Naked Jungle (1954)

This is an apocalyptic view of what happens when nature revolts against man's encroachment or maybe how nature doesn't give a flying flip about man and just takes its course - whatever.

The protagonists of the movie are Eleanor Parker and Charlton Heston, billed in that order which will give you an idea of how big a star Eleanor Parker (who?) was back in the early 50's. Such is fame.

The story goes that Charlton Heston is a plantation owner in the jungle fastnesses of the Amazon basin quite a ways from the nearest civilization.  He carved his holding out of the jungle, driving the river into its channel and reclaiming the flooded land. Then he imported all sorts of brand new furnishings to adorn his palatial mansion.

He also imported a bride. Eleanor Parker is the mail-order bride from New Orleans, USA delivering herself to the plantation by mail boat along with the local commissioner (William Conrad) who is traveling further to view a possible problem that has been reported.  Husband and wife have never met but have been married by proxy - when you have money you can do things like that.

Anyway, Charlton and Eleanor hit it off like oil and water; Even though she is cultured and highly attractive he was expecting an ornament. He is a cold fish and quite surly to the lady for most of the running time, but she perseveres and ultimately Charlton is eating out of her well-manicured hand.

Everything is just ducky - except for the ants.  It seems an army of soldier ants has formed like it does from time to time and begun to denude the countryside covering a patch 20 miles by 2 at a time. Not a single blade of grass let alone a living critter is left when they have been dining and they dine continually. 

Unfortunately, most of the running time has been taken up by the couple's personal issues and so the ant attack only covers the final 30 minutes or so.  To her credit Parker determines to stay by Heston's side when he urges her to leave. He had also sabotaged his Indian helpers' boats so they couldn't flee.

The ant attack is pretty weak and apart from a couple deaths they don't have much interaction with the humans.  The photography of the jungle environment, particularly the long establishing shots is superb. Unfortunately, that is about all that can be classified as good or better about this production which is tepid and uninteresting otherwise. Heston's loutish character doesn't help and Parker's gentility is not enough to counterbalance the boredom with Heston's one note performance and the Indians who are played as lesser characters than the Europeans sometimes as unintentionally comic figures as you will see with the medicine man.

The Paramount DVD is released in 4x3 full-screen TechniColor with a 95 minute running time.  The only extra feature included is subtitles. 

This is one you can miss, folks.  Another forgettable creature feature I saw but do not recommend is

Empire of the Ants

If you see either of these, run far, far away!

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above