La Loi de la jungle

HE ACTUALLY SAYS CANNIBALS to the right of me! CANNIBALS to the left of me! And I ain't got no health insurance!

CANNIBALS NOT CANNONS!

Not the worst movie, but milks stereotypes of Africans and African-Americans with one or two surprises. The copy I saw on YouTube was so grainy, I did not recognize Arthur O'Connell.

The plot was actually pretty good, but I imagine the film played third after the A movie and first B movie. When I was young it wasn't unusual to go out for a night at the movies. This meant a reel of modern news events, a travelogue, at least one cartoon, and then the A movie followed by one other two B films. And sometimes the B movie turned out to become the real hit of the venue. Think Lilies of the Field with Sidney Poitier as an example.

Law of the Jungle is not a super B movie but it has its moments. The best is the meeting between Mantan Moreland and Laurence Criner aka Chief Mojobo who is not only the chief of the warrior tribe that captured the three leads, but is a lodge brother of Jeff Jones (Morland). To say more might give away an important plot point.

Arline Judge is a singer who's manager left her stranded in Duakwa. In reality, that's in Ghana, but in this movie, it's in Rhodesia. She's making do singing for room and board, but because her boss is a spy, she gets accused of murder and leaves town, hooking up with paleontologist John 'Dusty' King and his manservant Mantan Moreland as real and fake police agents trail her.

To say this is dire is an understatement. It's full of badly written lines, King offers a performance that has wood as its main component, and Moreland's efforts at comedy are hampered by a stupid script. There's a lot of wasted talent in the background, like Arthur O'Connell, C. Montaue Shaw, and Blue Washington, but director Jean Yarborough seems to have no interest in overcoming Monogram Pictures' lack of interest and budget.

Stranded at a jungle outpost a singer tries to make her way home. Through circumstances beyond her control she ends up in the jungle on the run from Nazi's and the police who think she maybe connected to a murder. Reluctantly coming to her aid is a scientist with Mantan Moreland as an aide de camp.

Back lot bound with some twists that must have been put in let the audience know that none of this was to be taken seriously, Law of the Jungle is an imperfect but very funny jungle adventure/comedy.

Our heroine for once seems to be what she claims, a tough broad from Brooklyn way over her head. Her whiskey barrel voice is a nice change from the typical female shriek. Mantan Moreland is, as always, a joy to watch and how he shoots dice has to go down as one of the worst, and funniest scams in B movies.

Is this the greatest movie ever made? No, but its one you will be sorry to see end, especially when you see Moreland and the King interact.

8 out of 10. This is one to look for, especially since its out on cheaply priced DVD.

Nona Brooks is an American singer in a nightclub in the middle of the African jungles, is trying to scrape enough money to get back to the US. When a British intelligence officer is murdered by a pair of Nazi spies in order to get a document that would reveal their identity, Nona escapes from the nightclub, unaware that she is carrying the document. She joins up with Larry Mason, an American archaeologist, and they, along w/ Larry's valet Jeff, try to prevent the spies from capturing them, until they fall into the hands of a cannibalistic tribe. It seems Monogram was trying to cash in on the fun they had with King of the Zombies, but lacks the style that picture due to Yarbrough's listless direction, making this one feel just ho-hum. Not much to rave about from King, Judge, and Moreland, however Criner steals the show as the Oxford educated tribal chief, unfortunately he's only in the last 10 minutes of the movie. Rating, 4.