Jungle Bride

After her brother is charged with murder, a young woman and her fiancé follow the man she suspects of being the killer on a ship bound for South America. However, it sinks and they are stranded on an island where the complications begin.

Very average pre-code drama with a real stagey feel to it but short at just over an hour long. Stars one time silent golden girl Anita Page along with Charles Starrett as the man pursued.

Jungle Bride (1933)

*** (out of 4)

Doris Evans (Anita Page) and her reporter/boyfriend John (Kenneth Thomson) are on board a ship hoping to clear her brother who has been found guilty of murder. Doris believes that the real killer was a man named Gordon Wayne (Charles Starrett) who just happens to be on the same boat. When the boat crashes, as luck would have it, the three end up on an island with a deep jungle where they must try and survive together. I love watching "B" movies and I love watching pre-codes so this here was the perfect mixture of the two and I was really surprised at how entertained I was. Sure, the thought of an entire ship going down and these three connected people (plus a fourth guy) all end up surviving and then floating to the same island is very far-fetched but once on the island we're treated to all sorts of goodies that would be outlawed in a few years by the Hayes Office. The story itself might be far-fetched but I thought the island/adventure stuff was pretty good. I'm really not sure what island they're on but they've got the beach in front of them and a few steps away there's this uncharted jungle full of lions, monkeys, rhinos and countless other animals that the humans must eventually deal with. In one of the highlights of the film Gordon must go up against a lion and while it's easy to tell when the trainer is fighting with the lion it's still a pretty exciting scene. The pre-code elements deal with some sexual talk but the real highlight comes with the outfit worn by Page. It's a black dress that hangs quite loose on her and it's especially loose around her cleavage, which is constantly swinging for the viewer's delight. In one scene she has her back towards the camera as she takes her shirt off and doesn't this little swing, which causes her boob to pretty much swing to her side and in full view. You don't see anything too graphic but the scene is certainly something that should be in Pre-code Heaven. As far as the performances go I thought the three leads and Eddie Borden as the fourth survivor were pretty good. Page comes off incredibly sexual in her part and I thought the chemistry between her and Starrett was very real. Thomson makes for the perfect jerk and Borden adds some nice comic touches. JUNGLE BRIDE isn't that well-known, which is a shame considering how good the cast is and how nice certain sexual tones are flowing here. The movie is far from a masterpiece but if you enjoy cheap but enjoyable films then this here is just for you.

A ship sinks off the coast of Africa, and only four survivors make it to shore: Gordon Wayne (Charles Starrett), a guitar-playing nice-guy who has been accused of killing a cop back in the U. S.; Doris Evans (Anita Page), the sister of the man "wrongly" convicted of the crime, and who made it her goal to see Gordon arrested in Europe and brought back to the U. S.; John Franklin (Kenneth Thomson), a law enforcement officer who actually did the arresting of Gordon, and who is set on taking him back for trial; and Eddie Stevens (Eddie Borden), Gordon's comic-relief buddy. These four try to make the best of their situation, constructing primitive huts when not battling fierce lions and laughing at the chimpanzees.

Why a single male lion is wandering around a dense jungle is never explained (that happened a lot in 30's jungle pictures, when the general population was unaware that lions live on the savanna). However, that's about as exciting as this gets, with the remaining animal action meager, to put it mildly. The acting is barely adequate, although the small cast is notable for a variety of reasons: Starrett was on the cusp of becoming one of the longest running B western stars (in the Durango Kid series); Page was reaching the premature end of her stardom, with her abruptly "retiring" this same year at age 23 (she later said that she had been blacklisted for refusing sex with Irving Thalberg); and bad guy Thomson was one of the founders of the Screen Actors Guild. Still, none of that makes this any more watchable.

Doris (Anita Page) thinks that Gordon (Charles Starrett) is responsible for a crime for which her brother is serving time in prison. With the help of a newspaper reporter, they are bringing Gordon back to the States for a trial but their plans are interrupted when they are shipwrecked on an island off the African coast. Now that is an odd island...and seems to have all manor of African wildlife...hippos, lions, chimps and many more animals you really would not expect to see together there. What also is unexpected is Gordon...over time, he seems like a very decent sort and Doris' resolve to bring him back to stand trial seems to wane. What's next? And, do the couple stand a chance at happiness together??

Like too many movies of the era, this one is liberally peppered with stock footage of animals that is obviously stock footage and doesn't fit well into the movie. Surprisingly, there's a scene where Gordon have a knife fight with a lion and it really appears as if they filmed it with a real, live lion. I did find it hilarious, however, that Gordon rather easily killed the adult male lion...and only came away with some very minor scratches! Even the most macho man alive could never hope to fair so well against a lion!!

As for the acting, much of it is pretty bad BUT somehow tiny Chadwick Productions was able to secure the services of Anita Page (a top actress of the late 20s and early 30s) and Starrett...who wasn't yet a big star but who was a star nonetheless. It made for an odd blend of good and bad seeing them acting with B-movie quality (at best) actors.

Overall, the story is pretty good but the use of stock footage is clumsy (particularly the ship near the end of the film) and the story, at times, cheap and ordinary...at best.

A woman with a reporter in tow, chases an entertainer around the globe in order to clear her innocent brother's name. When the ship they are on sinks the entertainer, his friend, the girl and the reporter end up on a deserted island off the African coast.

This is a decidedly pre-code film with implications of unmarried sex, unwanted pregnancy, a woman's bare back and a bare boob (but no nipple) flashing across the screen in ways that would soon disappear for 20 odd years. The film is certainly much better for it all.

To say this film is off beat is an understatement. There are some interesting twists and turns, only some of which are predictable. It all mixes together to make a very enjoyable film. If you run across it I certainly would hope you'd tune in since its a good little film that deserves to be rediscovered. (It may not be the best film ever made but its certainly one of the better ways to spend an hour)

Seven out of Ten