The Naked Jungle

The movie The Naked Jungle was magnificent!! It was extremely

enthralling!! The title "Leiningen versus the ants" was the original story!! It was first broadcast on radio probably in the 1940's maybe even earlier!! The radio show was even better than the movie if that is possible!! The suspense, the intrigue, you bit your nails down to your knuckles!! The radio show was fabulous!! That's why they re-broadcast it over and over again every year or every two years. I listened to it many times!! The movie of course gives a different perspective!! You can actually see The RED ARMY ANTS, or RED ANTS, or ARMY ANTS frighteningly live which of course you couldn't do on radio!! These ants do exist and they are dangerous!! But also let us not forget that this movie is a great love story!! Here we have Charlton Heston, a real hunk!! A strapping six foot four very handsome, very physical male!! Then we have his love interest, Eleanor Parker a ravishing, redheaded beauty, with a fantastic body and figure!! A man and a woman in their prime eventually attracted to each other and falling in love at the end!! What more can you ask for in a movie! RED ANTS and A RAVISHING RED HEAD. That's why this was a great movie in it's time and still is today in my opinion!!

The Naked Jungle is directed by Byron Haskin and based around the short story Leiningen Versus The Ants written by Carl Stephenson. It stars Charlton Heston, Eleanor Parker, Abraham Sofaer and William Conrad. Music is scored by Daniele Amfitheatrof and cinematography by Ernest Laszlo.

1901, South America, and mail order bride Joanna Selby (Parker) arrives at the plantation owned by her husband Christopher Leiningen. She is shocked to find life at the plantation is hardly idyllic, but not as shocked as Leiningen is when he finds out that Joanna was once married before. With his own hang ups gnawing away at him and he refusing to accept Joanna as his bride, the relationship appears to be heading nowhere. However, she's made of stern stuff, and when a swarm of soldier ants is known to be heading towards the plantation, Joanna and Chris might just find that love is actually there?

Filmed in glorious Technicolor by Laszlo and produced by George Pal (Destination Moon/The War of the Worlds/The Time Machine), The Naked Jungle seems to be a forgotten movie on the CV's of Pal and Heston. A crying shame since it's very well mounted and carries a uniqueness worthy of further delving. Perhaps it got lost in the slipstream of Them! The other Ant movie out that year? What transpires is an hour of interesting character build up, where Heston & Parker's characters take centre stage and benefit from literate writing (Philip Yordan). The sweaty backdrop of the jungle plantation keeps things on the simmer, but it's the dialect and emoting of the performers that really holds the interest. True, Heston does at times over do it with some "woe is me" acting as he looks off into the distance (he has major issues we learn), but it works because it bounces off of Parker's (a Technicolor treat for the eyes) intelligent and stoic performance.

Film then shifts to creature feature territory for the last third. Once the army of Marabunta are spied off in the distance, laying waste to everything in their path, picture has become a war involving man against nature, where if man wins? He may not only save his life, but more pertinently his soul. Heston stops the tortured emoting and sticks out is lantern jaw, squares up his shoulders and stands firm in the face of such a hostile and intelligent enemy. By his side, the wife, multi talented and brave of heart, they make quite a couple. The chemistry between the two is simmering with sexual tension, and thanks to the writing the characters are fabulously engaging and make us care about the outcome of picture. Director Haskin, too, utilises the scenery and plantation setting to frame his protagonists for maximum impact, his camera work airy and unobtrusive. While his crafting of the biblical fight against the ants is thrilling and boosted no end by marvellous effects work (John P. Fulton).

An oddity? Yes, for sure. But it's a smart and intelligent picture that successfully manages to blend the sci-fi and nature aspects with complex human characterisations. 8/10

An old style Hollywood adventure taking place in the Amazon jungles circa year 1901, this is a favorite of mine from TV showings dating back 30 years ago. A portion of the jungles have been tamed by Heston's character as the story begins; he's carved out his own little kingdom with sweat and blood, with the help of local natives, and now his new wife (Parker), married by proxy, arrives. This is one of Heston's better characters: he's well-suited to play this proud, often arrogant male, driven to build a personal empire to perhaps compensate for the inherent failings of such men. His main weakness is he knows nothing about women, and Parker, almost regal in her bearing, represents a kind of strength and sophistication he is obviously not accustomed to. Their meeting and slowly building towards a mutual respect after a very rough beginning is in itself an interesting story, but this exotic adventure throws in a spectacular menace to add suspense to the whole thing. The jungle, as it turns out, allows Heston only 15 years of conquest before fighting back in 'nature-gone-amok' style similar to all the future eco-terror pictures of the later seventies.

By now, everyone knows that this menace is the soldier ant, or 'marabunta' as it's mysteriously referred to in the middle of the story. I think even audiences who saw this back in '54 were probably aware of what the threat was beforehand, as well. But it's not revealed during the film until after several ominous yet uninformative references by the main characters. It comes across as some huge monstrous threat - which indeed it is - billions upon billions of these ants merge together to form a monster 20 miles long and 2 miles wide. As the local commissioner (Conrad) states, with quavering voice, these ants actually think, in military fashion. Nothing stands in its way and we mean nothing. But, of course, if anyone is going to give it the all-American try, it's Heston (yes, he's a character who grew up in South America, but he's strictly the U.S.of A breed - the rugged individual). This builds towards a literal war between Heston's resources and the invading army of ants, and it's a grand finale. It's interesting that this came out about the same time as "Them," a sci-fi tale about giant ants. But the ants here are real - this may make them all the more terrifying. See also "Phase IV," twenty years later, for a different take on even more intelligent ants.

Deep in the jungles of South America, there are many ferocious animals which are feared by the mention of their very name. The jaguar, the anaconda and of course, piranha fish. However, none causes a room full of talking people into silence as does the word, . . 'Marabunta.' Anyone who has ever seen, heard or encountered them, know what a vast marauding monster they are. In point of fact, the term marabunta, means "Soldier Ants." Therein lies the basis for the story enclosed in the book, 'Leiningen's Woman.' The tale involves a solitary man, living deep in the South American jungle who decides to marry a woman by proxy. He sends a letter to his brother, living in New Orleans, for a mail order bride. What he receives is a beautiful, sophisticated, accomplished female who is everything, the man wants, but so fears. No sooner does she arrive, when they and the surrounding area are threatened by a vast hoard of Army Ants. No one has ever been able to stop them, but the stubborn man, admonishes the natives by telling them, ". . . . run is you wish, or stay and be brave, like Leiningen's Woman." Had it not been for Charlton Heston as Christopher Leiningen, Eleanor Parker as his wife, Abraham Sofaer as Incacha and William Conrad as the Commissioner, the film might have melted into obscurity. As they did however, the movie has become a Classic. Well done. ****

This fine drama is as much about unhappy newlyweds as it is about savage soldier ants that threaten a South American plantation. The killer ants cover a wide area, sweep everything before them and naturally are headed straight for Leiningen's cocoa plantation. The dislike between bride and groom nearly upstages the approaching army of ants. Eleanor Parker and Charlton Heston make a handsome couple but she seems to be everything he is not. Parker is confident, poised and self-assured while Heston is insecure, inadequate and out of his depth in her company. Perhaps this explains why he spends so much time trying to diminish her. The film leans heavily on the verbal sparring between Parker and Heston while building tension for the showdown with Marabunta. William Conrad is good in an early role as a jungle commissioner.