Duel in the Jungle

I would have never net a dime that this film, adventure flick, was directed by an American film maker, especially George Marshall; I woud have bet on Terence Young or even Jack Lee Thompson. I know, there is Dana Andrews here, because it is a co production, but the US touch is not that obvious. It remains however very entertaining and rather light hearted. I saw it a long time ago and totally forgot it. Not bad but far from being the best from this director who seemed to work in a so frantic pace, so many movies in his filmography confirm it. Good time waster taking place in Dark Africa, with some elements of thriller.

Erwin Hillier's superb photography in Southern Africa, though not always successfully blended with stock footage, is the main asset of this production, one of several of its kind that were so popular in the Fifties, as well as on their British TV airings a decade later. Jeanne Crain and Dana Andrews are reunited a long way from State Fair, the latter an insurance investigator with an apparent freedom to go anywhere in the world at a moment's notice and who turns out to be a crack shot of Olympic standard, as of course one would. Ms Crain shows the ability of leading ladies of the era in this kind of movie to take whatever the jungle can throw at her without a mark on her clothing or a hair out of place, to say nothing of costume changes every five minutes or so. David Farrar plays the type of heel you certainly wouldn't want to go into the jungle with, though it's not easy to see why such an intelligent and resourceful man would go to the risks he does. The hero would now probably be up on a charge of stalking for the way he pursues Ms Crain in the first half, but it was Romance back then. Despite or even because of all the inconsistencies and incongruities I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A moving drama/adventure movie with nice mood , it is a rich , robust and colorful picture , a hell-for-leather stuff . However , being full of transparency with the animals out acting the cast . One of the colorful , moving and action features that Hollywood trotted out with polish , professionality and much regularly in the 50s. The plot is simple and light , a wealthy insurance company hires an American insurance investigator (Dana Andrews) to investigate the surprising death of a diamond broker (David Farrar) , insured for $1 million , who swept overboard and drowned in the African coast. As he is sent to Rhodesia to investigate the mysterious deeds . Along the way he gathers together with the broker's sweetheart (Jeanne Crain) . They set out to a dangerous expedition through the dangerous jungle and they continue up country closer and closer to find him . In Africa's savage city of outcasts they met un a rendezvous with terror!."The story it took 3 separate safaris to film!"This was his kind of manhunt-all danger-and his kind of woman-somebody else's!Every Green-Hell Frenzy Unleashed From One End of Africa To The Other! It Took 3 Seperate Safaris To Capture This Raging Story!Through screeching jungle haunts, across the veldt of violence, past lion fang and boa coil... they shadowed the 'Dead man of the Transvaal' they had to bring back alive!

African tale full of cliches , thrills , intrigue and some picturesque settings . A passable noirish African adventure in derivative style , dealing with a complex investigation when the insurers are suspicious of the strange death of a broker, as the company sends a claims investigator to resolve the happenings . It has a solid cast that beefs up this standard and enjoyable African jungle story with attractive settings . One of several lively , all-action , color de luxe adventures produced by Warner Bros. or Universal Pictures , in these production companies usually played Tony Curtis , Rock Hudson and Dana Andrews as stars in the late Fifties . It arranges to be , at least , an agreeable adventure movie because of it packs action , breathtaking outdoors and outlandish , risked situaciones abound . It bears remarkable resemblance to other Universal films as ¨Congo Crossing¨ (1956) by Joseph Peveny with Virginia Mayo , George Nader , Michael Pate , Peter Lorre or "Tanganyka" 1954 by Andre De Toth with Van Hefiln , Ruth Roman , Jeff Morrow , Howard Duff or ¨Beyond Mombasa¨ (1956) by George Marshall himself with Cornel Wilde , Donna Reed , Christopher Lee , Leo Genn and produced by Warwick : ¨Safari¨by Terence Young with Victor Mature , Janet Leigh , John Justin . Passable interpretation by Dana Andrews as the agent who is sent by the American insurer to clarify a rare matter . The routine happenings are lit up only by the gorgeous presence of the always beautiful Jeanne Crain and David Farrar as the suspect businessman who allegedly disappeared whilst diving off the African coast . These roles are well accompanied by other important secondaries giving enthusiast interpretations , such as : George Coulouris , Patrick Barr , Mary Merrall , Irene Handl, and , of course , the always sympathetic Wilfrid Hyde-White.

It contains Erwin Hillier's brilliant and elegant Technicolor camerawork , though including some stock shots of animals as Crocs and enormous lions, though a perfect remastering being extremely necessary . The motion picture produced by Associated British-Pathé was professionally directed by George Marshall , though with no originality . Marshall directed Western along half century , his first Western was ¨Wild gold¨(1934) and he subsequently made his masterpiece ¨Destry rides again¨(1939) in which combines action , charmingly natural story , humor and drama ; in 1951 directed a new version under title ¨ Frenchie ¨ with Eddie Murphy and Marie Blanchard in similar characters to James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich . As Marshall introduces comicalness in realist Western , including a little genre satire on the conventional Western thrown in for good measure . As he directed Western with funniness such as ¨Texas¨ also starred by Glenn Ford and Edgar Buchanan . He went on filming parody/western such as ¨Fancy pants¨(1950) , ¨Advance to the rear¨(1964), and musical Western as ¨Red Garters¨and ¨The second greatest sex¨. Others Western he directed are the following : ¨When Dalton rode¨, ¨Valley of the sun¨, ¨The savage¨, ¨Pillars of sky¨, ¨the guns of Fort Petticoat¨ and the episode titled ¨The railway¨ from ¨How the West was won¨. He also directed other genres as comedy with W.C. Fields in You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939) ; and helped Betty Hutton on her way to stardom with the biopics Incendiary Blonde (1945) and The perils of Paulina (1947); and directed Alan Ladd in the film noir classic The blue dahlia (1946). There was also a fruitful association with Bob Hope, beginning with The Ghost Breaker (1940), among others .

Reading here that an assistant director on this film was killed in the rapids no doubt filming the final action sequence of Duel In The Jungle, makes me wonder was it worth it. This poor man didn't exactly die for the making of Citizen Kane.

Duel In The Jungle finds Dana Andrews heading the cast of a British production where he's an insurance investigator sent to Africa to investigate the death of David Farrar, a rich adventurer on whom the company has written a million dollar policy. The company doesn't want to fork over that kind of loot without it's own investigation.

Andrews also devotes time to harassing and that's the only way you can describe it, Farrar's fiancé Jeanne Crain. That's all right because Farrar is a nasty villain.

The film was shot on location in South Africa and Rhodesia and good location shots were wasted on a rather predictable action/adventure film. It isn't The African Queen or King Solomon's Mines you'll be seeing with Duel In The Jungle.

"Destiny seems to insist on throwing us together," a persistent and cocky Dana Andrews tells his lovely and reluctant STATE FAIR, MADISON AVENUE and HOT RODS TO HELL three-decade co-star in their second feature, DUEL IN THE JUNGLE...

An adventure where Andrews seems more a reluctant gentlemen the likes of Cary Grant or David Niven than an intrepid action star: a proverbial kite in an ongoing breeze instead of a determined salmon moving upstream...

With a touch of character-actor about him, Andrews often tried very hard to stretch beyond the limited leading man persona, even when he played the leading man, so the part as a New York insurance investigator in London, England, about to catch a plane stateside but being called back at the last minute, fits like brand new expensive and shiny gloves. His voice is a tad higher-pitched, as if sped-up while delivering witty and sophisticated one-liners: imagine if his LAURA co-star Clifton Webb were his dialect coach and there you have it...

A British-produced b-movie programmer, DUEL IN THE JUNGLE has three acts in three different locations: first England; then a ship to Africa during a heavy storm; then settling down (albeit far too long) in Africa itself: Making the best scenes in transit or in-between as Dana sticks to Crain, the wife of a missing eccentric millionaire, to find out if he's really dead; at which point her phantom mother-in-law would collect the insurance...

One of several red-herrings to sift through: But his primary target (to whom Dana's instantly attracted, for good reason) is Jeanne Crain as naïve newlywed, Marian. Despite wearing far too much makeup, Crain's as pretty as the prettiest picture - sophisticated, classy, down-to-earth and, ducking away from Dana's strategic advances, the complete opposite of her smitten STATE FAIR lass was to Dana's cocky newspaperman...

But in this hat-tipping, movable feast as our two attractive Americans converse like polite tea-toddlers, there's a pulpy touch of intrigue with attempts at Hitchcock style suspense with a dash of Hemingway machismo, for the villain...

And if DUEL had stuck longer in England or at sea it would have flowed much better...

Within the titular African JUNGLE are random stock footage of wildlife as the actors seem all too studio-safe in front of superimposed backdrops (also a Hitchcock thing): Here's where our hero and heroine bond, and just enough for the British con artist to show his true, lethal colors...

Plus he's got the higher ground on his ground, making Dana finally have to trade in his charming sophistication for a little of that WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS strength and agility.