Favourite jungle movies

The Naked Jungle (1954), directed by Byron Haskin.

Brazil 1901: an arranged bride shows up at a remote cocoa plantation to meet her husband, an unpleasant and tyrannical but fiercely manly man. Their relations are...difficult. He's tough but she's no pushover.

This much is a woman's romance novel: you can just imagine the lurid, semi-clothed covers. She has to find her way and make a place while retaining a sense of self-worth. She's anxious to please but won't be abused.

What's his problem? He's a tough guy virgin and is intimidated when he finds she was married before. He's sexually desperate but won't touch her until one night when he's really drunk.

In a strange plot twist it shifts into a survival thriller. Something evil approaches, which we eventually learn is a giant army of ants that destroys everything in its path. (I skipped this as a kid because at first I thought the TV Guide said "an army of giant ants" and was then disgusted by the lack of science fiction content). We have elaborate action and special effects scenes as they try to save the plantation (and themselves!) against the swarm.

Eleanor Parker, last seen in Caged (1950) is, frankly, stunning. I have always liked Charlton Heston, but his performances tend to be one-note: intense, filled with pride and ambition and pain, but always sort of "full on".

That's a pretty damned opulent plantation house. Did he decorate it himself? All the furnishings had to be hauled 2000 miles upriver and I don't know how he managed the stone columns.

Edith Head costumes. Produced by George Pal.

The Technicolor registration looks a bit off; a restoration might be gorgeous.

Five Came Back / John Farrow (1939). A passenger airliner carrying a Grand Hotel/Stagecoach cast crashes in a South American jungle. The pilots try to repair the plane while everyone else tries to get along as they wait for danger, in the persons of headhunters, to close in. There are 11adults and a young boy. The title tells us that five will survive. Who will they be? It all builds and builds to an edge of the chair but sad and emotional climax that really pays off. Chester Morris is the pilot and is a bit bland. He is a lot livelier in his Boston Blackie series. Kent Taylor is the co-pilot, Patric Knowles is a spoiled rich guy, Wendy Barrie is his finance who becomes increasingly unhappy with him. Allan Jenkins is a gangster in charge of his boss’ young son. Lucille Ball will make you forget Lucy in the Woman With The Bad Rep Having To Leave Town role. But best of all, and approaching greatness, is Corsican actor Joseph Calleia (The Glass Key, Gilda, Touch Of Evil) as an anarchist terrorist being extradited for execution. His is a performance to live with and cherish. “Five Came Back” has the feel of a second-feature programmer but is a “classic” in every sense. I love this movie.

…and its remake, also directed by John Farrow…

Back From Eternity / John Farrow. (1956). The newer version is about 20-25 minutes longer than the 1939 because it fills in the backstory of several of the characters, mainly the semi-prostitute played by Swedish bombshell Anita Ekberg. Ekberg (very good here, better than I remember her ever being), on the run from immigration authorities after being thrown to the wolves by her Las Vegas sugar daddy, finds herself on board a rickety two-prop passenger airplane flying over a jungle to a remote city in South America. Along with the burned-out alcoholic pilot (Robert Ryan) and the hunky young co-pilot (Keith Andes) are an assortment of people, including a very young boy (Jon Provost, later in the “Lassie” series) watched over by a henchman (Jesse White, later the Maytag repairman) for the boy's gangster father, a young couple (Gene Barry, Phyllis Kirk) hoping to be married at their destination, a retired professor and his wife (Cameron Prud'Homme, Beulah Bondi) and finally, a criminal and political assassin (Rod Steiger) being escorted to his execution by a private cop (Fred Clark). When a storm forces the plane down in uncharted headhunter territory, they all have to work together – and maybe betray each other – to survive. As the pilot and leader, Robert Ryan rules. As far as I'm concerned Ryan can do no wrong. The other actor to watch closely is Steiger who plays a manipulator whose motives are in doubt right up to the final seconds – which are very powerful, indeed.

Either film will leave you shaken AND stirred, but don't get me wrong, the emotions that hit you are not caused by phony sentimentality, but are honestly earned by the slow building of character – something a lot of modern films could learn from.

2 Come to mind:

The Emerald Forest

Naked Prey

I also like Greystoke: Legend of Tarzan and King Solomon's Mine and The Mosquito Coast deserves mention.

Not "deep" but fun


Not fun but well worth watching


Personal favorite - the previously mentioned

Catchy tunes and great voices for the characters. Simple 1967 fun.