The Jungle Princess
Director:
Wilheml Thiele
Year: 1936
Rating: 6.0
I don't know
why but Jungle movies were almost a genre of their own back in the 1930's.
Perhaps just the allure of the unknown, the savage, the inherent danger,
the wildlife, white men where they don't belong and an opportunity to create
a fantasy that could only happen outside of civilization - lost tribes,
mountains of gold and ivory, elephant stampedes to the rescue and of course
the contrast of the uncorrupted to our corrupted. So films like King Kong,
Tarzan, the Sabu films, Jungle Jim and various serials were a regular feature
at the theaters. There were also of course a few Dorothy Lamour films featuring
her and her sarong, which for a while became her trademark.
Lamour was a popular singer already by
the time she tried her hand in Hollywood in 1936. Being of French and Spanish
ancestry, she was immediately put into exotic roles such as this one. In
fact, this was her debut really and she was top billed over Ray Milland
in this Paramount feature. It was a big hit which after watching it today
would probably surprise most people. It is a fun little romance - more Jungle
Fever than Jungle Adventure - the jungle drums are going ba-bom ba-bom in
their loins - and Lamour is beyond adorable in it as a native girl
- but it is hard to figure why this was so popular. Tastes change. She also
sings a few songs and one of them Moonlight and Shadows became a hit.
Ulah (Lamour) is orphaned as a little
girl when her village is overrun by elephants and she grows up on her own
in the jungle - well not alone exactly as she has her friends Limau and
Bogo as playmates. They are respectively a tiger and a chimpanzee. The chimp
of course as in every jungle film is the comedy relief. If I had been them,
I would have unionized and demanded better roles - I can do drama too! Ulah
grows up into the lovely and totally innocent Lamour who has somehow learned
to sing and to stare into a man's eyes in a way that would make their knees
wobble. If Tarzan had met her, goodbye Jane.
She comes into contact with a lost and
very charming British gentleman (Milland) in the jungle doing what I am
not exactly sure - but he is engaged to a thin lipped brittle English woman.
You know where this is going. He hurts himself and Ulah rescues him and
mends him - all while his fiancé is away and you know what they say
about mice. The director Wilhelm Thiele revels in close-ups of Lamour's face
like it is a newly discovered nova star in the galaxy. To my amazement it
took Milland 47 minutes before he kissed her - I never would have made it
that far. Of course, her childlike behavior makes that a little creepy I
have to admit but she was 22 at the time! It gets amusing later on when the
fiancé returns and suddenly there is some adventure when in an amazing
scene it turns into Planet of the Apes. And Akim Tamiroff actually gets to
play a hero here! How often have you seen that.
Lamour would go on to make The Hurricane,
Her Jungle Love, Typhoon, Moon Over Burma. Aloma of the South Seas, Beyond
the Blue Horizon - all sarong films - but also of course she was the romantic
interest in the Road films with Hope and Crosby. Where she often had to
wear a sarong!