The Lost Jungle

If you enjoy watching animals whipped, threatened, frightened and just abused in general, then this filth is for you! To make it even more wretched, they staged violent fights between animals (do YOU, dear viewer, also enjoy watching dog fights?), most notably between a tiger and a lion, two species who would never meet in the wild. This film is simply a horrifying excuse to profit from animal abuse. Stay AWAY!

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.

Sure, the story is wonky and the characters are weak, but so what? The animals are grrreat!

Clyde Beatty spends all of his time training with his traveling menagerie. So much so, that he barely notices when his girlfriend leaves with her father on a quest to find a legendary island. An island inhabited by both Asian tigers and African lions! Soon enough, Beatty takes off in a dirigible, only to miraculously land on the very same island!

There are plenty of creatures for Beatty to use his signature "hypnotic gaze" on. Even bears!

An enjoyable jungle circus for all ages. Watch for a young Mickey Rooney. He's the kid with the dog at the beginning...

"Clyde Beatty portrays himself, an animal trainer and circus star in this action film. Beatty leads a search for his missing girlfriend and her father, who were on an expedition looking for a lost tropical island. Using a dirigible as his mode of transportation, Beatty and his band head off in search of the missing explorers, only to crash their airship on the same island their friends are located (on, presumably). Battling wild animals and a gang of greedy men searching for gold, Beatty and his party must rescue his girlfriend and father, all the while trying to escape their jungle island," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

It's good to see young Mickey Rooney, from "The Big Cage" (1933), has a featured appearance, early during the running time. And, the film begins well, with Rooney helping Mr. Beatty fend off a lion attack staged by shifty Warner Richmond (as Sharkey). It gets tedious with Beatty romancing Cecilia Parker (later, she plays Rooney's "Andy Hardy" big sister), and repetitive with the animal antics. Still, "The Lost Jungle" isn't too bad for a "feature" versions of a "serial" film - most of the "serial-to-feature" re-productions are poorly edited, despite the seeming abundance of film footage available to tinker around with.

**** The Lost Jungle (6/13/34) Armand Schaefer, David Howard ~ Clyde Beatty, Syd Saylor, Cecilia Parker, Mickey Rooney

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.