The Lost Jungle

"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

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.

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.

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...

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!