A Sereia das Selvas

Two Americans with the free French played by Buster Crabbe and Paul Bryar are sent to Carraby, a small village in Africa to build an airfield. They have to contend with restless natives under the influence of the evil Chief Schlangi who is in turn controlled by a married couple that are Nazi agents. The Nazis want to take this area for themselves and plan on stopping the two Americans sent there. Enter Ann Corio as Kuhlaya, the white woman brought up by natives after Chief Schlangi killed her parents when she was a child. Kuhlaya is at home in the jungle and basically a female version Tarzan. She is the so called Jungle Siren. An older, kind hearted but alcoholic white doctor acts as a substitute father and friend to Kuhlaya. Both the doctor and Kuhlaya are pro allies. You don't see many wild animal scenes like I thought would be in a picture like this. There is some drama, adventure and romance all 1940s style. When this movie came out, one of the main attractions to this movie was the opportunity to see the beautiful Ann Corio in her jungle garb. For today's audience, there is nothing to this. It's very mild and tame by today's standards. This is a short movie in black and white. It has some sound problems. The sound is sometimes scratchy and when the characters speak softly you have to listen carefully. Some of the terminology used is straight from the 40s and may be a bit hard for the uninitiated to understand. It's politically and historically incorrect but what movie from that period isn't. You've really got to like the older films to enjoy Jungle Siren. If you can't appreciate the older films, don't even try with this one you would be wasting your time. The younger generation will be lost watching this movie. I found it to still hold my attention and thought it was entertaining. It doesn't have the same kick as it would have had in the 40s but it's a fun film. If you like the oldies, try it.

This is such a stupid film that I kept falling asleep during it and had to watch it in three parts. It had to be considered stupid even in the time period in which it was produced.

I had never heard of Ann Corio before watching this film. As it turns out, she was a famous stripper who also made a few films. Corio plays a woman whose parents died in Africa when she was young, leaving her to be raised by a guardian who was an associate of her parents. Although her parents and guardian spoke English, she apparently learned to only speak broken English. She of course also becomes a skilled she-warrior for whom the native Africans have great respect, because none of them can beat her. Didn't I say it's a stupid film?

Buster Crabbe enters the jungle siren's domain and easily convinces her to help him fight the German agents in the area and the natives that have allied with them. That's the plot.

By now you should be grasping the ridiculousness of this story, thus not really requiring me to go any further.

"Jungle Siren" is the kind of flick kids would thrill to at matinées in the 1940's. It plays like the missing chapter from a serial like "Nyoka and the Lost Secret of Hippocrates" or "Batmen of Africa" or even "U238 and the Witchdoctor". For this Buster Crabbe traded in his blonde Flash Gordon hair dye in this ultra cheap Sam Newfield production for the PRC studio glowering in Hollywood's Gower gulch. His character is the forerunner of his "Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion" TV show as a schmuck who's supposed to be attached to the Free French during WWII. He even has a sidekick faithful companion who could be called "faithful companion" man, but isn't. Anyway, they go off in search of nothing in particular and find it in the guise of a hot babe who knows how to shoot arrows at jungle Nazis, shamefully played by one, Ann Corio. She is the titular "Jungle Siren" and she has a faithful companion,too, but this one isn't human -- a moth eaten Cheetah chimp stand-in that has very little time to cheer us.

Buster and friend and Siren wander around the Santa Anita Park Race Track Botanic Gardens looking for likely spots to ambush the one Nazi and his very "authentic" witchdoctor henchman buddy. Of course, they are victorious. Another B movie jungle adventure comes to its inevitable conclusion as Buster runs off with the chimp and leaves the Siren to set up housekeeping as a wheezy fire house siren with still other moth eaten native stand-ins.

No, I jest, but this ending wouldn't be any more illogical or silly than the actual one.

Inept direction + low production values + uninspiring performances = zero excitement. Even the monkey looks bored. One good line, though: "Hey, another ten days of this and I'll have a physique like Buster Crabbe"! You will not see much of his physique in this movie, anyway. *1/2 out of 4.

Really wretched "jungle" film from the early 1940's with Crabbe and his friend Paul Bryar as two Americans working for the Free French in Africa out to spoil the German plans there for some nonsense or other. The plot really is threadbare even for a film of this ilk and though it has a running time of only 68 minutes - this reviewer found that one tough hour plus almost unbearable to sit through in one showing. The sound quality is scratchy(as previously noted) but that notwithstanding the film has virtually nothing to offer an audience - whether it be older or younger. Buster Crabbe and Bryar along with the semi-pretty, always bad-acting Ann Corio as the Jungle Siren herself act like they are Hope, Crosby, and Lamour with only a tenth of their talent. One-liners and jokes fill the lack of tension and all fall flat. Hearing Crabbe utter words like "Gosh" and "swell" just didn't do anything for me. Nor did hearing Corio with a heavy American accent and look parade around as someone brought up by natives. The natives are unconvincing as is just about everything in this film. Give this one a pass and do yourself a big favour. I could name thousands of other ways to spend that hour - let me count the ways. It is going to be infinitely more interesting then this tepid tempest in a toy teacup.