The Jungle
- Episode aired Dec 1, 1961
- TV-PG
- 25m
IMDb RATING
6.8/10
2.3K
YOUR RATING
A businessman who has recently returned from Africa is plagued by superstitions and the dire warnings of a native witch doctor.A businessman who has recently returned from Africa is plagued by superstitions and the dire warnings of a native witch doctor.A businessman who has recently returned from Africa is plagued by superstitions and the dire warnings of a native witch doctor.
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaRod Serling personally shared Alan Richards' disbelief in superstition and the supernatural. According to Reverend Ernest Pipes of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church, "Theologically speaking, Rod was what we call a naturalistic humanist, and that was the underlying philosophy of my pulpit."
- GoofsThe Kikuyu tribe live in central Kenya whereas the Koloka River is in modern-day DRC.
- Quotes
Doris Richards: Remember what that Shaman said when we were drilling in Africa? He said that we were hurting the land, that we were making it bleed, that the land would make us pay.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Everybody Wants Some!! (2016)
Featured review
A Walk On The Wild Side
The Jungle is a way above average, darkly moody and highly atmospheric third season Twilight Zone. It's not perfect. There are things wrong with it, but they're mostly small. Overall, it delivers. Both host-creator Rod Serling and author Charles Beaumont worked on the script.
As the tale of a businessman, recently returned from an engineering expedition in Africa for a large oil company, the story builds nicely in a New York City apartment in which the man's wife has collected charms, odds and ends, such as a lion's tooth, a human finger and other, similar objects, to ward off evil spirits, which her husband promptly tosses into the fireplace.
At a business meeting later on, however, the husband himself expresses doubts about what his employer is setting out to do in Africa, and now he seems to be advocating caution, even raising such issues as whether we need to hold on to or at least honor our superstitions, as a means of warding off fears of, for instance, the Unknown; and he makes a good case.
The story's protagonist seems a divided soul, and I wish that the episode had delved more into his character. Urbane veteran actor John Dehner plays the part well, though in moments of fear and panic, of which there are many in the episode's second half, he never quite convinces as a man in flight from irrational superstitions.
Yet much of the aforementioned is nitpicking: The Jungle is a mood piece; and as it builds a head of steam it turns into the horror story it was threatening to become in its first few minutes. There are several startling scenes, some played in near silence; while in others the sounds of wild animals can be heard, in the trees, on the rooftops; in alleyways.
In The Jungle, The Twilight Zone art and sound departments did fine work in creating a back lot nightmare on abandoned city streets with very few tricks. The pace is flawless, especially once Dehner leaves the bar, and the viewer can clearly see the lion's tooth he left behind in the darkness; and this is a foreshadowing of what's in store for the man in the course of roughly the next hour.
This is a Twilight Zone for those interested less in morals and ideas and more in the mood for the exploration of unconscious fears and especially how that which is most primal and irrational in us all can be found anywhere, whether Africa or North America, and how we can never escape them.
As the tale of a businessman, recently returned from an engineering expedition in Africa for a large oil company, the story builds nicely in a New York City apartment in which the man's wife has collected charms, odds and ends, such as a lion's tooth, a human finger and other, similar objects, to ward off evil spirits, which her husband promptly tosses into the fireplace.
At a business meeting later on, however, the husband himself expresses doubts about what his employer is setting out to do in Africa, and now he seems to be advocating caution, even raising such issues as whether we need to hold on to or at least honor our superstitions, as a means of warding off fears of, for instance, the Unknown; and he makes a good case.
The story's protagonist seems a divided soul, and I wish that the episode had delved more into his character. Urbane veteran actor John Dehner plays the part well, though in moments of fear and panic, of which there are many in the episode's second half, he never quite convinces as a man in flight from irrational superstitions.
Yet much of the aforementioned is nitpicking: The Jungle is a mood piece; and as it builds a head of steam it turns into the horror story it was threatening to become in its first few minutes. There are several startling scenes, some played in near silence; while in others the sounds of wild animals can be heard, in the trees, on the rooftops; in alleyways.
In The Jungle, The Twilight Zone art and sound departments did fine work in creating a back lot nightmare on abandoned city streets with very few tricks. The pace is flawless, especially once Dehner leaves the bar, and the viewer can clearly see the lion's tooth he left behind in the darkness; and this is a foreshadowing of what's in store for the man in the course of roughly the next hour.
This is a Twilight Zone for those interested less in morals and ideas and more in the mood for the exploration of unconscious fears and especially how that which is most primal and irrational in us all can be found anywhere, whether Africa or North America, and how we can never escape them.
helpful•112
- telegonus
- Jul 14, 2017
Details
- Runtime25 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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