The Naked Jungle

The Naked Jungle (1954)

Runtime: 95 minutes

Directed by: Byron Haskin

Starring: Charlton Heston, Eleanor Parker, William Conrad, Abraham Sofaer

From: Paramount

I know, this wasn't what I was expecting to review tonight. Let me explain. So far this week I have watched again Mad Max, The Road Warrior, Silent Night, Deadly Night (as it was randomly on cable late Monday night) and I saw that this was randomly on cable late last night. As I had heard of it before and it's not like there will be many chances to easily see this, I changed my plans. I talk all about this film below in my Letterboxd review and I'll be back tomorrow night.

Like what has happened before I discovered this film when someone talked about it on the Rupert Pupkin Speaks website. It was noted that this is mainly a melodrama with Eleanor Parker going down to a South American cocoa plantation to meet her husband, a man she had never met before and the marriage was set up by his brother... and oh yeah, the man is Charlton Heston. But the big appeal is Marabunta, a gigantic swarm of army ants that lay waste to the countryside and “Charlton Heston vs. ants” sounded pretty funny to me so when I saw it would show on a random cable channel late last night I had to see it.

To be a little more detailed, the setting is 1901 South America (actually filmed either in Hollywood or rural Florida) and Heston is a man named Christopher Leinigen who has spent most of his adult life down there so he has had no time for women and he clearly does not know how to act around them, so he instantly clashes with the strong-willed character played by Parker. Yep, there's plenty of classic sexism here and it's quite quaint to think that a big issue for Heston's character is that Parker's character was briefly married before, nevermind that her husband died due to alcoholism. To be frank for the first part of the film Leinigen is a real jerk and not that appealing. It's only when the threat of the ants (which are a real life thing but of course the movie fudges the facts on them) are introduced that he starts becoming more likable and of course the relationship changes.

The movie is not great but I can still rate it as a solid 3 star affair. When the ants appear there are charmingly quaint 50's effects that are used as you see them pillage everything around them. With the old viewpoints present that are thankfully (mostly) gone from society today, you can look back and shake your head at how things used to be. Oh, and not only is there William “Cannon” Conrad present but there's also a supporting character that's an evil German named... Gruber. Hmmm.