Although in the fifties the Production Code forbade actual nudity in the movies, there was no rule forbidding suggestive titles which promised more than they could deliver. Doubtless many young men were persuaded to see "The Naked Jungle" by that enticing adjective, only to be disappointed when they discovered that everyone in the film- including the beautiful Eleanor Parker- remains fully dressed throughout.
The story is set in an unspecified part of South America in 1901. (Probably the Amazon jungle of Brazil, although a reference to the Southern Hemisphere winter might suggest somewhere more temperate and further south). A young woman named Joanna arrives from New Orleans at a cocoa plantation to meet her new husband Christopher Leiningen, the owner of the plantation. (The two have never met but have already married by proxy).
Although "The Naked Jungle" is a serious film rather than a comedy, it makes use on of a plot device beloved of all scriptwriters of romantic comedies, that of the couple who take an initial dislike to one another but who later learn to love one another. Joanna discovers that Leiningen is a cold and unemotional man who lives only for his plantation. He discovers that she has been married before, being widowed when her first husband died not long after their marriage. Like Angel Clare in Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles", Leiningen cannot accept that he is not the first man in his wife's life, especially as he, unlike Angel, has remained a virgin before his marriage. (We learn that he moved to South America when he was only nineteen and it is implied that he has refused to sleep with the local women out of racial pride; like Joanna, he is a native of New Orleans). The film also implies that Leiningen is considerably older than Joanna; in reality Parker was a year older than Charlton Heston. Heston, in other respects a versatile actor, was never very convincing as a passionate lover, even though in real life he had one of Hollywood's longest-lasting and most stable marriages, so the role of Leiningen was well-suited to him.
What saves the relationship between this unlikely couple is a natural disaster. As Joanna awaits the arrival of the boat which will take her back to the United States, Leiningen learns that his plantation is menaced by a vast horde of army ants. In this film, if not in real life, these ants are the most voracious predators imaginable, destroying quite literally all living things, whether plants or animals, which lie in their path. They have already devastated an area of some forty square miles and have killed one of Leiningen's neighbours. He, however, resolves not to flee but to try and fight back against them in an attempt to save what he has worked so hard to build up. Joanna, admiring his courage, decides to stay with him.
Byron Haskin will probably never be ranked as a great auteur director, but he made some decent films during the fifties and sixties, of which the 1953 version of "The War of the Worlds", also produced by George Pal, is perhaps the best-known today. Before becoming a director, Haskin was a special effects artist, and a number of his films, including this one, make use of pioneering effects. The scenes of the ant army on the march could doubtless be done in much more spectacular fashion today, but the ones shown here are respectable enough by the standards of the fifties. "The Naked Jungle" may not contain much nakedness, but it remains watchable today. 6/10
The story is set in an unspecified part of South America in 1901. (Probably the Amazon jungle of Brazil, although a reference to the Southern Hemisphere winter might suggest somewhere more temperate and further south). A young woman named Joanna arrives from New Orleans at a cocoa plantation to meet her new husband Christopher Leiningen, the owner of the plantation. (The two have never met but have already married by proxy).
Although "The Naked Jungle" is a serious film rather than a comedy, it makes use on of a plot device beloved of all scriptwriters of romantic comedies, that of the couple who take an initial dislike to one another but who later learn to love one another. Joanna discovers that Leiningen is a cold and unemotional man who lives only for his plantation. He discovers that she has been married before, being widowed when her first husband died not long after their marriage. Like Angel Clare in Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles", Leiningen cannot accept that he is not the first man in his wife's life, especially as he, unlike Angel, has remained a virgin before his marriage. (We learn that he moved to South America when he was only nineteen and it is implied that he has refused to sleep with the local women out of racial pride; like Joanna, he is a native of New Orleans). The film also implies that Leiningen is considerably older than Joanna; in reality Parker was a year older than Charlton Heston. Heston, in other respects a versatile actor, was never very convincing as a passionate lover, even though in real life he had one of Hollywood's longest-lasting and most stable marriages, so the role of Leiningen was well-suited to him.
What saves the relationship between this unlikely couple is a natural disaster. As Joanna awaits the arrival of the boat which will take her back to the United States, Leiningen learns that his plantation is menaced by a vast horde of army ants. In this film, if not in real life, these ants are the most voracious predators imaginable, destroying quite literally all living things, whether plants or animals, which lie in their path. They have already devastated an area of some forty square miles and have killed one of Leiningen's neighbours. He, however, resolves not to flee but to try and fight back against them in an attempt to save what he has worked so hard to build up. Joanna, admiring his courage, decides to stay with him.
Byron Haskin will probably never be ranked as a great auteur director, but he made some decent films during the fifties and sixties, of which the 1953 version of "The War of the Worlds", also produced by George Pal, is perhaps the best-known today. Before becoming a director, Haskin was a special effects artist, and a number of his films, including this one, make use of pioneering effects. The scenes of the ant army on the march could doubtless be done in much more spectacular fashion today, but the ones shown here are respectable enough by the standards of the fifties. "The Naked Jungle" may not contain much nakedness, but it remains watchable today. 6/10