While out hunting, he is attacked by a tiger, and his native guides run away, leaving him for dead. But the tiger is the pet of Ulah, a beautiful young woman who grew up by herself in the jungle. She rescues Chris and takes him back to her cave, where she nurses him to health and falls in love with him. When he eventually returns to camp, she follows. The fiancée is jealous, and the natives don't like Ulah or her pet tiger either, all of which leads to a lot of trouble.
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I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.
After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Dorothy Lamour is quite charming in this film playing an indigenous woman who falls in love with Ray Milland in the jungle after saving his life. He displays the sort of childlike naivety that you would find in a woman from the Pacific Islands who is enchanted by a Western man. I'm not too sure if I believe it in the context of Malaysia, but perhaps it's possible in 1935.I'm not particularly a Lamour fan and I never thought she was quite pretty in her films. However, she is charming in this film and quite endearing.In terms of the story and the characters, it didn't particularly impress me as I wasn't engaged at any level. It's just Lamour's performance and that love-sick puppy expression in her eyes when she looks at Milland that makes this film bearable.
Absurd yes. Enjoyable, profoundly. This was a movie drawn on Hollywood's fascination with all things south. The Pacific and Latin America. The story was unbelievable but for those of us who never saw a believable story out of Hollywood it was just as real as a Gene Autry western. We enjoyed all genres and that meant Gene Autry and Dorothy Lamour equally. There were Frank Buck documentaries (so-called) that were hokier than anything the B movies presented and those too were very popular. Perhaps we should only judge those pictures in the context of the times they were presented. I would love to see The Jungle Princess again and revel in Ray Milland's revelation on the Johnny Carson show what he did in a swimming scene with Dorothy.
This movie is the movie that launched Dorthy Lamour's career. Dorthy went on to star in a number of "Road To" movies with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby that were hugely popular. According to "The History of Paramount Pictures", "The Jungle Princess was a WHOPPING money maker for the studio". The picture also starred Ray Milland and Ray Mala. Ray Mala was billed only as "Mala". Mala was the star of MGM's 1933 Oscar winning picture "Eskimo/Mala The Magnificent". This picture is from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Well worth watching, this picture is an Old Hollywood favorite. I wish this movie would be released on DVD to make it easier for people to find. There is only one beginning of Hollywood...
An illogical and fairly routine B-picture, The Jungle Princess is know (if at all) for giving Dorothy Lamour her first big break. It lead to that image everybody has of her in a snug sarong, and it led to superb films like The Hurricane. It's not surprising; Dorothy is exquisitely beautiful, even if the film she in is silly and stupid.Jungle Princess is not impossible to enjoyable, unless you really, true crave something deep and meaningful. This movie has all the formulaic plot devices neatly assembled, and has all the usual lapses in logic. Like, how did Dorothy, raised by wild animals in the heart of the jungle, manage to look like she was cranked through Busby Berkely's beauty machine, with her perfect hair and make-up and clean, neat sarong that she obviously didn't sew for herself.From what I remember, Ulah (Miss Lamour) is raised by the jungle creatures since girlhood, and has become part of Malasian folk lure long enough for a stodgy British hunter to run into her. The two of them fall in love and he sort of teaches her English. He also apparently shows her, off screen, how western boys and girls make love. Her pronunciation is a little off, so when she calls him by name (Chris) she yells 'Kis, Kis' and it sounds more like she's demanding one yet again from him. Her childlike mentality vanishes when she is mocked by her rival for Chris' affections, and when her beloved tiger is nearly killed by the natives. A climactic raid on the village by over-sized monkeys (they appear to be attacking an elaborate model of the village) ensures a happy and satisfying ending (it also really must be seen to be believed).The audience I saw it with was interesting. A woman there, probably in her late sixties, mentioned to one of her fellow theater goers (I was listening in) that this was the first movie she remembered seeing. She still enjoyed it, although she probably spotted more flaws with the picture than a little girl would in 1946. That instance gave me, personally, a slightly enhanced appreciation of the movie. I liked the film itself although for for both artistic and entertainment value, one would be better off seeking out Lamour's next and much better south seas picture, a truly great film, The Hurricane. Viewing this film requires only that you leave your well-guarded sense of logic at the theater door.
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