Liana, la figlia della foresta

Liane, Jungle Goddess (1956)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

A German expedition through Africa turns up a beautiful blonde girl (Marion Michael) who the locals think is a goddess. The crew kidnap the girl and take her back to the press who has a field day with her and soon it turns out she might be the long lost daughter of a very important man.

This is a pretty strange film that I'm sure was loved by teenage boys back in the day. This Tarzan-wannabe was filmed in German but it was sold throughout the world and in many locations it played matinees to where kids could watch it. They would have loved that because of the beautiful blonde in the lead plus the fact that she wasn't very many clothes and at times we see a few slips of nudity. Obviously, it's easy to see why so many teens from this period have such a fondness for the film.

As it stands today, the film is pretty weird because it starts off as a Tarzan rip-off but then it quickly turns into some weird drama where people are fighting over who actually owns the title character. I'm really not sure why they decided to leave the jungle because that's where all the fun was. These early scenes contain shots of the wildlife and it was rather fun seeing the young girl in her natural location.

All of the fun gets sucked out once we get back to civilization and the girl get taught how to speak English and how to be proper. This stuff is just told in such a boring way that you can't help but wish they were back in the jungle. Michael certainly has the appropriate look for the role and she's certainly fun to watch. Hardy Kruger is fun as the lead male and we also get Reggie Nalder playing a bad guy.

LIANA, JUNGLE GODDESS really isn't that good of a film. I'm sure when you watch it in life will determine how much entertainment you actually get out of it. For me personally, the film is harmless fun at the start but it slowly grows more boring as it moves along.

Not your typical Tarzan-type movie, but two movies condensed into one. The first is the movie promised by the poster: a female Tarzan type cavorts in nature, eventually to encounter our Tall Blond Hero, Thoren. There is also the camp's doctor -- a woman in love. She's much more attractive than Liane, which the 3rd wheel character points out, and this is our subplot. The main plot, of course, involves returning to civilization to inherit a fortune -- taking us out of the jungle and ending any nudity by the 30-minute mark.

Marion Michael is quite convincing at being what she actually is: an athletic young woman. Despite what other reviewers say, her body exposure here merits maybe a PG-13 rating; we rarely see more than a beach movie would show, and always momentarily. Irene Galter is even better as Doctor Woman, which in most she-Tarzan-type films would have remained a subplot to the end -- but they find something different to do with it here. Peter Mosbacher is nicely sympathetic as the 3rd-wheel friend/coworker. Overall, it's nicely shot, and the dialog tends toward reasonable intelligence, with only the occasional lapse into plot-convenience.

This would have worked much better as two distinct films: the first 30 minutes expanded full-length for jungle-escapism; the remaining hour fleshed out as a dialog-driven suspense story. There was a sharp point to be made about the difference between attraction to a naked jungle girl vs the civilized doctor woman, which the script only glancingly comments on -- but it does make that comment. This is where LIANE JUNGLE GODDESS carries a little more value than the usual jungle film. But if that doesn't hold our interest -- then Yes, there's a few carefully-filmed scenes of nearly-naked young girl in the first third, and the remaining hour mercifully does not spend too much time redoing Pygmalion.

An expedition discovers young topless Liane (Marion Michael) cavorting around the jungle, where she is worshiped by the locals as a goddess. They bring her back to Germany, where her rich grandfather lives. There, she must remain fully clothed, as another relative intrigues and murders to prevent Liane from inheriting the family fortune.

I saw this movie at my neighborhood theater around the time it was released in the USA (1959). It was on a double bill with "Plan 9 from Outer Space," which was the only reason I was in the theater that day. Imagine my surprise and fascination when Liane first made her appearance, swinging on that rope flashing her bare breasts! I was eleven years old, and it was the first time I had ever viewed a woman's breasts. I'm guessing that they were only on screen for a few seconds, but to me it seemed like forever.

Once removed from its jungle setting, the movie becomes rather pedestrian and uninteresting. Still, because of its promising beginning, "Liane Jungle Goddess" has made a lasting impression on my life. Indeed, it has made me the man I am today. I would rate it "5" for the cinematic experience and "10" for the breasts.

LIANE JUNGLE GODDESS was released for the school holidays in Sydney Australia in January 1959 and rated G: as in FOR GENERAL EXHIBITION.. haha..it played for 3 weeks in the glorious starry ceiling CAPITOL theatre all 2337 seats, now the home of THE LION KING on stage. The ads for the first two weeks escaped press censorship and had the dear 17 babe NUDE on a rope, obviously swinging from tree to tree. Were'nt we liberated and having a laugh all those years ago. A later ad featured Liane, same pose, and in a drawn on polka dot bikini which means somebody complained. but who cares, by then the kids were back at school and The Capitol was running a double of...wait for it.. THE MUGGER + THE SNORKEL..... a molesters double that ran one ghastly week. Those were the days.....

German expedition to Africa's darkest jungle region stumbles upon topless blonde girl whom natives revere as a goddess. Is she possibly the long-lost granddaughter of wealthy Hamburg industrialist? (Would there be a movie if she wasn't?) Well, then, let's take her back to the BRD and reunite her with her family. But will she ever be able to adjust to a world of cars, tap water, and wearing a bra? Therein lies the conflict.

This was strictly adults-only US release of the 1950s and played for years as a "special". The NYT critic of the day declared it virtual pornography, though the exploitation material consists of some seminude Africans in NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC-type footage and a few peeks at the bare breasts of heroine Marion Michael, a fresh-faced German teenager. Her long fake hair, and the lion cub she frequently carries around, protect her modesty considerably. (Compare Tanya Roberts in SHEENA, which showed more and drew a PG from the MPAA.)

If, and I'm not naming names, you were too young to see this in the 50s or even the early 60s, when it played your nabe, and you always wondered what kind of positively adults-only thrills you might be missing, LIANE is available in a not-bad (but not-great) print from Sinister Cinema and you can satisfy your curiosity.

The storyline is pretty thin and is laid out point for point in the IMDB synopsis above. Marion is cute as a button and looks a lot more like a 1950s SEVENTEEN covergirl than a denizen of the tropischer Urwald. Sinister describes this as its best-selling Jungle Thrills entry, so apparently I'm not the only one who was waiting for this to hit video. Like so many other long-deferred delights, the anticipation was rather more rewarding than the fulfillment.