Ardor en la selva

Jungle Heat (1957)

I have a thing for old B-movies. It's partly for the rawness, and the photography, and maybe discovering some actors in early (or late) performances. "Jungle Heat" is a dud. The writing and most of the acting is so bad it made me cringe. And I'm a sympathetic audience.

So skip that, skip the rest of this review, and give me a thumbs up for helping your day. (smiley face)

What recommends this at all? For one thing, the setting is interesting, and it's filmed where it's set: Kauai, Hawaii. (At least the crew and cast were happy. I've been there and it's about the most amazing place I've been.) The plot is meant to be hyper-dramatic, filled with dread as we know Pearl Harbor is looming. Yes, it's set right before December, 1941, and the story implies that Japanese enemies were at work in the backwaters of Hawaii. The locals, though portrayed as bimbos or selfish fools (mostly) eventually catch on to what's happening and put an awkward end to it.

But my goodness, what bad production values. The director (who I met once, in Woodstock where he had a place), is famous for being the "third" screenwriter (after the famous Epstein brothers) on Casablanca (which does have the most stunning script). But he never quite rose to his apparent promise. He ended up best as a producer, but unlike the great producers (name any of the keystones of the studio system era), he itched to be "more" than a producer.

What else? Ah, nothing. My review are too long anyway. Move on.

The interesting subject of racism in Hawaii is badly treated in this film Jungle Heat. The setting is Hawaii right before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Glenn Langan has been sent for to manage a new plantation after the old overseer was murdered and he's got some definite ideas about how to manage the plantation. These natives are just lazy by nature and they need a good swift kick in the posterior region to get them to work.

All this is playing right into the hands of the avuncular James Westerfield who plays another plantation owner but is in league with the Japanese who want the native Hawaiians against the Americans. Dr. Lex Barker tries to tell Langan this is all a Japanese plot, but he's too thick to believe him. Besides Langan's wife Mari Blanchard is providing all the jungle heat that the male population is in.

This film is about 15 years too late. It might have been acceptable propaganda fare in 1942, but even the most xenophobic Americans weren't going to buy this in 1957. But Mari Blanchard sure is nice to look at.

When it was made, "Jungle Heat" was likely seen as a very progressive movie in regard to race. However, it sure gives a very confusing message in the process...one that clearly will infuriate most viewers.

The story begins with some sabotage on a plantation in pre-war Hawaii. It seems there have been a lot of incidents like it and a supposed expert, Roger McRae (Glenn Langan), has been brought in to help. Unfortunately, the guy is a total wiener...a racist and hate-filled wiener. He views all Asians as subhuman and his ill-informed opinion is that he needs to put the fear of God into the natives by being brutal. Nice guy, huh?

On the other hand, there is the 'enlightened' Dr. Ransom (Lex Barker), who feels that these acts of sabotage aren't because local workers were lazy or evil but that they were being orchestrated by the Japanese. As this is set just before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the answer is obvious to the viewer.

Looking at this film now, Ransom's opinion, while more enlightened, also would seem to condone and even possibly endorse internment camps for the Japanese-Americans.

All in all, while it's a semi-enjoyable film, it's also filled with a lot of nasty and hateful messages. I am NOT the biggest politically correct guy...but I found the attitudes in the film a bit shocking. For example, when McRae wildly shoots into a cabin when told NOT to because there's an innocent woman inside, he does anyway...killing the woman. Yet, inexplicably, he's not arrested or punished in any way.

Jungle Heat (1957)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

New plantation owners show up in pre-WWII Hawaii to take over their land but they soon realize that Dr. Jim Ransom (Lex Barker) is investigating possible Japanese communist working in the area. If you're looking for a boring, dull, lifeless and bad dialogue driven film then this here is a must see. If you're half-way human and expect thrillers to be thrilling then it's best that you stay away from this "C" movie from Bel-Air. It should be noted that the studio made this film at the same time as their equally bad VOODOO ISLAND with Boris Karloff. Both films contain a low-budget, a notable star and that's just about it. It's clear the studio wasn't able to do too much with their budget and this is probably why you see so little going on here. There's really no action scenes up until the end and once we get to them by that times you're so bored that it doesn't matter what happens. Another major problem is that the three lead characters are all rather bland and not for a second do you care about them. I think it was interesting that they were trying to do something pre-Pearl Harbor but the end result is just a failure. When you've got poor writing, no story and a lack of any real characters it's very hard to overcome this and JUNGLE HEAT ends up feeling twice as long as its 75-minute running time. Barker actually isn't too bad in his part and Mari Blanchard and James Westerfield are also fairly good. Still, there's just not enough going on with this picture to make it worth watching unless you're wanting to be a judge and see whether this or VOODOO ISLAND is worse.

This extremely poor movie, released by United Artists but playing more like a release from some fly-by-night distributor, combines racism with an invented conspiracy theory in an attempt to manipulate an unsophisticated '50s audience. Writer Jameson Brewer gives the category "hack" a bad name with this one.

The film's misleading title probably was chosen to capitalize on star Lex Barker's fleeting fame several years earlier playing Tarzan on screen in several minor films. He's unlikely being cast as a doctor working on a smaller Hawaiian island just before the attack on Pearl Harbor. He's convinced that the Japanese are operating as Fifth Columnists on the island and the movie's stupid ending (on December 7, 1941) proves he was right, at least in this parallel Hollywood world.

The stock villains are ultra-stereotypes: James Westerfield as a fatso white sugar plantation owner who is in league with the Japanese, and Glenn Langan, truly hissable as a sort of union-buster type guy called in from the mainland to quell labor unrest. He is a prototypical fascist and racist, so absurd a character (at least before Trump entered politics) to be laughable.

His wife Mari Blanchard is a former nurse, and of course she becomes Lex's romantic interest, stuck playing a lousy role the same year she was truly memorable starring as "She Devil".

Many scenes are clumsily staged and totally inept.