Jungle Book *** (1942, Sabu, Joseph Calleia, John Qualen, Rosemary DeCamp, Patricia O’Rourke) – Classic Movie Review 2406

Directed by Zoltán Korda, producer Alexander Korda’s 1942 version of Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli stories suffers from hesitant handling and is uncertainly pitched between a fantasy adventure and a wildlife showcase. And it’s disappointing that Laurence Stalling’s screenplay adaptation strays so very far from the original stories.

Nevertheless, it is blessed with an eye-catching visual style and spectacle, Miklos Rozsa’s imaginative music and, best of all, a splendidly ingratiating performance by a smiling Sabu as the Indian feral boy Mowgli, raised with the wolves, who battles the evil killer tiger Shere Khan and a trio of greedy treasure-robbers. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards – Best Colour Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Best Visual Effects, Best Original Score and Best Cinematography – but won none.

Half-boy, half-wolf Mowgli is now a teenager who appears in a village in India and is adopted by Messua (Rosemary DeCamp). Mowgli tries to adapt to human village life by learning American and becoming partly domesticated.

However, the influential merchant Buldeo (Joseph Calleia) is prejudiced against wild beasts, and that includes Mowgli. But his pretty daughter Mahala (Patricia O’Rourke) feels differently, and soon offers him her love. So Mowgli takes her on a jungle trip, where they find the treasure that attracts the robbers and the tiger that Mowgli has to fight armed only with a knife.

Production designer Vincent Korda’s wonderful art direction, Lee Garmes and W Howard Greene’s marvellous Technicolor cinematography and the well-staged inferno climax are the movie’s other main assets.

Also in the cast are John Qualen, Frank Puglia, Noble Johnson, Ralph Byrd, John Mather and Faith Brook.

Because of the Second World War, the three British Korda brothers from Hungary moved their film-making from London to Hollywood in 1940. Jungle Book is one of the films they made during that Hollywood period. United Artists lent Alexander Korda $300,000 to finance the production but the film was a notable success at the box office.

Production was marred when Alexander and Zoltán had frequent disagreements, with Zoltán wanting to make an underplayed realistic story, while Alex favoured an exuberant fantasist epic. Alexander prevailed, as usual.

The film is in the public domain but the master 35MM elements are with ITV Global Entertainment Ltd. An official home entertainment release is available via The Criterion Collection.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2406

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