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!
