The Naked Jungle

Charleton Heston and Eleanor Parker star in this movie about love and army ants. I believe it was originally released as "Lanigen's Ants". Heston plays a wealthy land owner with very definite ideas of love and marriage. Eleanor Parker is his mail order bride who enlightens him to what love and marriage should really be. The army ants are there to wreak havoc with his hard earned dynasty and to threaten their blossoming relationship. As a Charleton Heston fan, I really enjoyed this movie.

The Naked Jungle's reputation rests on its last couple of reels, when plantation owner Charlton Heston battles the Marabunta, the twenty-mile long, two-mile wide army of billions of soldier ants ("forty square miles of agonizing death!") heading straight for the empire he carved out of the jungle with his bare hands. Well, his and the local natives bare hands. Of course, you have to get through an hour of soap opera first as the arrogant and virginal Chuck ("They have a word for men who go to the native villages at night. No one ever used that word about me") is more than a tad miffed to discover that after shipping new furniture and a new piano out to the jungle that he's been sent a second-hand mail-order bride in Eleanor Parker, despite her admonitions that "If you knew anything about music, you'd know that a good piano always sounds better if it's been played!" But then you have to expect that sort of thing when you marry by proxy (we learn that William Conrad, who played the Heston role in the earlier radio version of the original story, stood in for Parker!). Still, at least Ranald Macdougal and blacklisted Ben Maddow have fun with the script with exchanges like "I've been trying not to irritate you." "I noticed that. I find it irritating." It would have been good to have less of the matrimonials and more of the Marabunta, but the picture is great fun for both the right and wrong reasons and I can't say I felt short-changed revisiting it.

Sadly, no extras.

A furious sound of jungle drums roars as the map of South America sweeps onto the screen. This is how "The Naked Jungle" begins, it's South America 1901. Christopher Laninger (Charlton Heston) has sent for a mail order bride (the exquisite Eleanor Parker) who is making her way to his vast jungle plantation by boat. A young, but very recognizable, William Conrad (t.v.'s detective "Cannon") plays a South American lawman who visits the plantation from time to time. Abraham Sofaer plays the plantation head overseer (as he also does in the 1953 jungle-plantation classic "Elephant Walk." I knew I recognized that nose!) The introduction of Eleanor Parker to her new husband is filled with drama, friction, and intrigue. Heston wants everything he owns to be "new" and "un-handled." When Eleanor reveals that she's previously been married, but then became a widow, Heston abrutly informs her she's "another man's leavings" and wants her to leave. Heston's character longs for her and as the story progresses, falls secretly in love with her. When the jungle is swept with a plague of killer ants, they are brought together by Eleanor's strong determination to stay and win Heston over. The dvd's transfer is perfect with beautiful color and superb sound. I highly recommend this dvd, as well as sister jungle plantation romantic drama, "Elephant Walk," starring the beautiful Elizabeth Taylor, with at-the-time- husband Peter Finch, and Dana Andrews. "The Naked Jungle" is a treat when you want to escape to someplace colorful and tropic.

The poster (B. Graham etc.) who keeps asserting that this film was filmed in fullscreen ratio is all wet. I saw the original release and it was definitely widescreen. (Maybe not Cinemascope, but it impressed me by its size and color at the time.) And, no, it was not fullscreen cropped or matted to appear wide.

Paramount is out of its mind to do this supercolorful film in full screen only. (As the studios are for only issuing Sharky's Machine, Fearless, The Great Santini in fullscreen. But doing it to The Naked Jungle is the worst because of the gorgeous cinematography.)

The role of the arrogant and pompous plantation owner Christopher Leiningen was a perfect fit for Charlton Heston in the 1954 melodramatic adventure flick "The Naked Jungle". Leiningen carved out a massive cocoa plantation damming the local river in remote 1901 South America. The palatial estate he built was however missing the feminine touch. The lonely Heston commissioned his brother to find him a wife in New Orleans.

Heston's mail order bride turned out to be the headstrong, refined and attractive redhead Eleanor Parker. Their personalities immediately clashed and Heston planned to send her back home when a calamitous event suddenly occurred. The plantation came under the attack of an enormous colony of army ants which threatened to destroy everything in its path. The courage shown by both actors during this crisis cemented their relationship as they commence a new life together amid the devastation.

Byron Haskin's flick was typical of the heroic and romantic style of adventure flicks in the 50's. Very notable were the costumes created by wardrobe wizard Edith Head. A svelte Robert Conrad playing the local government commissioner was good in a supporting role.