Return of the Ghost of the Son of the 31 Days of Cheese - Day 11 - Forbidden Jungle.

We open with a long long sequence of a safari moving though the dense bush – leading this is a someone plump looking man – the bearers are as the word implies bearing things. After a while we see – and hear – one of the things they are bearing is a tiger.  In a cage.

We are not sure why.

Welcome to Forbidden Jungle a 1950 movie that you’d swear was made by someone who studied under Ed Wood when it came to things making sense.

We trek on – we walk past stock footage – the white hunter is strong and resolute is a bit moist – the bearers continue – from time to time you hear the tiger roar. One can only imagine the reason that made the hunter drag this dangerous animal deep into the Africa bush.

Finally we arrive at the outskirts of a village – We hear in a voice over how he has come looking for a boy – said to be a boy of the jungle – possibly the grandson of the man who has sent him on this mission – his son and his wife and small son had vanished in this area some 15 years ago. The Hunter’s motive – money – lots of it. It’s very important to him he says.

No mention of the tiger.

His arrival is noted – a young woman scampers into the village calling for ‘dear friend’ who turns out to be one Trader Vik (no no not Trader Joe a name one assumes was locked up in copyright somewhere otherwise you know they would have used it) – Vik greats the great white hunter and is told about his mission.  A fool’s errand he says – there is no jungle boy and what’s with the tiger?

The Hunter explains (From the film):

“ I captured him in India , it’s a rare specimen of a man killer,  I was going to send him along to the states when I got this assignment, fearful of losing him I brought him along for safe keeping. “

A tiger in a bamboo cage in the middle of the Jungle next to a native village – what could possibly go wrong?

And I have say just about the clumsiest bit of set up I’ve ever seen outside an Ed Wood Film – my guess is that they had a lot of tiger stock footage to use but how can we get a tiger into Africa?

I can only assume this was the best the writer could come up with on deadline.   The writer, Frances  Kavanaugh   was one the few female writers working in Hollywood at the time wrote a produced a ton westerns for Monogram Studios and later earned a masters in Psychology so I feel that   she had a bad day here.

Next,  the whole oh yeah there’s this man-killing tiger subplot is dropped for now as the Hunter searches for the boy who’s about 18 years old now. He’s played,  as most of these sort of Jungle boy things are played as sort of an noble savage innocent a  savant wise in the ways of the jungle but knowing nothing of the ways of civilized men or Broadway shows (it’s talked about in the film – trust me).

The jungle boy is just as curious about the Hunter as the man Is about him – despite being warned away from him by Trader Vik (or dear friend as the jungle boy calls him – as all the natives call him).

I have to add that the film is padded out by long shots of the actions of three mischievous chimps, by the end of the picture their wacky and loveable antics will have you  hating the sight of them with the heat of a thousand suns.  

The Hunter as he interacts with the Jungle boy who can communicate with all of the forests’ creatures and understands them – including a man in gorilla suit that the Jungle boy calls Gigi – at one point Gigi tries to kidnap young girl of the village – and the Jungle boy stops with. I had to wonder was this a regular feature of this village – a gorilla carrying off the women? And  if so why tolerate it, hey it’s nice that Jungle Boy can stop Gigi when he sees him but it’s a big jungle out there.

Pointless scenes notwithstanding – the meat of the film is the great white hunter coming to realize that Jungle Boy would never fit in the modern world  with its Broadway and can openers – this is his home.

But the film isn’t allowed to end that quietly. The chimps – remember them? - Open up the unguarded tiger cage.  The tiger gets out and then attacks a native via stock footage – this may explain the other rather odd casting choices for the natives who all look like they should be Pardon my Sarong rather than in Africa but the tiger stock footage has a someone who looks like that sooo – we have a Polynesian village in the middle of Africa. 

The last third of the film is a series of badly edited fights between the tiger and – the gorilla, the water buffalo, a black panther, and a python, along with a stuffed tiger and a stuffed python and I swear at one point the stuffed snake was fighting the stuffed tiger, these fight scenes are intercut with shots of the chimps clapping (bloodthirsty little monsters aren’t they) Jungle Boy looking on helpless in a tree and the Hunter and beaters going through the Jungle (which is a very fake looking stage set by the by) for no apparent reason.  It really is Ed Wood level editing – and not in a good way.

In the end Jungle Boy saves the White Hunter, the Hunter decides to go, without his quarry and report to the world that there is no Jungle boy – there is a bit about how he feels like he’d dreamt the whole thing including bringing a tiger. 

No putz. You brought the tiger – the blood is on your hands.  Deal with it.

It’s a horrible film – directed and edited at an Ed Wood level without Ed’s strange poetry.

Enjoy with Pineapple slices.