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Sick Product of a Sick System

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

The only jungle the characters in this colorful adventure come from is the jungle known as Hollywood, with scantily clad blonde hunk Richard Denning twitching the hearts of the women left without their men during World War II (and probably quite a few men too who were unable to enlist in the army for obvious reasons) and gorgeous Dorothy Lamour given some of the campiest situations and dialog that any actor ever had to say. "He fell out of a tree like a ripe coconut", Lamour says describing Denning, and later proclaims, "I don't have the tail of a fish, but I can swim!" She not only swims but sings here too, but she's definitely no threat to the yet to be discovered Esther Williams. Tigers, chimpanzees (creating havoc to the tune of "Waltz of the Flowers"), alligators (chasing Jack Haley across a stream with snapping jaws) and various other wild life of the jungle support Denning and Lamour in this delightful piece of escapism where Lamour is brought to San Francisco, believing that she might be the heir to an estate.This brings to my mind the Elaine Stritch Song "Civilization" where she sang, "Bongo, bongo, bongo, I don't want to leave the Kongo", but in Lamour's case, she was the child of American parents who happened to be killed in the jungle, leaving her to be raised by the wild animals including a huge tiger. This part of her story is seen in flashback, and of course, Lamour is quite lovely in her sarong, even if not the strongest of actresses. Of course, this is a Hollywood version of "Jungle Book" with a female heroine instead of Sabu, and it is very ironic that Lamour and Sabu were never paired, her being under contract to Paramount and he being under contract to Universal and paired with the similarly exotic Maria Montez.There's plenty of action as the jungle scenes feature Lamour re-visiting to find evidence supporting her claim and the group dealing with unfriendly natives, various unfriendly wild animals (especially a rather temperamental elephant) and of course, the presence of white men out for their own interests and no interest in the land. There's Jack Haley for comedy ("Hey, where did Gogo go?"), Elizabeth Patterson for imperious judgments, and a legion of spider moneys, exotic birds, black panthers and the visual treat of Lamour's cave which comes complete with its own swimming pool. This is one of those delightful "Oh so bad it's good" adventures that have quite a cult following, although this and many of Lamour's other similar films have not reached the same status of Maria Montez's outrageous output. The shocking ending has a battle between tiger and elephant that ends sadly, one of the few times on film where the elephant is the villain, not the jungle cat. All this and the gorgeous theme song too, although simply played as instrumental rather than sung as it had been famously done a decade before by Jeanette MacDonald.

I remember the scene of the elephant crashing through the bamboo wall and falling to its death. I also remember the following: The song in the movie is also called "Beyond the Blue Horizon". Dorothy Lamour had a "pet" tiger. she told Jackra that the tiger would swim in the water with her, which he did not believe. Eventually in the movie, the tiger does swim in a pool with Miss Lamour and Jackra finally believes her. Also, in the movie they called the elephant "the block".Recently I was reminded of this movie while I was watching a TV program called "Raising the Mammoth". In this true story program, they show an expedition that has found a mammoth frozen in the ice and are attempting to dig it out. They referred to the mammoth as "the block". I was wondering if the word "block" refers specifically to a mammoth or other prehistoric elephant/mastodon, etc.

I, too, have wished for years that I could see this movie again. I was about eight when I saw it. Richard Denning, as Jackra, did lure the renegade elephant to follow him to a cliff. He swung out over the cliff on a vine, ala Tarzan, and the elephant charged over the cliff. I seem to remember he had a tame lion or tiger that had jumped on the back of the elephant, but that was thrown to its death. I probably cried at that. This scene has stuck in my mind for more than 50 years, and I would really love to see it again. I could remember the title, but never could find a plot summary that mentioned this scene.

One of Miss Lamour's last "monkey flicks"...and really one of the best. Richard Denning never looked better. Great music and photography. Just plain good entertainment. It's a shame Paramount does not release this on DVD.