The Human Jungle

Gary Merrill is Danforth, a cop turned attorney who is roped into running a tough precinct in "The Human Jungle" from 1954, directed by Joseph M. Newman, also starring Jan Sterling and Chuck Conners.

The precinct known as The Heights is in bad shape: juvenile delinquency, petty crimes, graft, the unsolved murder of a strip-tease dancer, and no effort to clear cold cases.

The department has become lazy. Danforth is asked to take over rather than accepting a job in a law firm. He makes changes that are not popular, putting cops back on beats so they're more visible, and taking a tougher stance with criminals.

In order to solve the murder of Lillian Dean, a prostitute, he questions one of her gentleman callers, Swados (Connors) who works for a petty mobster.

He is alibied by Mary Abbot (Sterling) who works at a crime-ridden club, The Hut. Danforth doesn't believe the alibi. He puts Mary in danger by intimating to Swados that she talked. Can he keep her alive?

Meanwhile, some teens picked up for minor theft claim police brutality- they were actually beat up by the big boss so they could make the claim. And an officer actually shoots an innocent citizen. If Danforth can't get Swados or Mary to talk about what's going on, he's in trouble.

Good B movie, with Jan Sterling giving an excellent performance as a hardboiled stripper. Merrill is an effective tough guy.

Fairly routine, but the performances liven it up. The end takes place in a Pabst Blue Ribbon factory as Mary runs from Swados. It's great.

The Human Jungle is a fairly mediocre crime thriller that combines police procedural with noir to limited effect. Clearly made on the cheap (by Allied Artists, the 'high-budget' arm of the – by-then defunct – Poverty Row studio, Monogram) the film is populated with a number of actors who were either never more than second-string or were still in the early stages of their careers. Gary Merrill was as famous for being the toy-boy squeeze of Bette Davis as he was for his acting skills, and in this one he wears a permanent scowl and is nearly always angry – presumably to show the righteousness of his crusade; Lamont Johnson as the police department's hot-head never really cut it as an actor and would find more success as a director. He's OK here, and certainly had the looks to go further, but his character seems to have been inserted for no reason other than to flesh out a short running time. Claude Akins and Chuck Connors, both in the early years of their careers, also appear as a pair of tough guys. Highlight of the film, though, is Jan Sterling as a brassy bottle-blonde, callously used by the cops as bait to catch the villains. In fact, the cast is by far the most interesting thing about this ordinary b-movie.

When he is invited down to visit friend Police Chief Abe Rowan, Captain John Danforth finds a precinct full of lazy and unmotivated cops surrounded by a district overrun by juvenile delinquency and crime – most notably a high profile murder that has just occurred. Danforth challenges Rowan and as a result Rowan throws the job back at him and Danfoth finds himself in temporary charge and determined to turn the precinct around. Breaking the news to his wife is only the first of many challenges to confront Danforth as he tackles his own men, small crime, organised hoods and internal red tape.

As the sagely Theo has already commented, this is a film that surprisingly still has a lot of relevance in the UK at the moment, what with police over stretched, "justice" being seen as something that doesn't exist in the real world anymore and police seemingly hampered by red tape while their standing within the community drops away to nothing. So with that background this film is instantly interesting after the ten-minute set up sees Danforth facing similar challenges and taking them on. However despite this unintentional realism, the film is fairly straightforward without any great imagination but it does still do enough to be gritty and interesting on its own terms. Although not morally complex enough to really be classed as a noir, it is still gritty as a story and produce the usual hardnosed, tough-talking delivery. The story is reasonable enough although the simplistic view of one officer turning around an entire area is perhaps hard to swallow whenever the daily news here suggests that the system can defeat any enthusiastic officer. In that regard, Danforth will be seen as a rallying cry to the Right (he even dismisses the accidental shooting of a pedestrian by one of his officers as being just part of a war), but his policies will produce very little empathy from the more liberal sections of the audience.

The cast can't really do much with the material and deliver fairly average performances across the board. Merrill barks around the screen with a constant righteous indignation and hardline approach that didn't totally convince me – the film would have been more interesting if it had really delved into his character in the way that it kept suggesting it would but never really did. Sterling is unconvincing and quite unnecessary – like her emotional observations on Danforth are designed to replace the development of him as a character, and that the director just wanted us to know the man in as simple a way as possible. Waltz is OK but Meyer is fairly stiff in his scenes and is too clearly an apologetic soft touch.

Overall this is an OK film with gritty material but far too straightforward a plot and foundation to really make for an interesting, complex story with no easy answers. Instead it gradually falls into a standard crime thriller plot and the manipulative and hardline character of Danforth is just accepted without much thought or development. Considering how relevant it still is today it is a real shame it didn't do better but as it is it's a standard crime affair with nothing to really make it stand out from a crowded genre.

Enjoyable Noir. The lead character, Danforth, has passed the Bar and is ready to leave the force to begin his career as a lawyer. The problem is that while visiting his police chief friend in a troubled precinct he observes weak leadership and lazy cops. Danforth decides to defer the law career and become a part of the solution when asked to lead the precinct. A crackdown and manhunt ensue as Danforth cleans up the city and the precinct. Great action culminating with a chase in a Pabst Blue Ribbon beer factory. Excellent backdrop and not one drop of beer spilled. Danforth makes a surprise career/life decision at the conclusion of the film.

The grade B but very efficient crime film explores the daily life in a police station, daily procedural work for cops. You can think about FUZZ or CHOIRBOYS made in the seventies, or more simple you can think about the Ed McBain's or Joseph Wambaugh's novels. It is even more interesting than focusing on only one particular case. Wambaugh was more beat cops oriented and McBain investigating cops, detectives...Jan Sterling shines in this movie and the other supporting characters besides she and Gary Merrill also contribute to this effective B crime film.