The Lost Jungle

Famed circus-man and animal wrangler Clyde Beatty stars as himself in this semi-fictitious account of his girlfriend (Parker), whom he neglects for his animals, disappearing on an expedition to a remote island in the tropics. Naturally Beatty sets off to locate her, but runs into trouble when the blimp on which he's travelling crashes following a storm. Not only does he have to contend with the ferocious menagerie of lions, tigers, leopards and hyenas, but his even more dangerous assistant wrangler Sharkey (Richmond) motivated only to cause maximum harm to Beatty at every given opportunity.

Beatty is affable if not really an actor, while the under-utilised Cecilia Parker has little independence in her character to make the impression of which she's capable as the film's biggest name. Every circus needs a clown and Syd Saylor offers slapstick relief as a goofy-looking sidekick to Beatty's 'straight man' routine, and generally speaking, Warner Richmond achieves his brief as Beatty's two-faced nemesis and impostor to the throne.

Frequent footage of the animals performing their tricks might be of interest to some, or appear cruel to others; essentially the feature is an advertisement for Beatty's travelling animal circus and so if that's your tonic, you should be entertained.

The Lost Jungle is one of the more intriguing adventure films of the 30's. Not for its plot – it's extremely average with nothing of interest. No, what makes this one stand out are the animal scenes. Real life animal trainer Clyde Beatty plays himself and he gets in the cage with lions, tigers, leopards and bears and gets them to obey him. A seriously impressive feat when you see how damn scary and dangerous these creatures look. Beatty seems to have been an extraordinary talent and with balls of steel. All of the animal sequences in the film are great. Several don't involve Beatty at all, such as an attack by hyenas and a very aggressive fight between a lion and a tiger. The latter is just something you will never likely see again. I'm pretty sure most of the animal material in this movie would not be 100% legal these days and would breach animal cruelty legislation. But this is a time capsule movie and it is admittedly fascinating to see.

The film fades somewhat once the adventure part of the story kicks in. It just cannot compete with Beatty and the wild animals. But for what it's worth it was edited down to feature length from a serial and it is about a legendary island called Kamor where lions and tigers naturally co-exist. A party including Beatty's girlfriend crash lands there and he organises a group to go and rescue them. This side of the film has a lot of the usual staples these old adventure flicks rely on but it's by-the-numbers stuff. The real draw of this one is the incredible animal footage.

In 1934, the serial "The Lost Jungle" debuted and was 243 minutes long. This particular movie is a shortened version--condensed down to 68 minutes! So does the overall film look comprehensible with about 3/4 of the film missing? Read on to find out for yourself.

It's a darn shame that the quality of this print is really poor, as it's worth seeing the film just to get a look at Beatty's animal act. In one scene, he has lions, tigers, leopards and bears all in the ring at the same time!! I've seen some great animal acts in person and can't recall seeing anything THAT amazing. On top of that, the animals really looked angry and hostile--and made for some great viewing.

As for plot, the story is (naturally) about Beatty and there are two plots going on at the same time. First, the ever-busy Beatty is oblivious to how much his lady friend is in love with him. She finally leaves in disgust--will Clyde come to his senses and get her? Second, Beatty has a rival who actually tries to get him killed in the ring. It looks like an accident and you wonder if Beatty will also come to his senses and realize the guy is trying to kill him.

So is it worth seeing? Well, it's far from brilliantly produced and the acting isn't great. But, it does look better than the average jungle film of the era AND you get to see Beatty in action--making it worth seeing.

By the way, near the beginning keep your eye out for a very young Mickey Rooney during his pre-fame days (he's with a dog) as well as Gabby Hayes as a passenger on the dirigible. You need to look closely for Hayes as he's NOT dressed like the 'ol West coot like he did in many B-westerns. Also, it is a bit distressing that a lion and tiger were allowed to fight. Instead of stopping it, they filmed it! And, it's pretty weird since this was supposed to be in the wild--and lions and tigers live on different continents.

Even today with Siegfried and Roy and their glitzy Vegas style wild animal taming act, the guy whose name is forever associated as the best in that profession is still Clyde Beatty. As an actor however Clyde was a great lion tamer. Still this feature version of the Mascot serial The Lost Jungle does give Beatty's legion of fans an opportunity to see him work the big cats.

Like Sonja Henie, Beatty made his money and reputation in his field and just saw movies as a way of gaining publicity for his circus and he owned and was the feature attraction of his own circus, in the same way that Henie just used her 20th Century Fox films to publicize her ice show. Of course there's light years difference between working for 20th Century Fox and Mascot Pictures.

The condensed feature film has a whole lot of things that any serial would have, lost island, lost treasure on same, a dirigible with Beatty and sidekick Syd Saylor on board, a shipwreck with Beatty's girl friend Cecilia Parker on it. Plus lots of encounters with lions and tigers who are on this mysterious lost island of Kumar in the Indian ocean which has animals native to both Africa and Asia. It even has a young Mickey Rooney at the beginning of the film as a kid going to Beatty's circus.

It's not much of a film, but it is a chance to see Clyde Beatty who was the very best at what he did.

Before I watched this film, I had never heard of Clyde Beatty. Upon watching it though, it quickly became obvious that Beatty was a professional lion (and other wild animal) tamer, and probably quite a famous one at that.

The reason for this is that this film really exists as an excuse for Beatty to do his stuff - a large part of the film is devoted to Beatty either taming animals such as lions, panthers, bears and tigers, or performing with them under the big top. The plot is secondary to this action, and is pretty standard for a 'jungle' type movie.

Having said that, I found 'The Lost Jungle' to be quite interesting, especially as a historical artifact: acts like Beatty's are seldom seen these days. All in all, I enjoyed watching it: a light movie which gives a glimpse into the past.