The jungle princess

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Movie
German title The jungle princess
Original title The Jungle Princess
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1936
length 85 minutes
Rod
Director Wilhelm Thiele
as William Thiele
script Gerald Geraghty
Cyril Hume
Governor Morris
Charles Brackett
Frank Partos
production E. Lloyd Sheldon
for Paramount Pictures
music Gregory Stone
Boris Morros
camera Harry Fischbeck
cut Ellsworth Hoagland
occupation

The Jungle Princess (OT: The Jungle Princess ) is an American movie from 1936. Directed by Wilhelm Thiele play Dorothy Lamour , Ray Milland and Akim Tamiroff star in this adventure film.

action

An expedition arrives in the jungles of Malaysia to catch animals. The hunters are accompanied by Malays who one day firmly believe that they have seen a “Matjam Kertawa”, a “laughing tiger”. For fear of the legendary, dangerous creature, they refuse to continue working and so the expedition participants have no choice but to break off the tour. The hunter Christopher Powell, his friend Frank and some Malays who stay behind take care of the animals that have already been caught. When Christopher goes on a foray alone, a tiger suddenly stands in front of him and starts to jump. In his helpless attempt to pull back, he injured his leg. His end seems sealed, but the tiger withdraws when a woman's voice can be heard. The young Ulah appears. She is a child of the jungle and grew up alone after her father died 15 years ago. Her constant companion was the tiger that attacked Christopher and that Ulah called Limau. Ulah leads the injured Christopher to their rock cave, where he also meets Ulah's tame chimpanzee Bogo. Christopher will be nursed back to health by Ulah for the next few days. Although both can barely communicate at first, at least Ulah has retained a few Malay words from her childhood, Christopher falls in love with the young woman. However, since he is already engaged to Ava, the daughter of the expedition leader, he suppresses his feelings.

Christopher returns to the camp only after the end of the rainy season. Ulah follows him along with Limau and Bogo. The remaining members of the expedition, who had looked in vain for him and finally believed him dead, are pleased but also astonished that Christopher was able to survive in the jungle for so long. Christopher's fiancée Ava also came back to the camp with her father after the end of the rainy season. She immediately perceives Ulah as a threat to their relationship, but tries in vain to use tricks to discredit and expose the young woman. The Malay aid workers are trying to capture Limau, believing that it is the laughing tiger. Ulah senses that they want her tiger bad and rushes to his aid. The hatred of the natives is then directed against Ulah. They believe that the power of the laughing tiger can now be broken when either the tiger or the person protecting it is sacrificed. Ulah should die. The expedition members around Christopher stand protectively in front of the young woman, but are captured by the Malays. Ulah is pushed into a pit by the natives, into which they then throw glowing ashes . Christopher manages to free himself and shoot Melan, the leader of the Malays, after he has killed Limau. At the same time, the monkeys of the jungle, alerted by Ulah's chimpanzee Bogo, arrive. They attack the natives and drive them to flight. Ava realizes that she has lost Christopher to Ulah and releases him from his word. Ulah and Christopher return to the jungle together, where they will live together.

Production notes and background

The Paramount- produced film was budgeted for $ 300,000. Shooting began on July 6, 1936. The film premiered in the USA on December 24, 1936. In Germany , it premiered in 1938 and even received its own program booklet. However, since director Thiele was Jewish, he, the emigrant in Adolf Hitler's empire, was refused to be named in the opening credits. After the war, The Jungle Princess in Germany on 26 March 1980 at the program of the NDR - television first shown. In Austria the film ran under the title Mistress of the Jungle before the Anschluss . Working title was Queen of the Jungle , this is also the title of Max Marcin's story. The plan to name the film Jungle Girls was rejected.

The film structures designed by Hans Dreier were executed by Robert Usher . The German editing was done by Harry Frank and Bruno Hartwich. Tobis Klangfilm was responsible for the sound of the German version . In the German program, the name "Gerd" was given for the film character Christopher Powell and the name "Eva" for the film character Ava.

The material is based on a story by Max Marcin , to which Frank Partos, Gerald Geraghty, Charles Brackett and Governor Morris (1876-1953), a great-grandson of Governor Morris (1752-1816), one of the founding fathers of the United States , wrote the screenplay . It was Dorothy Lamour's first leading role in a feature film. In this film, as a child of nature, Lamour wore an extremely tight sarong tailor-made by Edith Head , which accentuated her figure and showed as many curves as the censor allowed. She was therefore presented by the studio as a sarong girl . In the following years, Dorothy Lamour received many similar roles analogous to Ulah. For director Thiele it was the first directorial work in his new home Hollywood.

In her autobiography, Dorothy Lamour wrote that the chimpanzee Bogo attacked a worker on the set during production and injured him so badly that he later succumbed to his injuries.

At the turn of the year 1938/39, the American feature film Die Dschungel-Princess (Jungle Princess) was on the program of the Astoria for 13 weeks and thus had one of the longest running times of the films shown in Hanover at that time.

criticism

Kay Less called the film in his book There Is More Taken From You In Life than Given a "cheaply made silliness about a female Tarzan."

The Movie & Video Guide wrote: “Lamour's first sarong film is quite unpretentious and pleasant.” (Lamour's first sarong film is quite unpretentious and pleasant.)

Halliwell's Film Guide said: "This is strictly a programmer, but after it's success it was all done again, rather better, as Her Jungle Love ". (This is clearly a cheap film, but after its success they did everything all over again, even better than in Her Jungle Love )

“A Hollywood film whose themes - the love between people of different skin colors, racial and gender roles - touched the taboos of US cinema at the time. (OmdU). "

"Fairly palatable entertainment most of the way (most of the time reasonably enjoyable entertainment)"

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b Illustrated Film Courier No. 2804 The Jungle Princess
  2. a b Kay Less : "In life, more is taken from you than given ...". Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. ACABUS Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , p. 504.
  3. The Jungle Princess (1936) at TCM - Turner Classic Movies
  4. The Jungle Princess 13 weeks in Hanover In: geschichte-projekte-hannover.de
  5. ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 684.
  6. ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 548.
  7. The Jungle Princess. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used